Captured

Evan was surprised to see Angela among their number. He knew that everyone had been chosen for a reason. He wondered what she brought to the table, besides her teaching skills.

Martin gathered everyone together. "Undoubtedly, the overseers are just now realizing the magnitude of what has happened. They will soon send out troops to try to recapture us. We need to leave the area as quickly as possible. We will rely on the skills of our hunters, who are intimately familiar with these woods, to lead us away and scout for danger."

They agreed that Kyle would take the lead position in the group, while Evan would scout ahead. Two other hunters, Connor and Matthias took flanking positions, while Darius would trail behind and watch for any danger approaching from the rear. They headed due east, aiming for the nearest highway. They concluded that the speed of traveling on the highway outweighed the risk of exposure. Few marauding gangs would be large enough and well-armed enough to take them on anyway.

Within an hour, they reached the interstate and turned south to follow it.

Four hours later, Evan came upon a small encampment hidden off the side of the highway. Seven men sat around a small campfire while an eighth stood sentry duty a little way off. Evan slipped up behind the sentry, clamped a hand over his mouth and put a knife to his throat and dragged him into some bushes.

"Listen carefully," Evan whispered, "a traveling party is on its way here on the highway. You are greatly outnumbered and we have far superior weapons. I am warning you off any foolish confrontations."

Evan relieved the man of his sword and slipped back into the forest, doubling back to his group to warn them of the potential danger. He doubted they would have any trouble. The small group of marauders might lie in wait on the side of the highway, but once they saw that Evan was not exaggerating, they would not likely be foolish enough to attack.

As they progressed, Evan took the opportunity to kill some small game, rabbits mostly, for the group to eat once they made camp. The other hunters did the same, so that by the time the shadows lengthened, they were well stocked.

As the sun was setting, Evan came upon a large stone walled church. He cautiously explored it and concluded it was not inhabited, other than by a family of raccoons and a flock of squabbling birds in the rafters. The refugees settled into the church for the night. A rear extension of the church had living quarters with a kitchen and a large fireplace in which to cook their meal.

Evan realized he was feeling ill. He felt lightheaded and his stomach was in knots. His addiction had not been fed in over 24 hours. Once he received his injection, he felt better almost immediately. The doctors explained that they would wean him slowly off the drugs over the next several weeks.

They traveled on without major incident for three more days.

Evan was scouting about ½ mile ahead of the group when he realized he was being shadowed. At first it was more a sense than anything else. Then he began to see shadows flitting between the trees and hearing faint footsteps. He doubled back to the group to find that the other scouts were reporting the same thing. This was bad; whoever they were, they had surrounded the refugees and were keeping pace with them. They needed to find a place where they could make a defensive stand.

Ahead, Evan saw a grove of large trees, surrounded by brush, set off from the rest of the forest. They made for this cover and took up defensive positions. Everything was quiet for about five minutes.

One of the guards peered out from the bushes and an arrow whistled in and struck him between the eyes, killing him instantly. A shrill yell came from about 100 yards away and a wave of female attackers armed with swords and clubs came charging out of the surrounding brush toward the refugees. Evan took aim with his crossbow and took out the leading attacker. Gunshots rang out and half a dozen additional attackers dropped. At the sound of gunshots, some of the attackers hesitated, realizing these potential victims were better armed than most.

The first attackers reached Evan's party and began hand to hand combat. Evan reloaded and fired his cross-bow as rapidly as he could. To one side of him, he saw Liv, her staff practically a blur, cutting a swath through the attackers. More surprising, Angela wielded a katana expertly on the far side of Liv.

A loud voice called out, "Fall back, sisters!" and the attackers backed away.

Martin called for a cease fire on his side.

A statuesque woman stepped out from the tree-line. She was well over 6' tall and broad shouldered, dressed in black leather and sporting a red Mohawk. Martin stepped forward from the grove and faced her.

"This is a fight you can't win. We outnumber you and have you surrounded," the Amazon woman said, "surrender to us."

Martin replied, "We are familiar with the work of the Black Widows, surrender will just get us killed. You may be right that we can't win this fight, but is this a fight you can afford to wage? We have superior weapons and have already killed a dozen or so of your warriors."

Evan stepped up beside Martin, his cross-bow aimed at the woman's head. Liv stepped up to Evan's left, her staff dripping blood.

About 50 female warriors stepped out from the trees behind their leader. The woman appeared to be considering her options when she saw Liv and her eyes narrowed. "Liv?"

"Yes, Veronica, it's me."

"Liviana Tenekov, what are you doing traveling with these . . . men." She spat out the last word with disgust. She continued without waiting for Liv to respond, "You have abandoned the sisterhood and violated 'The Code'. You must die."

Veronica turned to Martin, "I will make a deal with you. Release Liv to us to be put to death and we will let the rest of you pass."

"We can't do that. Liv is the most important member of our traveling party. Any one of us would give our lives to spare hers."

"You are leaving me no choice, 'The Code' demands that she be punished."

Another voice spoke up from behind Evan, "You speak of 'The Code' but you don't even understand it. 'The Code' is a misguided doctrine, written by a young woman blinded by hate."

Angela stepped forward defiantly.

Veronica sneered at Angela, "What do you know of 'The Code', old woman?!"

Angela pulled back her sleeves to reveal tattoos similar to Liv's, except the spiders on her forearms sported black wings. "I am Angela Devereux, founder of the Black Widows. I wrote 'The Code'."

A surprised murmur arose from the female gang.

"The legendary 'Angel of Death'," Veronica said in a whisper. She looked at Angela reverently for a moment, then her face hardened. "So our founder has gone soft. That changes nothing."

Both sides glared at each other, not wanting to take the next step to escalate the situation again, but not wanting to back down either.

Finally, Liv addressed Veronica, "There is another way for this to end. Join us in our cause."

"Never!"

"Listen to me. I swore to 'The Code', that is true. But I know now that I was wrong, 'The Code' is wrong. The sisterhood purports to defend women's power, but the truth is we have done great evil in the name of that cause. I offer you the opportunity to do great good in defense of the greatest power that women have ever had . . . indeed the greatest power any human has ever had - the power of motherhood." With that, she opened her tunic to reveal her obvious pregnancy.

A collective gasp came from the Black Widows.

Veronica stared at Liv's belly. A full minute passed in tense silence. A tear trickled down Veronica's face. "How is this possible?" she whispered.

"These men are scientists - yes, such a thing still exists. They have unlocked the secret to restoring human fertility. We are making our way to an abandoned lab to the south where they can continue their work, and rescue humanity from the brink of extinction."

Veronica sank to one knee and bowed low. "I pledge my life to your cause."

One by one, the female warriors followed suit.

That night, they holed up in an old hotel. After they ate dinner, a bottle of something potent was passed around and soon Evan was feeling warm inside and slightly euphoric. He and Liv sat on a bench, arm in arm. A fearsome looking Black Widow warrior approached, the timid expression on her face looking completely out of place.

"May I touch your belly?" she asked Liv tentatively.

Liv nodded.

Soon the entire Black Widow clan was lined up waiting to feel Liv's pregnancy.

It seemed to Evan that some of the warriors took considerable liberties, caressing Liv quite a bit north and south of her baby bump. Liv didn't seem to mind, arching her back and letting out little sighs.

Evan's mind fought a battle between jealousy and arousal. Liv reached over and began stroking him through his pants. His mixed feelings must have shown on his face, because Liv laughed and said, "I have lived my last 20 years in an all-female clan, including my hormone filled teens. Did you really think I hadn't enjoyed the touch of a woman on occasion?"

Liv stood up and grabbed Evan's hand. "Come on, lover-boy, let's go work out that jealous tension." She led him down the hall to an empty guest room. She closed the door, then flung Evan against it, and herself against him.

"I want you so fucking bad!" Liv announced.

Evan tried to steer Liv toward the bed, but she pushed him back against the door again. In seconds, she shed her clothes and pulled down his pants, freeing his hardness. Liv wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled herself off the floor, so her hot pussy was just above his cock. Evan got the idea and reached down and guided the tip into her waiting hole. He grabbed her ass and lifted her up and down, fucking her standing up, his back against the wall for support.

Later they collapsed onto the bed, exhausted from the events of the day and their frantic, athletic lovemaking.

"Liviana, huh? I always assumed 'Liv' was short for 'Olivia'."

"You never asked."

"Is that Russian?"

"Actually, Liviana is Italian, like my mom. Tenekov is Russian, like my dad, not that I remember much about them."

"Seems like we could learn quite a bit about each other if we would just stop fighting and fucking."

"But those are my two favorite things to do," Liv replied with a laugh.

"So I noticed. You are very good at both."

"OK, so let me learn a little about you . . . "

"Like what?"

"Like what happens if I do this."

She spun around and straddled his head and wrapped her lips around his rapidly building erection.

"I think you already know the answ . . ." she lowered her pussy into his mouth, shutting him up.

As they recovered from round 2, Liv and Evan heard amorous sounds coming through the walls.

Many of the Black Widows, freed from their restrictive code, took the opportunity to act on long suppressed desires that night. Most of the guards and hunters and even a few of the scientists got a workout they wouldn't soon forget.

With the Black Widows as an escort, the refugees could travel the highway without fear. Several additional regiments of the Widows joined their number as they continued south. Indeed they found that their cause was so compelling that it was easy to recruit support from nearly everyone they met along the way. Their traveling party became like a snowball, unstoppable and gaining volume as it rolled south. By the time it reached the site of the future settlement, their number exceeded 300 members, all willing to lay down their lives, if necessary, for the cause.

They reached their new home thirty days from when they began their journey. Their ample manpower (and womanpower, as it were) set to work immediately, fortifying the development and restoring the medical lab. It wasn't long before they had a thriving community.

It took about a month before they could find an old man with the knowledge needed to rebuild the hydro-electric generators with the storage room full of parts they found on the complex and another month to trace down and repair all the breaks to the lines of the electrical distribution system. Once electricity was restored to the lab, the work of producing the fertility treatment began in earnest.

Evan looked across the small clearing to the rustling in the bushes on the far side. With a shrill cry, a warrior princess charged out, running headlong at him, her jet black braid streaming behind her. He knew he had no defense against her. He dropped to one knee to appeal for mercy. She launched herself at him and wrapped her tiny arms around his neck. "DADDY!" she shrieked.

"Hi Princess."

"Guess what, Daddy; Aunty V is 'pregnin'."

Evan turned to Liv who had just stepped up beside him.

"Yep, Martin and Veronica are expecting."

Evan turned back to little Valerie, "Do you know what pregnant means?"

"Oh yes," said the little girl seriously, "that means there's a baby in Aunty V's tummy."

"Tell Daddy the rest," prompted Liv.

"Mommy says I'm going to be a big sister."

Evan's eyes opened wide and he turned to Liv again for confirmation. She nodded her head, not trusting herself to speak, as her eyes welled up.

"Daddy, what does that mean?"

"That means Mommy is 'pregnin', too."

Valerie shrieked in delight.