MAIN Sara prepares

Day 110

Candy walked into the red room and looked around. Jennifer sat on her throne with Samantha standing just to her side. Hannah and Monica stood on either side of the chair a few feet behind Jennifer. The man who had escorted Candy in had closed the door and stayed staring at Candy. She could feel his eyes boring into her back watching for any threatening move.

"I'm busy, why did you make me drive all the way back to this dump?" Candy said angrily.

"Busy indeed," Jennifer said. "I'll let you in on a little secret. In a few days, I will be in charge of this town and Barbara and her nest will be gone. That means I will be the one in charge around here. I have teams ready to seize Crissy, Ashley, and their slut squad. And I have a team prepared to grab you and Julie."

Candy tensed at this but felt the eyes boring into her and relaxed. If she could talk her way out of this room Jennifer would never have summoned her.

"But I recently had a bit of a change of heart. I was thinking that before I let the hammer fall on Crissy and Barbara I should send them after you. You've been a bad bad girl it seems." Jennifer said.

"I've just been watching Julie and Jake, as instructed," Candy said.

"Oh, really... as instructed? Did you forget about Crissy's little moratorium? I think they would be very displeased with you." Jennifer smiled.

"I've..." Candy began.

The redhead Samantha stood now and said, "I pretty much blew off my family, no need for them now right? Well, it was my mom's birthday and I decided to see who was there. I wanted to check out which of my cousins looked like they would be fun to convert personally. Well, my favorite red-headed cousin Laurie is there. We have this thing where we kiss each other's cheeks, like they do in Europe. I was even thinking about breaking the moratorium myself when I smelled her breath and she smelled mine. We went to my room the first chance we got to break away and sure enough she already had a Master."

Candy wanted to back up and run away but knew that the man behind her could easily stop her. He looked dangerous.

"At first I thought that she was from the first group, the ones that got Crissy. But after direct communicating, I realized that she is one of yours. And quite a kinky time you two have had. I never knew she had it in her." Samantha said.

"Crissy and Ashley know what I am doing," Candy said quickly.

Hannah spoke up now, "I recently direct communicated with Ashley and requested information on your mission. You said you might need more Masters. You left them with the impression that you would take one or two when you got there."

"Well..." Candy sputtered.

"My team has identified no less than twenty-three likely **** hosts in that little village," Jennifer said. "Not one or two, TWENTY-THREE. They estimate that you could easily have twice that number. So I am willing to make a deal. Swear fealty to me hear and now. You can have your brother, Julie, and whoever else you have converted. In fact, you can have that whole village once I am in charge. But no more independent action. You take orders from me now and no more converting free hosts without asking. It's a better deal than Crissy would give you."

Candy took a deep breath and let it out slowly. All she really wanted was Jake, and maybe Angela. She could still run if she got out of this. All she had to do was agree to accept Jennifer's offer. And it was a much better offer than Crissy or Ashley would give considering what she had done.

"Fine, I'll do what you tell me from now on. I accept," Candy said.

"Prepare your nest well. The authorities will soon discover the nest at the hospital and begin searching for us again. You should have your subjects lay low for the time being and prepare an escape plan for yourself and your closest followers, just in case, I have." Jennifer said.

Samantha, Hannah, and Monica seemed to twitch as one at the mention of an escape plan and all looked at Jennifer with surprise.

The discussion over there was one last thing to settle. "Strip," Samantha said. "I will probe your mind and make sure your intentions are genuine."

Candy began removing her clothes. She knew that her monster had no real control over her mind and she could show it whatever she wanted to. And if her monster betrayed her in any way it would wish it had never been spawned.

Lana had settled into her new hideout. It was difficult fitting in but it was also an oddly nice change from the mansion. She had left her team near Barbara's nest to monitor the situation. All of the wheels were in motion now, Lana simply had to sit back and wait, and enjoy her time in her new home.

Day 111

"Man I'm so bored, this is killing me!" Olivia said as she threw the comic aside. It was the last one in Sara's collection that Olivia had tried to read, a few had been interesting, but Olivia wanted to run around not sit and read.

"It can't be much longer," Sara said. "It's been almost two weeks since Ashley told us about Candy and Julie. Crissy won't put it off forever."

"But why can't I go out for just a little bit," Olivia said in exasperation.

"The cottage is almost an hour's drive from here. Factor in that I have to sneak through the hidden passage to get outside and just the time it will take to get out of here and Candy has almost an hour and a half advantage on us. Ashley said she would give us a heads up, that could be a day or two or only a couple of hours. So we have to be ready to go at a moment's notice." Sara said.

"Fine," Olivia said. She regretted promising Sara that she would help her with Julie. She regretted it even more when Sara told her that she wanted to stop Candy from giving Julie a Master. But Olivia had already promised Sara that she would help and didn't want to go back on that promise. Also, Olivia had always wanted to be the one to give Julie her Master, she felt like they had a special bond together.

"Are you sure you want to go through with this? Ashley will be pissed about this you know." Olivia said.

Sara had told Olivia that the reason she wanted to stop it was because she wanted to get to know Julie before she had a Master so that she could better understand how a Master is affected by the old personality they are leeching off of. Even Sara thought that this was a bad story but Olivia seemed to buy it. The truth was she was looking for a way to save Julie and everyone else. Julie could also be an invaluable ally in the fight to stop the Masters. More importantly to Sara Julie was a sort of hero for how she had avoided the parasites trying to take control of her for so long. If Julie fell, no one was safe.

"Yes, I'm not sure what we will do with her but we will figure that out IF we get her away from Candy," Sara said.

"Your plan for that is kind of sketchy too," Olivia said offhandedly.

"That shouldn't be too hard really. Me you and Julie can overpower her. She is shorter than any of us and so top heavy all it will take is one good shove to take her down." Sara said trying to be lighthearted.

"You shouldn't be that way," Olivia said. "You need to plan for the worst case scenario. Ashley said she had two or three helpers. Three on one sounds nice but it could easily be three on four. And all we will have going for us is surprise then... if we manage to get that."

"Your right, I don't know how to plan for things like this. I usually just try and hope things work out. But that's why I asked you for your help. You are the one who gets things done for Ashley and Jennifer after all. You aren't trying to go back on your promise are you?" Sara said.

"No....," Olivia sighed. "I would never go back on a promise. I just don't see the point. Whether we give Julie her Master or Candy does it's all the same. Sooner or later everyone will be perfected."

Sara shuddered at the certainty in Olivia's voice. Olivia wasn't chomping at the bit to enslave every person she saw like most Masters. But even she was imprinted with the idea that sooner or later all of humanity would fall to the slugs controlling her. How many would be like Sara? Hiding in plain sight and hoping to just live out their lives as themselves. And how many would be like Veronica or Jo? Hardly human and eager to serve the Hive and spread it to everyone that they knew.

Sara thought that Julie had been spending a lot longer thinking about how to stop them. And if anyone could help her it would be Julie. Olivia would help in stopping Candy but in her eyes, it was only a temporary delay in Julie becoming one of the Hive. Sara needed allies like Julie who were willing to stop the Masters and free all the people that had been enslaved. So far Sara had found no way of forcing a Master to free its host and the only case she knew of was when the FBI agent was mortally wounded and that was no help for her or the rest.

"Just hold out for another week. I doubt that it will be much longer than that," Sara said. "In the meantime help me plan on how we are going to do this, ok?"

Olivia immediately brightened as she began to think through the possibilities. "Well, first off we will want to get there before Candy does. We might not want to go rushing in, Julie won't be any happier to see me than she will be to see Candy. But once Julie knows she is in danger she will probably be more willing to accept our help if..."

Sara listened to Olivia for the next few hours till it was time for dinner. Sara knew that Olivia was right about most things but also knew that there was no way to predict how things would play out. Whatever plan Olivia made would fall apart at some point and then they would just have to fight to save Julie however they could.

Day 113

Jack had been spying on Cheryl and Jenny for quite some time now. He had seen the other two that often met up with them and was dying to break his cover and talk to Trina. Any woman with a Master in her would no doubt happily have sex with a male that was part of the Hive. And a fuck buddy like Trina would almost make it worth being a **** to the Hive. Hannah was eager to please but had nothing on Trina looks wise. And even if Hannah's Master spent a decade improving her Trina just oozed a sensuality that Hannah would never have.

He had rented an apartment in the same building that Cheryl and Trina lived in. Jack was old school and had planted a listening device in Cheryl's apartment. He had used it to listen in on the frequent meetings and couplings of Jenny, Cheryl, and their group.

Bambi was there tonight so the conversation was even more boring than usual. The drones all practiced being normal people when she was around. Jack fell asleep listening to their boring chatter for the third time this week. However, soon after he fell asleep Bambi left and the conversation took an unusual turn.

"I'm feeling kind of distracted and uneasy lately. I need to go out and have some fun, maybe even get laid, like by a guy." Trina blurted out the moment she heard the door close behind Bambi. If Jack had been awake he would have realized that this was urgent and actionable intel, but alas for him he missed it and didn't hear it til it was too late to remedy himself.

"What kind of fun are you looking for?" Donna asked, she had a few things and men in mind herself.

"I don't know, I just want to let lose a little bit. Get drunk and do something dumb. I know that it is a bad idea and yet I feel like I have to do it."

"You want a 'girls night out'?" Cheryl said.

"Exactly, just a little harmless fun to let off some steam, I've been working too hard at being good for too long," Trina replied.

"Like you want to have sex with some random guy or something?" Jenny sounded stunned.

"Yeah, I mean a Master gets the job done but it's a sure thing. When you go out looking for fun you never know what might happen. It makes it a lot more exciting, you know," Trina paused and looked at Jenny. "Or do you know?"

Jenny looked stunned now, what was Trina getting at?

"Shit, you're a virgin, aren't you? We gotta fix that. No wonder you are so into Cheryl's 'deny yourself your instincts' plan. You don't know what it's like to stalk and hunt down some good hard cock!" Trina began giggling as she said 'stalk' and was almost falling over laughing when she got to 'cock'.

"Don't make fun of me!" Jenny said a little more loudly than she intended. "I just finished high school, what do you expect."

Cheryl motioned to Donna, "Get the spinner from the twister box. Let us do this with as little thought and intention as possible."

Donna quickly retrieved the item and laid it down on the table in front of Cheryl. She spun the arrow and watched as it landed on left foot yellow.

"So what does that mean?" Trina asked scepticly.

"It means we will leave town and head to the north-northwest. There is a major city about five hours away in that direction. I propose that we go there tomorrow and let loose for two or three days." Cheryl said stoically.

"Wow is that all it took to get you stick in the muds going? I should have said something weeks ago." Trina said triumphantly. "I get out of work at three, with any luck we will get there by sundown tomorrow, perfect timing!" She then turned to Jenny, "And we are gonna get you laid, I guarantee it!"