Tige

TIGE

By Tommyhawk1@AOL.COM

[AUTHOR'S FORWARD: This is a short story set in the same universe as a series I am currently doing on my own webpage, called "The Last Defenders". This series is about a group of superheroes facing half-men, half-machine enemies, and is intended to attract those who liked my "Planet of Desire" series. Still, I hesitate to send to archive the new series, which is very open-ended and may literally never be finished. Ergo, I am offering this short story. It doesn't have any superheroes or other series' characters in it; it's just a sweet little story about the love which flourishes in even the worst of situations. Still, if you like this story, you'll love the series, which you can find on my own webpage and is just full of the weird sex you'll find in this story. You can find the link to it in Nifty's Link section as "Tommyhawk's Fantasy World."]

The first Tige was my dog. My very best friend when I was growing up. I was fourteen when the invaders came, and Grandpa and I watched the television as the machines flew down. We waited for the invaders to come out of their machines to talk to us or something, but instead they just started blasting away at us. Grandpa looked at that, at the machines as they flew and he said, "Fred, you and me are going down into the storm cellar." That was where Grandpa kept all his home-canned fruits and vegetables, and plenty of smoked meat in the sub-cellar attached to it. We sat in there for a long time, days and days. Ate the food and waited. I had to argue with Grandpa to give Tige some of the meat for his food. Grandpa kept listening to the radio and finally he said it wouldn't make no never mind, we'd either be dead or free before the food ran out.

He was right. After a time the radio went silent. Grandpa kept us in that cellar, us living on the canned food and the smoked meat, until it was nearly gone. Then we heard a voice calling us at the door. "Jacob?" we heard. "Jacob, are you and Fred in there? Come on out, I got someone I want you to meet."

We were glad to hear the voice of Tyler, our next door neighbor and unlocked and opened the door. Tyler was standing there and we walked up. That was when we saw that Tyler hadn't survived after all. The machines had cut him up and stuck the top half of him onto one of them. Sort of looked like a centaur. Tyler smiled at us gently, us standing there stunned and scared, and then he explained to us how it wasn't so bad being part of the machines. And he wasn't going to hurt us none, but we needed to give him a little cooperation. Tige was yapping around Tyler and Tyler seemed annoyed, looking at my dog, which had always been friendly to him before.

I didn't understand, but Grandpa and Tyler whispered and then Grandpa sent me back into the cellar for a while. After a time, Grandpa called me up and said it was all right, we could keep on living here and we'd be safe. But Tige was gone. I thought he'd run off, but I found him later, what was left of him after the machines had cut him up. They didn't use any of him, but he must have fought them, and the machines always kill anyone or anything that fights them. So they'd killed Tige.

It was a long time, years, before I found out what was really going on. Tyler dropped by every day, bringing us food and such, and Grandpa would always send me to my room or out to the barn when Tyler dropped by. I didn't know why Tyler was doing this for us. I guess Grandpa intended to keep it a secret until I was eighteen, but I found out from Wilson Porter, a neighbor of ours, when I was sixteen. "Those machines let us men live because they need us to give them power." He said. "The more power you can give them, the better you live."

"How do we give them power?" I asked and Wil grabbed his crotch like he was always doing and snickered.

"You give them a load out of your balls, kid. They use it for power somehow, I don't know how. But the more you give them, the happier they are. A lot of them have got balls and cocks inside themselves which they cut off the freshly dead people and kept going, but those big machines need more power than they can pull out of one set of nuts. So they're willing to pay us to give it to them. I can give it to them two or three times a day, that's why I got all my new stuff. I make them fetch it for me in exchange for a load off my thick dick."

"Really?" I asked. I couldn't help but stare at his crotch.

"Yep, and I even got some left over for a cute kid like you when you decide you want a taste of it." he leered at me.

I knew that the womenfolk were all gone, taken by the machines some place or other, so I wasn't surprised none that Wil wanted to get a piece of me. They'd taught me about such things in school in the days before the machines came. Now I didn't go to school. We didn't do much of anything, Grandpa and me, we stayed home and prayed we be safe.

Sometimes the machines came for you anyway, you see. They'd want to cut your body up and use the innards and your brain and your cock inside themselves. They'd taken Brian Weidemann just the week before, I'd heard.

"Yep, any time you're ready to start using your balls to help out your grandpa, you just take on down to the old City Hall. That's where we meet the machines. They keep us safe from the little machines, and we keep them loaded with our jizz and trade it for food and stuff." Wil laughed a hard, mean laugh. "Except your old man has his own deal with the machine that killed Tyler Jenkins and stuffed the top of him onto it. Your Grandpa's giving them loads off his old dick every day. Only reason they let you and him live."

I goggled. "You mean Grandpa is servicing Tyler Jenkins on those times when he sends me out to the barn or in to my room?"

"Hmph, Tyler Jenkins! It walks around calling itself Tyler, but it ain't. Yep, it meets your Grandpa every day and sucks his feeble old dick. Tyler never would have done that. It ain't Tyler. It's a dead, soulless machine. Don't ever forget it. Your old man isn't going to last forever. When he does, you come live with me and I'll take care of you and you'll take care of me." Again he grabbed his balls. "I'll marry you, Fred and take care of you. You remember that. Or get ready to let the machines suck you every day."

I thought this over very carefully and went to Grandpa to offer to take care of Tyler Jenkins from now on. Tyler was bringing food and new clothes for me mostly, and I knew Grandpa was getting old. He couldn't have been having much fun, and I had always liked Tyler and actually forgot sometimes that Tyler was now one of those machines. He had all of Tyler's memories and acted like Tyler, so I didn't really believe Wil that much. So I went in to Grandpa who was lying in bed looking more and more peaked and said, "Grandpa, you stay in bed today. I'll take care of Tyler Jenkins for you."

"You can't." Grandpa said. "I got to do it."

"Grandpa, I know what you have to do. Wil told me. You're sick and I don't want you having to do it."

"I forbid it." Grandpa said and that was an end to it. Grandpa had taken me in when my folks died on the grounds that I promised to always obey him, and I did.

But Grandpa just wasn't up to it. There came the day soon after when Tyler came to us and went into Grandpa's room after leaving the stuff with me in the kitchen. After a short time, he came back out. "Your grandpa can't deliver." he told me. "I got to have my stuff back so I can go down to City Hall and get the power I need. I'm right sorry, but that's how it is now."

"You don't have to go nowhere." I said and I gulped, and pulled down the zipper on my pants. I took out my cock and wiggled it as well as I could, I wasn't nowhere near hard and scared as hell.

"Your grandpa won't like it." Tyler warned me. "Said I was to keep away from you." But he looked at my young cock greedily, eagerly.

"Either you do it or I go down to City Hall too." I said. "Grandpa was the provider of this family, was how he always put it. But if he can't provide no more, then I got to."

"All right." Tyler said. "Let's go into your bedroom. I don't bend over as well as I used to."

We went into my bedroom and I heard Grandpa coughing feebly in the next room. I shucked my pants and lay down on the bed. "Is this how you want me?" I asked.

"That'll do fine, Fred." Tyler said, licking his lips. Then he dove down onto my cock so fast it scared me.

I was surprised, how good it felt. After Wil's tales of horror, I'd half-expected Tyler's mouth to be dried out like an old prune, but he was still warm and moist. I guess I should have expected it, him still looking well. If he'd been really dead, he'd have rotted long before now, wouldn't he? So I was treated a wonderful sucking from Tyler's lips and I was young and horny. After I closed my eyes and told myself to forget about the machine, Tyler felt really good and I ran my fingers through his hair and even rested my legs on his back. Tyler ran his hands over my legs and his tongue danced on my cockhead like a live thing, and the suction Tyler put on me was incredible. And he didn't pause or miss a stroke like people--regular people I mean--usually do, he just sucked and sucked while I groaned. I didn't last that long with that wonderful blow-job and it being my first time; I creamed pretty quickly. Gave him a big load, on account of I hadn't beat myself off that day.

Tyler licked his lips when we were done. I should have felt ashamed, disobeying my Grandpa like that, but I didn't. "You're great, Fred." he said. "I'm bringing over extra tomorrow now that you're supplying me." All the machines were real honest about their pay, I'd learned. And they'd shame you in public by saying you hadn't given them enough if you hadn't. You had to be honest in your dealings. If not, or you tried to cheat them, they'd cut you up.

"Grandpa needs medicine." I told him. "Bring me whatever I need to get him better. And bring it before sundown and I'll give you another load of my jizz when you do it. If you don't want my jizz then send it by one of you who does. But get it here fast as you can. Please!"

"I'll do what I can." Tyler promised and left, flat-out running. I was glad of that, with those metal legs of his, he'd never get tired, he could run until he found what he needed.

I went in and Grandpa told me to go out and fetch Tyler back, he was ready now. He was nowhere near ready, he was gray as an old rotted sheet I'd seen once lying on a dilapidated fence out in the forest. It had been hanging out there forgotten for years and had turned pale gray in color. Grandpa's face was that same exact color.

I mopped his face and waited for Tyler. Tyler came the next morning, apologizing by saying he'd had to find a doctor to ask about my grandpa before he could get the right medicine. But it was too late, Grandpa had died that night, and I turned Tyler away, telling him I was in mourning but that he could come for me tomorrow. I had to dig the grave for my Grandpa myself, but I buried him six feet deep like they tell you to, and right up next to Grandma's coffin at the cemetery. He would have liked that.

But I was living alone now, and Tyler came for me that next day and the next and the next. I kept the farm going, and now it was me who serviced Tyler. Tyler grew strong on the power my wads gave him, and soon he was running a huge machine. No more a centaur shape, he had added on machinery and extra legs to his tail-end until he was more like a walking centipede. He used a pair of human legs for one of his sets of walking legs for a time, but I told him to get rid of them and he did, traded them with another machine I guess.

Wil started dropping by from time to time, like he couldn't believe I'd rather live alone than move in with him so that he could fuck me every night. He kept talking about how good he had it, and he had really accumulated a lot of junk, all the things he'd always wanted to own and couldn't before the machines came. Good furniture, velvet curtains, fine china on his table, even a machine to be his personal butler. He'd make them wait on him hand-and-foot for a week for one of his wads, and they'd do it. Wil bragged that he could pump out enough jizz to last any machine a week, and it seemed like he could. Guess a man has a right to be proud of that when that's how you stay alive. Jizz was a valuable commodity now, and Wil had plenty of it.

I admit that he had a nice dick on him. He'd take it out and waggle it at me and tell me how good it would feel going down me or up me. I'd scoff, but I'd look, too. A nice fat dick on him. No way was he going to fuck me. I wouldn't have minded taking him up on his offer much, except he was such a jerk. I just wished he'd find someone else.

That's how I lived for many months, alone. One day I was taking off down to City Hall to see if any of the machines had anything I wanted or needed, figuring on spurting an extra load if I had to. I could be back in time for Tyler to drop by.

I heard the whirring sound like a cicada in flight. I went over to see what it was.

One of the littlest sort of machines. I was wary, taking my zipper down and bringing out my dick. The little ones would attack you, try to kill you, but if you were ready to be sucked off, you might could talk them out of it, so to speak. Even the little ones seemed to understand that a free-standing man was worth more than a dick cut off and kept alive by whatever means. Those kind of dicks wouldn't produce as well, or so I understood. I just knew I was valuable to the machines only so long as I would be able to give them jizz on command. And at barely eighteen years of age now, I was able to give them all they wanted.

I found it, all right. Looked like he'd been attacked by the other machines. They had opened up his front panel where they keep the blades they use to whack you to pieces, and they had removed all of them. He was just like a dog with its teeth pulled and claws cut. No danger to him at all. So I went in for a closer look.

Think of his shape as that of a couch cushion. He had legs at all four corners, but the ones on top were longer, which made him walk sort of like a gorilla. Now think of him as a gorilla and I'll describe the rest of him to you. His legs were like coffee cans, which swung back and forth at the top, but didn't bend anywhere else. His arms were slender extensors that could retract into themselves like a pocket telescope so that he could go from walking like a dog to walking like the gorilla. His stomach had a sort of tube on it that stuck out and waved at me when I got closer. I could guess what the tube was for. Its body was made mostly of bronze or brass, I guess, a dull brown color. Same color as Tige, my old dog.

It looked at me and whirred feebly. I could see that it had lost a fight with one of its comrades, and been salvaged of some inner parts and left alone to run down and out of power. Sooner or later another machine would come along and salvage what was left.

I guess it was the color of this machine that made me actually feel sorry for it. Exact same color as old Tige. I offered it my dick, but it started towards it, then changed its mind and withdrew the tube, closed it up.

When an animal won't eat, it's about to die. I had to get it some help! I couldn't help Tige anymore, but I could help this machine. So I scooped it up and carried it the rest of the way into town.

The town was looking shabby. Hardly anyone lived there anymore, but the City Hall was still a meeting place for people to trade stuff or trade with the machines. Men's heads turned to look at me when I walked up carrying the machine, both regular people and people who had been turned into machines. Some of them had known each other before, I saw old Mr. Johnson playing a checker game with the machine which had the top half of his son Joey attached to it. They were chatting away like they always had before the machines came.

A machine came over and said, "I'll take that."

"No." I said. "It's mine. I found it."

"It's about out of power." the machine pointed out. He had only a human head, and it was nobody I knew; the rest of it was metal. "No power conversion cell. It couldn't process your jizz even if you gave it to it."

"I know." I said. "Can you get me the parts to fix it?"

"If I do, it'll immediately attack you and cut you up." the machine pointed out. "It needs lots of parts and you could provide acceptable substitutes for several of them. Especially the power cell. It'd whack off your cock and stick it inside itself in no time. Be a shame to waste it on a tiny little piece of crap like this. If you're tired of living, how about giving me a shot at it?"

"Can you fix this machine up, to where it wouldn't attack me?" I asked. I knew the reason the little machines didn't attack us--much--was because the bigger machines told them not to. These little machines sort of had to live on the places where the big machines hadn't staked out already and the big machines were quick to call them to them and cut them up for parts. Another reason I felt sorry for the little machine. Everyone picked on it.

"Sure." the machine said. "I can program it to accept orders from you. It would act like a guard dog for you and would follow you absolutely everywhere. Are you sure you want that?"

"I want that." I affirmed.

"What are you offering me for trade?"

I unzipped my fly and took out my cock. "Eighteen year old jizz." I said. "And plenty of it. I ain't shot a wad since yesterday afternoon and I'm feeling pretty frisky right now." I pulled my pud back and forth and let a clear dot of pre-come shine out from it. "You see?"

The face looked at my cock, licked its lips and said, "You got a deal."

"Fix it up first, and then you can have my dick."

This machine wanted my jizz so badly, it agreed. First a probe went into my machine and lights flashed inside both of them, and then parts were taken out to fix up my machine properly. After a time, it was moving around. "Reactivated." the machine explained. Then it actually opened itself up and salvaged the parts from itself to fix up my machine. I watched, amazed, as he installed the inner parts, and then re-attached knives, which whirred and moved like striking snakes when he got done.

"Now for the new power cell." he said. "It'll deactivate entirely when I take the old one out. When you get ready to start it up, just shoot your wad into that hole there." it pointed. "And then stick the power cell in this slot over here." it pointed inside my machine.

"Okay." I said.

"Now it's my turn to be paid." the machine said. So I took down my trousers and it blew me right there in the middle of the street. First time I had ever done that, but it was a common enough sight. A few people watched me, but it was mostly boredom or curiosity. I closed my eyes and thought of Tige and I was able to blast my load in no time. I shot my jizz down its throat (or whatever it used for one) and it was so happy, it nearly danced away.

Wil Porter had seen me doing this and he seemed mad about it. I didn't know why; it wasn't like he'd even been looking at the stuff that machine had been carrying to trade.

I took my new possession home with me and after the hour's rest I got from that long a walking trip, I felt ready to juice up my new guard dog the moment I got home.

I beat my meat and shot my wad into that power cell. It sort of glowed inside and I quickly put it into the machine. The lid closed on me so fast it nearly caught my fingers and the machine stood up and looked at me.

For a while I thought I was a goner. No way I could give it a load again so quickly. But then it seemed to shake itself and it came over and sat down next to me. I patted its metal flank, surprised to find it actually warm to my touch. I'd expected cold metal, but it was warm enough to feel alive to me.

"Welcome back, Tige." I told it. "You and me are going to be best buddies from now on." It hummed a real friendly response back to me. It was just like having a dog again.

When Tyler came over for his servicing, he was surprised and so was I. Tige jumped up and ran toward him, blocked Tyler's way to me. The front panel opened and closed, and I knew that Tige realized he couldn't fight such a big machine and win, but he didn't move, either.

"Tige, no!" I said. "Tige, come here!" I ordered him. "Heel!"

Tige obeyed, stood beside me and behind. A proper "heel" response.

"What are you doing with that?" Tyler asked me. He seemed upset.

"It's my new pet." I said. "I found him and got him fixed up and programmed to obey me. Just like my old dog. I call this one Tige, too."

"Dangerous thing to have around. It may turn on you one day." Tyler warned me. "You got it programmed to obey you now, but new programs get picked up when it adds on things, and your protection program may get written over. And you'll never know it until he comes at you with those blades. Better get rid of it."

"Okay, I'll remember that." I said. "You ready for your load?"

"Yep." Tyler said. "I left the basket of stuff you wanted in the kitchen. Couldn't find the new shoes for you, but I'll keep looking. I brought some extra canned food in replacement."

"Okay." I said and unzipped my fly. Tyler was able to kneel down now, and he did, and sucked me off while keeping one eye on Tige. Tige buzzed at Tyler and Tyler buzzed back at him.

I confess that I wasn't as perky as I had thought, having shot two loads already that day. Tyler had to suck my dick for nearly twenty minutes before I was able to give him a wad. Tyler stood up and complained, "That load was light but I'll let it slide this one time. I don't imagine you're ready for a second one just yet."

Tige growled. Tyler looked at him and said, "I can guess who got the fresh load from you."

"Come by in the early mornings from now on." I said. "I'll feed Tige after I feed you from now on." Tyler grumbled but left.

Tige stood with me on the front porch, looking at Tyler and I'd swear he growled. "Good boy." I said, and Tige came over and I petted him again.

Maybe the days and death and strangeness of my life had driven me a little crazy. Plenty of guys had gone plumb crazy like old Mr. Johnson, living the way we had ever since the machines came. But having Tige was so much like having a dog around that I started treating Tige like a dog and he started behaving like a dog. He kept his arms retracted all the time so he was running around like a dog. That first day, I taught him how to fetch a stick and then I taught him the words for things and he could go get them for me when I'd say the word. I saw a rabbit and hankered for rabbit for supper and I said, "Tige, rabbit! Fetch!"

Tige bounded off after the rabbit and there was a lot of scurrying in the long grasses of what used to be our hay meadow. Then after a time I heard the rabbit squeal once and then Tige came back and he was carrying the dead rabbit in his blades. Those blades looked nasty, but I trusted Tige. I walked right up to him with those blades extended and he dropped the rabbit into my hands and pulled the knives back inside himself.

"Good boy!" I told him. Tyler was crazy, talking like he had. Tige would never hurt me. He was my new best friend.

That night, Tige got into bed with me. I felt his warm body snuggle up next to mine and I patted him and murmured "Good boy." He hummed back to me, a sound that meant he was happy, and I felt his tube slide out over my stomach to find my cock.

Well, Tige probably was needing more power after all that running around, and I could rest up overnight and service Tyler in the morning. So I lay there and let Tige take my cock into his tube and he set it to working. First time I had ever let a machine's tube suck my dick. I was surprised how good it felt, it sort of fastened onto my cock and then suctioned tight and then bobbed back and forth. I lay there in the darkness of my room and feeling so safe with Tige around that I wanted it to go on forever. "Oh, Tige!" I sighed as he worked his tube on me, and I moaned and sighed, stroking my hands along the warm metal, so sleek and clean. Tige gave me gentle servicing, and I let it go on for as long as I damned well felt like. For nearly a half hour Tige sucked my cock and never slowed down for a moment, and there, in the warm darkness, I gave my pet machine my first load direct. Tige gulped it down greedily, and it felt like he turned on a vacuum of some sort to draw out every drop. I finished and, sleepy, lay there, Tige still holding my dick inside his tube, and I went to sleep like that, feeling safer than I had felt since, no, not since the machines came, but the way I felt before my folks died. That kind of safe.

I slept like the entire night with Tige holding my dick in his tube, and I woke up in the middle of the night to feel him starting up again. I had a nice load built up again and I should have fought him off--Tyler would be by first thing in the morning and he wouldn't like it if I couldn't give him full value. But Tige felt so good, working my dick and I decided sleepily that I would turn Tyler away in the morning and just make do with what I had on the farm. Tyler had grown so big, with his long centipede shape that had grown to nearly twelve feet long, I hated to have him indoors. From now on, Tyler was confined to the back porch, I decided.

I stroked Tige's polished flank and Tige sped up his pumping on my dick and I moaned softly again. Tige again worked me gently, not forcing me, seeming to sense and match my mood for when my passion built, Tige speeded up and brought me to another shuddering climax. I shot another good load into him.

Tyler was definitely going to be shortchanged.

I woke again to Tige's ministrations in the early dawn hours. "No, Tige." I murmured as he worked my hard-once-again prong. "I got to have some to give to Tyler." At the mere mention of Tyler's name, Tige growled, and I wondered if Tige would ever let me go. Was I going to walk around forever with my pet's tube stuck into my pants? Wouldn't the guys laugh at me? "Tige, you need to let go now. Please?"

Tige hummed and I knew then that he didn't intend to let go. I lay there and tried to think of other things, but it was like Tige knew I was doing that and he kept moving, reminding me of his presence, and I couldn't help it, it felt so good and before long I was groaning and giving Tige another load. I was surprised at how much he was milking on me. Even the big machines were happy with a load every few days. I know Tyler had been coming daily for Grandpa only because Grandpa wasn't able to give him much of a load, but with mine, Tyler had been selling power to the other machines and using it to buy the stuff he brought to me. No wonder Tyler had grown so big and powerful.

Well, now I was bankrupt, thanks to Tige. Hoped I liked living on rabbit because it was all I would get out of Tige for all the jizz he was draining from me.

I got up and got dressed, thankful that Tige did let me go for that. My cock felt utterly drained and limp and I ate breakfast and was ready to face Tyler's anger. Would he convert to machine and rip me to shreds? I had heard of such things. You dealt with the machines, but come right down to it, they were in charge and did what they wanted to you, always.

I gulped when I heard the knock on the door. Tige jumped up and ran over to the kitchen door and one of his arms extended up to open it. A talent I hadn't known he'd had!

Tyler was there and before he could speak, Tige made the oddest whistle I had ever heard.

Tyler looked down, surprised, and Tige extended what looked like a plug.

They buzzed to each other and Tyler opened a panel and Tige stuck the plug into it. I heard a click and then a gasp from Tyler as if he was in sheer joy. Whatever was going on, it didn't last long, and Tige stepped back and pulled his plug back inside him.

Tyler shook his head, as if dazed. "Well, here's your stuff." he told me.

"Uh, Tyler, I ain't going to be able to take care of you today." I said, frightened and puzzled.

"You don't have to." Tyler told me. "Tige took care of it for you. You let him get some of your wads, didn't you?"

"Uh, yeah." I admitted.

"Well, he must have changed most of his internal workings over to power conversion, because he just gave me a full supply of the power I would have had to convert from your jizz. I don't have to blow you any more, Tige will deliver the pure stuff to me. Of course, if you like having a tube stuck on your dick instead of warm, human lips...." he licked his lips and looked at me.

"Thanks." I said. "But Tige and me will get along fine."

"I'll say." Tyler said. "I can send over more machines if you want to supply them, too. I didn't take a quarter of the amount he had to offer to me."

"Yeah?" I was surprised.

"Yeah." Tyler said. "Shall I send them?"

"Well." I said. "But I don't know if I can keep you all satisfied full time."

"No matter." Tyler said. "But Tige is going to have to get rid of that power before he can take on more. You might as well get some of the good life out of it instead."

Tyler took off and I looked down at Tige. He seemed very satisfied with himself. "Tige." I said. "Let's go shopping."

Tige scampered at my feet the entire way. He was becoming more and more like a dog every day, it seemed to me. Or maybe I just was getting used to him.

The machines at the City Hall perked up when Tige whistled to them. They came over and I was besieged by their offers of things. Their sides opened up and items were pulled out, more than I could have imagined.

"Hold on!" I laughed. "First thing we want to do is get Tige some more power cells. If I'm going to be trading power from him, he needs to be able to carry a bigger supply."

They were quick to pop open their hatches and pull out the batteries to offer me. Tige also doubled the size of his central compartment and the spare room went for batteries. The machine who supplied it and took Tige's power offering (sharing it with the other machines who donated batteries, in some undoubtedly very-fair way) said that Tige could now carry about 1000% more power than he currently had with these batteries in place. I then asked and got Tige some better hind legs, enough to let him walk better, Tige now looking like a Saint Bernard while on all fours or like a four-foot-tall headless man when he stood on the hind legs.

With Tige taken care of, and still two full charges left, I contemplated their offerings.

"What else would you like?"

"Well, I could use some new shoes...." I said.

"We got that."

I turned to see old Mr. Johnson looking at me. On a machine now, right beside his son.

"God, Joey!" I said, utterly disgusted. "Your own father?"

"I asked him to." Mr. Johnson said. "Joey is going away. And I just didn't feel like going on without him to talk to. So I asked him to take me with him. Now, he can."

"We got all the shoes I used to wear." Joey said. "We're about the same size, aren't we?" He panted eagerly. "I remember that from our school locker room, seeing a pair of your shoes."

"All right." I said, uncomfortable at the memory. Joey Johnson had been such a handsome young stud, and now he was part of this machine. Part of that must have shown in my face.

"It ain't like I'm asking to suck you off, Freddy." He said to me. "Your machine has the pure stuff. That's what I want. Though I'll admit that, before, I wouldn't have minded if you had ever let me get close to you."

"Well." I temporized. "Let me see the shoes." Joey offered four pair, and one of them was just what I was looking for, hiking boots. "Let me try those on."

I sat down on Tige who purred at the contact and I was in the process of trying on the shoes when I heard Wil's voice. "What the hell is this, a convention?"

Wil had driven a big car until all the gasoline ran out. Now he rode one of the machines, a centaur like Tyler used to be, only this one sort of ran in reverse and Wil had put handle bars on the machine and built up parts of it to where it sort-of looked like a motorcycle with a rider perched on back, and he steered it and it let him. I thought it looked ridiculous but I didn't argue. He was wearing black leather pants and vest and that machine was playing with his nipples as he pulled up, fondling them. "You seem to be popular today, Freddy."

"I'm trading for shoes." I said. "These will fit me just fine, Joey." I said, putting them on and moving back and forth. I'll take them."

"Great!" Joey said and the hatch opened up and Tige's plug snaked out to join them together.

"What the fuck is going on here?" Wil demanded.

"I'm trading power off of Tige here."

"Tige? Your old dog? Didn't the machines cut him up for barking at them?"

"My new Tige." I gestured at the machine.

Wil looked at it like he didn't believe it. "You got one of those little ones now, Freddy? Shit, kid, they'll whack you up for pieces without thinking about it. I thought you big machines kept these chased away. Hell, it could cut us up in our beds!"

"This one is under my direct control." I said. "And he's my best friend."

"You've gone loopy, man!" Wil shook his head. "Should have come to live with me. Living alone like you do, you've gone off the deep end. Not too late, kid. Come with me and I'll take care of you."

"Tige and me get along just fine." I said. "We don't need you."

"I'm not the only one here unhappy about this." Wil pointed to the other men in the place, all gathered together. "You've sold out to the machines. Just like Old Man Johnson did. One day soon, it'll cut you up and you'll be riding on top of that bump right there." Wil pointed at Tige.

Tige's blades slashed out quickly. I think Tige only meant to slash at Wil, but Wil jerked and one of Tige's blades caught his little finger. Just nicked it, but Wil had blood to show off and he did happily to the men clustered to one side. "You see!" he crowed. "That's what's waiting for you. Last chance, kid. Let me have that thing cut up for scrap metal and climb on here. Think about it, kid. You're heading for disaster in a hurry. I'm the only one who can save you."

"Go away." I said angrily. And Tige jumped at him, blades flashing. "No, Tige!" I ordered. Tige skulked back behind me again. "You'd better go. Tige doesn't like you."

"I think I will." Wil looked around, frowning. "I don't think I like the way this market is going. Only fifteen men here now. When it first opened, there were close to a hundred coming every day. Where did the rest of us go? I can point to eight of them right now. Attached to the machines. We're an endangered species, Fred. Better decide pretty quick what you're going to do next." Wil rode off with an air of fake superiority.

"I need the rest of my power." Joey said tentatively. "I'm sorry about Wil, Freddy. Don't let him get to you. It's not bad, living like this. You'll see."

That shook me up. I chose a box of candy from one of the machines, let Tige transfer the last of his reserve power, and we took off home.

Tige and I spent the rest of that day and all night together, him working my prong whenever he wanted. I wanted him to fill those batteries full and I was going in and buy enough to last me for a time. After that, they wouldn't see me except when I just had to go in. People had all gotten crazy since the machines came. That was all it was.

I woke up the next morning, gave Tige another load and with him still attached to my pud, went outside. Someone had sneaked up in the night, so quietly Tige hadn't heard them. A cross was stuck in my front yard, a child's rag doll stretched on it like Jesus on the cross. The cross-bar had the word "Collaborator" written on it. There was a note pinned to the doll's dress. I didn't touch it, just went back inside. Tige's tube stayed attached to my pud and that's where I was going to keep it from now on. Then Wil couldn't get at it like he wanted to.

With Tyler supplying most of what I needed, I didn't need to go into town. I stayed on the farm, reading my books or talking with Tige. It felt so natural after a very short time, the tube holding us together, me getting hard and shooting my wad into him whenever the urge struck me. As for my piss, I could warn Tige and he'd run it through and into the toilet without letting go, just so he wouldn't have to let go of me. I liked that. It seemed like I needed to get off more and more. I counted my wads the third day after and I shot twelve wads into Tige's milking maw from sunrise to sunrise. The next day, it was fifteen. The day after that, nineteen.

When I heard the pounding at the door, at first I wasn't going to even go look. But Tige turned loose and sounded worried, so I got up, tucked my dick back into my pants for the first time in days, and went to the door.

"Yes?" I asked, not quite seeing the masked man who stood there.

"For freedom." he shouted to my uncomprehending face.

A loud roar, and that's when the pain got me right in the stomach! I'd been shot with a shotgun! Tige leaped forward, but the man gave him the other barrel and Tige crumpled. I saw that before the fog closed in on me.

I came to a bit later, hurting a lot. Tige had crawled up beside me, still functioning and his touch had woke me up. I looked down and saw that I had been cut nearly in two. "Tige, you got to do something!" I gasped. "Anything! I'm dying!"

Tige whistled a tune I knew for sadness. I saw his blades come out as darkness closed in on me once again. I didn't see what happened next, but I'm sure it didn't hurt me any at all.

I came to and it was dark, nighttime, either that same day or the next or a week later, I couldn't say. I looked down and saw that I had somehow been put completely back together again. Good as new. My clothes were rags on my body, but I was just like I used to be. "Wow, Tige, you did it!" I said. "Tige?"

No answer. I got up and looked and beside me was the empty hull that had once held Tige inside.

Some big machine, maybe Tyler, had come up. He'd cured me, but taken all of Tige in payment. That was what had happened. I felt sure of it.

I took the empty shell out to where I had buried my dog Tige, and I buried the metal shell next to him, and gave it a small cross same as for my dog. And I cried, and if you don't understand why by now, you ain't never going to understand.

I sat in that dark house, not sleeping and not feeling sleepy or hungry or even thirsty, and waited until morning, thinking. Then I got dressed, packed my things, and headed over to Wil Porter's house. Knocked on the door.

That funky machine came to the door, the same one he rode backwards. It had turned itself around to be his butler. "May I say who's calling?" he said like a regular butler.

"Tell Wil it's Freddy, come to stay with him like he's asked me to a hundred times or more." I said.

"Come in, sir." the machine gestured me in.

Wil was quick to come down when the machine spoke my name at the stairwell. He jumped down those stairs wearing a velvet gown and silken pajamas and he reached for me while grinning so widely like he couldn't believe it, his favorite dream had come true.

"Freddy!" he said. "You've come to stay? Really?"

"Got my tucker right here." I said. "The offer still open?" I was very calm about it.

"Sure!" he said. "Sure! Uh, that machine ain't with you, is it?"

"Tige's dead." I said. A man came by and shot me, and then shot Tige. I got fixed up by one of the machines, but it cost me Tige. I'm alone."

"Good." Wil said. His face fell at my expression. "I didn't mean it that way, but that machine was dangerous. They all are. You have to keep one step ahead of them like I do."

"I know that." I said. "Now. Can we go to bed now? You and me?"

"Sure, kid!" he beamed. "Sure. Cedric, tell anyone who calls that I am not to be disturbed today."

"Yes, sir." the butler machine said, rolled off dignified-like, like there wasn't a pair of motorcycle handlebars attached to his butt.

"I went upstairs with Wil to the big four-poster bed he now had. I let him take my clothes off a little at a time. The big lunk was trying so hard to be gentle and loving, that I decided to make it easier on him. When I was naked and he was struggling off his pajama top, I reached over and threw him down on the bed, climbed on top of him, his pajama top his only garment still on him, and it thrown open wide. Leaned over and kissed him hard. Felt his hard meat pulsing between my legs, and he gasped as he felt the warm circle engulf him as I kissed him hard. "Oh, God, Freddy!" he moaned.

I shifted into higher gear and his moans were that of ecstasy until he looked up, saw me sitting motionless atop him. "Freddy, what are you...? How....?" He looked down. "Oh, God!" he groaned. He saw it.

"It's all right." I said. "I didn't know until just now that I could do that. I thought I'd lost Tige, but I didn't."

"Oh, God!" he groaned. He struggled, but I had a good hold on him, and I didn't get tired no matter how much he struggled. After a time he quit moving, and then he let himself go, as I knew he would, and I smiled at him, and kissed him as well as I could and made it as much of a pleasure as I could. Ran my hands over that hairy chest of his, pinched his nipples and he groaned, loving that. After that, bringing him off was dead easy, just turn the juice up to max and he was thrashing happily beneath me in no time.

I milked him completely dry and then I got up. "You always said you wanted me to live with you, Wil. Have you changed your mind?"

"I don't know." he said, lying there. "I got to think about it."

"Think all you want." I said. "I'll be out on the front porch. If you want me to stay, come yourself. If not, send Cedric. I'll go quietly." I got up and the tube pulled itself back into my body through my navel. A right handy place to put an opening for it, I thought. "Yep, if you don't want me, I still got Tige with me. I thought I'd lost him to the machine that fixed me up, but it was Tige who fixed me up, using the only parts he had. Loyal to the very end, and now I've got him with me, right in here." I patted my navel. "Good boy, Tige. Good boy."

I went and sat on the porch. After a time, Wil came and sat beside me, and I could feel he was no longer the cocky, arrogant pain in the butt, but a man who had realized just how lonely he really was. I smiled and took his hand. One day soon, he and I would be even closer together. A part of each other, you might say. But I wouldn't rush it. Wait until he asked me to. We'd make a great team, me, Wil and Tige.

Maybe Cedric would want to join in, too. Have to be sure to ask him when the time came.