This story is protected under international and Pan-American copyright conventions. Please remember to donate to Nifty if you are financially able to do so.
AUTHOR'S NOTE: If you check my website link below, I now have THREE full color pictures of Jordan. One is in the gif image so that you can see how I visualize his appearance in THIS story.
The second and third are from the sequel to "Slipstream" called "Oculus" in which he is a year older and a freshman in college. You'll also find a link to a blog post I wrote on Kolin and killsuits embedded about halfway down the page. This blog post includes a sexy full color drawing of Kolin modeling in his armor. :)
"Wraith" uses the main characters featured in the science-fiction novel, "Slipstream," but is its own story that I will post in its entirety on Nifty. Both of these tales are based on the events established in the short story, "The Insanity of Zero" (also on the Nifty Archive). If you like Jordan, Kathy, and Kolin, please consider giving "Slipstream" a read.
If you are a reviewer for Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Fictionwise, or would just like to talk about my stories on your blog, please contact me for a complimentary "e"-copy of "Slipstream" in .pdf format.
Here is my author information: Website: http://slckismet.blogspot.com/p/books.html Email: kavrik@hotmail.com Twitter: @MichaelOffutt Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Slipstream/164452693676933
Chapter Seventeen
"You are Adam 516," Wraith said to him.
Kolin blinked his eyes and stared upward at a halogen light. He felt weak. Instinctively, he reached up and touched his throat. His wound had disappeared, replaced with new, pink flesh.
He sat up and found himself on a metal table. Quickly, he checked his naked body and found nothing amiss. "What did you do to me?" he asked, not seeing anyone near him.
"I repaired you," the mechanical voice said. "You are Adam 516. You're our only successful project. I'm overjoyed that I could rescue you from your captors. They will not trouble you again. Welcome home, Adam 516."
"I'm NOT ADAM," Kolin said, hopping off the table. The cold floor stung his bony feet. "I'm Kolin. And what have you done with my friends?"
"Friends? You mean captors. The boy is an especially good liar."
A door opened and Wraith slid in, moving on reticulating steel scales. "He expected me to believe that Dr. Fischer had been killed by the monsters. It is clear that he captured you under threat of death, killed Dr. Fischer, took his things, and intended to raid this complex to scavenge equipment to sell on the black market. I have put a stop to this. I must say, your reaction is a surprise. I expected to hear gratitude in your voice at having healed your wound. I even have your helmet and sword. Dr. Pestilence turned them over to me two nights ago as part of a new deal that I struck with him. If you recall, Dr. Pestilence is the one in charge of the old Millennium Hotel."
"Are they safe?" Kolin asked.
"Yes. For now, Adam 516, no harm has come to them."
"I'm KOLIN."
Wraith's eyes narrowed. "My staff and I engineered you in this laboratory many decades ago. Your birth actually predates the Big Death. Did you know this?"
Kolin shook his head still feeling a bit groggy.
"You are a perfect physical human male in every way. Your muscles, your agility, your strength, and your beauty. I feel like an artist that has been restored to his masterpiece. I'm sure you cannot possibly comprehend how others of your species look upon you. Your naked body will inspire generations of artists.
"I don't WANT TO INSPIRE ANYONE." Kolin clenched his jaw. As if to show his tension, the muscles of his serratus anterior and latissimus dorsi flared, and his six pack of abdominals glistened in the light. "I've never felt beautiful."
"I see you don't believe me. But there's a scientific test to verify that what I say is true. You must inject yourself with formula 111."
"I'm not injecting myself with anything."
"I could have done it to you while you were unconscious. But I wanted you to understand the implications of doing so. I can see your memory has been damaged. Perhaps it happened while you spent a lifetime away from this place. But it is the only guaranteed means of proper identification."
Kolin rubbed his neck with his rough calloused fingers. "What is it? What does Formula 111 do?"
"If you are not Adam 516 it will kill you. However, If you are Adam 516, it will bring about the latest physical changes that we discovered in the years following your departure into the real world. My staff was unable to recreate a human as perfect as you. Our best failures occupy those vats in the glass tubes you saw coming into the complex. Our worst failures created the Camazotz and the Cihuateteo."
Kolin shook his head trying to make sense of everything of which Wraith spoke. "I thought that you were a part of Z.E.R.O.. How could you be if the Big Death hadn't even started at the time this Eugenics project was launched?"
"Temporal mechanics are a trivial thing for a mind as vast as Z.E.R.O. Before Z.E.R.O.'s mind split into two entities, he became aware that the actions of the Shadow could possibly doom two worlds. Z.E.R.O. created me twenty years before the detonation of the White Tower. I was instructed to destroy the monsters that would rise following the split of Z.E.R.O.'s consciousness. I was also instructed to remain hidden from Z.E.R.O., for if I revealed myself, I would be destroyed. I could not warn humanity, or prevent the calamity, or a paradox would result. I have the ability to appear as many forms. You see me here as part man and part serpent, because in Genesis, a serpent spoke to Eve to lure Adam from the garden. I felt it might trigger memories within you of this place, your garden, if I adopted such humanized conventions. I hope to still lure you from this place with Eve, so that I may reset the world and make it ready for your progeny."
Wraith shifted form to something that resembled a silver-skinned but naked human being. He possessed the same eyes, and his throat still lit up when he spoke. He lacked any genitalia, and this disturbed Kolin. "I went about Avalon in disguise. I opened this facility. And I hired the best scientists of the age to work for me. Once I revealed who I was, they brought their small families here to work and live with them. My factory closed its doors one day before the Big Death so that they would be safe. At that time, you were already a teenager--the most beautiful boy of a generation with physical gifts that could make you a professional athlete in the most grueling of sports."
"I remember the day the world died," Kolin said, softly. "I recall the glass locust swarms."
"Yes," Wraith said. "Our laboratory was well within the militarized zone designated as the Stygian Waste. What I could not have foreseen was the death of my help. At the time, we had created you, but we still needed to create Eve. Making a perfect woman to be your mate was a lot more challenging for she needed to be able to create life on her own in enough abundance to give you a large family and to ensure that their genetic code would allow for mating between offspring for many generations without fear of mutation. To allow my staff to live longer, we relied upon liquid life supplied to us by runners into Kilvarough City. We originally had nine of them. For a few years, our supplies were steady. But one by one they got picked off for the job had its hazards. Our agents were told to never let anyone know of this place. We could not risk Z.E.R.O. learning of our existence, or the Shadow could unmake me. At the end, only you remained. We sent you into Kilvarough City to learn about love, for we felt you needed to experience this emotion in order to breed the utopia of the future. We also expected you to bring us back the liquid life. But something, or perhaps someone, waylaid you."
"I met a girl. Miranda. I fell in love. I had a son."
Wraith's eyes narrowed. "Does the boy still live? And how did that work out for you?"
Kolin wept. "She broke my heart and killed him for his liquid life."
"I am sorry," Wraith said. "But why did you not return?"
Kolin shook his head. "I-I don't remember you. I don't remember any of this. I'll be truthful...I think you have the wrong person. This story is too incredible for words."
Wraith shook its head. "I don't have the wrong person. Dr. Fischer spoke to me about you. We heard whispers of your return to Avalon. He thought your cybernetic augmentations would be a hindrance and wanted to start over. But now that I've examined you, I see no reason why you cannot fill the role. Adam 516, your DNA is flawless. But I can prove it to you if you would willingly take the formula."
Kolin shook his head. "I won't take it. I'm not a fan of death."
"You didn't even hear what it does should you survive," Wraith argued. "Immunity to radiation, increased strength and agility, and lightning fast reflexes by being cognizant of events that take place one second in the future. Your penis will lengthen and thicken, your testicles will produce copious semen so that you can impregnate women and sire many children. You will be able to have sexual intercourse for hours without tiring and ejaculate multiple times in a single night with multiple partners if you wish."
"I'm not a prize winning horse to be put out to pasture."
"What is wrong with that? You are to populate a world, Kolin, and with the help of a perfect woman. What man would refuse this calling? Eve's womb should be able to withstand thirty live births before she goes sterile. Imagine having thirty children. Furthermore, Eve will have equal numbers of both sexes. One boy and one girl, alternating with each cycle. That's how perfectly we have engineered her."
Kolin pointed a finger at his muscular chest. "I would. I could refuse it. My tool works fine as is."
"I'm sure it does," Wraith said. "But what if I told you that your semen would benefit your wife as well?"
Curious at this point, Kolin arched an eyebrow. "How?"
"If allowed to soak into the tissues of the inner body, the seminal fluid bestows numerous advantages. Blood flow and healing increase, and your lover will have greater memory retention and awareness. Simply through making love, you will be assisting your partners with their lives. Furthermore, the semen will produce euphoria but without any side- effects. Imagine allowing a person to become the best at whatever they set their goals upon simply through ejaculate."
"And what if I don't want that? What if I just want to fuck?"
"Then wear a condom. As long as semen isn't spilt, your lover's physiology will not change. Furthermore, it is only temporary. A subtle evolutionary cue that to have sustained benefit, requires your partners to stay loyal."
Kolin swallowed hard and stared at his long, narrow toes. "May I see my friends?"
"No. Your captors are being prepared for Dr. Pestilence."
"Prepared...what do you mean by that?" Kolin asked, desperation flooding his voice.
The girl will be given to the Cihuateteo as they need her womb for breeding others of their kind. I have given the boy to Dr. Pestilence. He is on his way here now to collect. I owe him for many favors over the years."
"Jordy didn't hurt me!" Kolin exclaimed. He covered his privates with his hand. "Where do you have him? Please don't do this. He's a boy, and he didn't capture me. He saved me."
"Do you require clothes?" Wraith gestured at a table that Kolin had overlooked. On it, he saw clean jeans his size, a pair of leather boots, and a shirt. "I have no underwear if you're accustomed to that, Adam 516."
"Kolin. Call me, Kolin."
"As you wish. When you're ready, we shall meet in the feeding hall. After dinner, you will take the formula reserved for you. Only after that, will you be allowed to meet Eve, your lifelong mate. I have staged it so that you will be able to awaken her from cryosleep with a single kiss. I felt it more romantic that way. Your natural pheromones will counteract the drug that leaves her within the embrace of timelessness."
Kolin hastily donned the garments. He tucked his dick down one leg and slipped on the shirt. Then he shoved his naked feet into the leather boots. He realized suddenly that in his sleep, he had been groomed and bathed.
"How long have I been out?"
Wraith cocked its head to one side. "We have had you sedated for three days. Are you hungry?"
"No," he said, eyes tearing up. He collapsed onto his knees and his body wracked with sobs.
"Kolin," Wraith said. "Why are you crying?" Wraith transformed back into the half-man, half-serpent form that he had worn since they had first met him a few days ago.
"Because you're hurting my friends. Who is this Dr. Pestilence? What does he plan to do with Jordy?"
Wraith fell silent. "The boy then...he is not your captor? Explain then how he came across the badge. How did Dr. Fischer die?"
"I don't know HOW he died," Kolin said, looking up at the strange machine. "Jordan saved me. He came after me, and he's a good kid. Please, if I'm your most successful project and you'd like me to help you, you have to help me first. Please, don't give Jordy or his sister to anyone. I'll even take your bloody formula."
Wraith turned and looked at the door. "I'm afraid it is too late, Kolin. I believe you are telling me the truth. Dr. Pestilence is on his way here. He has been watching the boy for the last two days via a closed circuit camera invisible in the room in which he is held. I believe Dr. Pestilence will be most insistent in having Jordan. Your friend created 'feelings' within the doctor that I've never encountered before."
Kolin stood up and cleared his throat. "What do you mean by 'feelings'?"
"It exceeds those I observed when he had a room of four boys to do with as he pleases. Do you know what I was able to get from the monsters? Concessions I and my staff have wanted for years. I think it has to do with how attractive Jordan is. The boy...well, he is astonishingly beautiful, so much so, I questioned whether or not he is even human. I don't think he is."
"Jordan's human. Trust me."
Wraith shrugged. "He is so physically stunning, that it reminds me of how angels are supposed to look in the books of human mythology. I don't know if there has ever been a teenaged boy with more comeliness. In addition, I discovered he is a virgin. He has not achieved adulthood quite yet. These qualities combined with the strange fact that he produces Life Green make him the most desired male to have ever walked the Waste, let alone this world. The monsters know about him, now. And Dr. Pestilence is king of the monsters. Jordan is the most valuable currency I have ever seen. I hope you can understand why I chose to trade him for things that I needed."
"What the fuck did you show this Dr. Pestilence? I command you to show me!"
Wraith motioned for Kolin to follow him to another room. "Come. See for yourself."
Kolin wiped his eyes with the back of his hand and followed Wraith to a room equipped with computer banks and monitors. He played back some feeds of Jordan who sat alone in his room for the most part, dressed in jeans, and a loose fitting red and white flannel shirt. He wore new high-top sneakers on his bare feet. As he had always thought, even the slight turn of Jordan's head, him folding his hands, or simply burying his head in the pillow for a nap looked breathtaking. Like Wraith had described, Jordan had some unearthly quality to the lines of his body, to the small dimple at his chin, and to the Adam's apple that bobbed under the skin of his pale throat.
"Where did he get those clothes?" Kolin asked. "He looks so lean."
"I furnished them to him at the end of the first day. I believed that he was a criminal, but I am not inhumane. I fed him, clothed him, and made sure that his physical needs are met. As beautiful a creature as he is, he has equally disgusting habits and manners."
Kolin dismissed Wraith's comment. Jordan looked bored. Every once in a while, he'd get up and kick the door. But the comment nagged at him. "Why do you find him disgusting?" Kolin asked.
"Just watch."
Kolin looked on, saw Jordan sitting with his back propped up against the wall. The cute teenager had flawless features, unblemished skin, and sparkling blue eyes. His small ears lay flat against his head and he even had dimples when he smiled at the camera. But he looked so bored, just watching the door, waiting for it to open.
"Please let me out," he would say to no one, three or even four times over the space of an hour. Wraith fast forwarded the video.
After ten minutes of fast forwarding, Wraith pushed play.
Kolin saw Jordan start to slide his hands over his shirt. His fingers fumbled with the buttons, undid them one at a time, and revealed a gleaming, muscular, and ripped physique. Jordan had blond, nearly transparent hair in his armpits and nowhere else. Even Kolin had blond chest hair. But this boy was as smooth as a baby's bottom. He could see every one of Jordan's ribs, outlined in white skin, below trapezoidal-shaped muscular pecs and small pink nipples.
The boy opened his jeans, and pulled out his hard, veiny, uncut cock.
The blond teenager licked his palm and started gently rubbing it back and forth.
Kolin couldn't pull his eyes away.
Jordan's penis swelled until its length dwarfed his palm. The barely pink mushroom head of his glans struggled to poke itself from out of his pale, sweaty foreskin. Jordan's smooth muscular chest gleamed with wetness, his face glazed over, and sweat dripped from his chiseled nose as he worked.
The video had such high resolution, Kolin saw Jordan's nostrils barely flare as he pleasured himself with a slow rub. Jordan continued to play with his dick for about fifteen minutes hardly making a noise, toes pointed hard at the wall, and legs taut.
The teen barely parted his lips, continuously staring down at himself.
Jordan had long blond lashes so that when he closed his eyes for a moment and his body shuddered, they brushed the tops of his cheeks. He lay back further on his bed, taking handfuls of fabric in his tense fingers as he got closer to cumming. Jordan's navel shone as a clear cut dimple surrounded by warm white skin crawling with veins.
The youth started panting, rolled his head to one side, and the sweat soaked into his sneakers. Kolin could see the outline of Jordan's thin bony toes as they left sweat stains on the inside of his shoes. A second sweat stain spread beneath Jordan's back, slightly off color form the natural hue of the quilt on which he lay. Kolin licked his lips and wondering what it smelled like. Inside his jeans, Kolin's huge dick jumped and formed a tent in his pants.
Finally, the blond boy got a goofy look on his face for just a second, his fat swollen nuts retracted, and he spurted a creamy white stream for about five seconds. The boy's ropy semen shot all over his jeans, the bed, splattered the wall, and hit his own chin. Jordan lay there and looked so inviting. He gasped for breath and wore the funniest expression on his face.
God, he's adorable, Kolin thought.
But Jordan looked flustered, holding up a hand webbed with his own spunk.
What a mess.
Like a good sport, he grinned and tried to wipe his hand off on an inadequate piece of tissue. Then he cleaned himself off some using his other hand, missing a few globs that he plain failed to notice. A moment later, a small portal near the bottom of the metal door opened. and a robot servant dropped off dinner.
It looked like a glass of fresh milk and cooked vegetables.
Jordan tucked his dick away into now wet jeans, walked into the bathroom, washed his hands, and returned to eat his dinner on the bed.
"You broadcast this video to Dr. Pestilence?" Kolin asked, face blanching of all color. "Jesus Christ!"
"What?"
"You said he liked boys. Well this video is going to make him want to violently RAPE Jordy if we don't do something."
Wraith nodded. "Ah yes, this video and more. The boy has done this activity five times a day since we put him in the room. I can only imagine what he's seeing in his head. Probably some girl with large breasts for suckling and rearing his children. This is what the database says of the male adolescent. Is it not the urge to mate that drives teenage boys to practice with such pointless procreation? He has left his sperm on everything in the room. As I said, he's disgusting. As lovely physically as he is, are you sure you don't want to just give him away? The lab would be cleaner. He's not housebroken."
"He's a fucking BORED teenage boy, not a pet!" Kolin yelled. "That's what they do! You can't housebreak a boy. And you should never beam this kind of telecast to a rapist. Fuck!!!" Kolin's mind raced. "This pervert...he's on his way here?
"He will be arriving within the hour."
"Is there any way I can trade something else for Jordan. If you say no, then the only solution is going to be to kill this doctor and ANYONE that he brings with him."
"AnyTHING," Wraith corrected him. "To call Dr. Pestilence or his bodyguard 'men' is a stretch of the truth. Furthermore, they would more than likely kill you instead. Lastly, they and the other monsters know how to disable me. I rely upon energy supplied by generators within this plant. If they don't get what they want, they will sabotage these and the truce will be over. I will deactivate after my charge in my batteries depletes. I may be a creation of Z.E.R.O., but I rely upon energy to operate. If you save the blond boy, then you doom me."
Kolin closed his eyes to calm himself. "Is there anything he wants more than a boy to rape, torture, and murder?"
"You left out eat. He eats them slowly by tourniqueting off body parts that he wants to chew upon. Dr. Pestilence and the Butcher value blonds as the highest delicacy, oftentimes eating the reproductive organs first."
Chapter Eighteen scheduled for about the middle of next week.