Oh My God

Jake’s consciousness had existed in a tug of war between realities for what felt like days and, by the nature of the exercise, occasionally years. As he blinked to wakefulness in his dream pod, now fully and truly aware of where and what he was, the weight of it all fell on him in an avalanche.

For a moment, he lay paralyzed; capable of nothing more than processing all he’d woken from, pinned in place by a weariness too deep for words. Only when the pod’s lights turned off, threatening to entomb him in enclosed darkness, did he force himself to push it open and sit up.

His pod had been moved to a squat, square room, devoid of windows. His pod was linked to an array of complex looking electronics, the glow from which combined with yellow strip lights, provided the only illumination. That and a glowing monitor, anyway.

It bore instructions which made it clear what opening the imposing metal door would take, but he paused to collect himself. A change of clothes had been left for him, chinos with a blue t-shirt. He pulled them on, replacing his boxer briefs, and felt a bit better for wearing clothes he’d not been lying in for over 30 hours. With a stretch, he turned toward the machine.

“Alright, what the hell do you want?” He asked.

The answer was plain enough, written at the top of the survey he now stared at.

Choose two dreams that stand out as your favorites. Each choice will receive 5 victory points.

Beneath this simple command, a simple list of each woman or group who’d structured a dreamscape for him stretched down, a check box sitting beside them.

He thought it over. He was proud of his girls. The imagination they’d displayed was amazing. Even someone like Julie, who’d offered a surrender as much as a fantasy, had gifted him a transcendent experience. The choice would not be an easy one. Yet he felt he knew which dreams called to him. His first choice was easy, at least. After all the lectures about stepping up, taking responsibility, of each of them telling him he had to be a master, it was his own good natured, innocent sister who had shown him the way forward. The vision of their future together was aspirational, and felt so achingly attainable. If they were truly all stuck together, it’s what he wanted.

But who else? Sabrina, Rachel, and Lindsey had, together, allowed him a taste of the impossible; the sort of thing he’d fantasized about since he was a boy, and he’d lived every second of it in a state of perfect elation. Loretta had opened herself to him utterly, letting him not simply observe but live her past. It represented remarkable vulnerability from a woman he’d scarcely troubled to have a conversation with, to his increasing shame. And even in a quasi-surrender, Julie had managed both to tap into some of his fondest memories, and show him something surreal and magical.

And yet there was one other; a dream which granted him the impossible, revealed the character of its maker, and even gave him a choice in how he experienced it. No one would have been so bold as to change who he was for their dream, or even bolder, granted the same ability to him.

No one but AJ.

He selected her name, and the screen changed again.

Which dream did you dislike the most?

No hesitation here. He had complicated feelings about Lacy’s dream. It was beautiful. Even now, thinking about it, he felt himself choking up. Apart from Loretta, it had been the most naked and earnest in its revelation of its author’s self image. But he wished he’d have known; to have had the chance to engage with it as he had with AJ’s, aware and willing. And on another level still, he understood why. Would he ever see her as anything other than his transformed best friend had she not? It was a barrier upon whose conquest her survival was incumbent.

Survival he could excuse. Temptation, manipulation, were other matters. And Leah made him feel dirty. He felt for AJ, selecting it; not only for their liaison, but her earnest and laudable efforts to give the hostess a fair shake. Yet fair or unfair, there was only one answer.

Upon selecting it, the door churned, its hydraulic lock yielding before it swung itself open. Jake stretched, yawned, wrestled his weariness into something manageable, then left his seat.

He had heard the phrase ‘out to sea’, had even used it at times. He’d never before felt as he did climbing the stairs from the basement in which they’d kept him to the hotel’s main complex.

His mind rolled in the waves, swept in one direction by Lacy’s thighs, in another by Julie's cry of pleasure as it washed over a continent; to the feel of a greatsword, pulsing with magic in his hand, and AJ’s rough but gentle grasp of her breasts. They’d all come roaring back to him as he’d woken, a whirlwind that cast him into vast, roiling uncertainty. His body was here. It labored its way from the dream pod up a spiral staircase, one grueling step after another. But his mind was all at sea.

An oppressive wrongness snapped him back to reality as he crested the stairs. The air pressure was too low, the building around him rattled in the wind, and even that sound was overcome by the hammering of a million raindrops on roof and window.

He emerged into the lobby, and found all thirteen of his women waiting for him there.

“What’s…going on?” He asked.

Naturally, AJ spoke up first.

“Storm’s on us. We barely got back from the big kumbaya circle before it landed,” She said.

“I took the liberty of moving you,” Leah said. “With my abilities it was no trouble, though I did have some help from the hotel’s automation.”

“So we’re gonna be okay in here, right?” Sabrina asked.

Leah gave her a disconcerting look.

“No. In fact, I’m rather concerned about a few points of failure.”

“We should break into groups,” Farrah said. “If there are areas of concern, we should take action to fortify them.”

Again they all turned to Jake, and a bone weariness threatened to take hold. He was still overwhelmed, fighting to regain full control of his body and senses, and utterly drained from his experiences.

Yet he remembered his dreams, and the main theme he’d heard over and over from them. He needed to step up. Jake put out his arm, bracing himself against the wall, and collected himself as best he could.

“What do we need? Or think we’ll need?”

“There’s a system of pumps in the basement. We’ll need someone to keep an eye on those. The same is true of the generator.”

Megan perked up at that, but thankfully kept any distracting questions to herself.

“We’ll wanna board the windows. At least the ones facing the wind,” AJ said, “And that’s going to be a hard fucking job.”

“Leah, I want you on that. Your powers can go a long way real fast,”

But the hostess was shaking her head.

“Sorry, love. I have perhaps the most important task ahead of me,” She said, “We have to communicate with the producers to tell them our situation, and I’m the only one who can do it.”

She looked toward the large picture windows in the lobby, and flitted her hand. Strong metal gates appeared over them one at a time.

“I can get these at least. But the rest….for that, I’ll need you all,” She said. “I’ll want an escort as well.”

Jake frowned. Leaving anyone alone with Leah still felt like a dangerous proposition, and an obvious choice presented itself, he had other plans for her.

“I’ll go with you,” Jake said, but Leah shook her head.

“Have you looked at yourself? You’re exhausted. The dream sequencing is tough on everyone, and you went through nine times more than any of the rest of us.”

He could hardly argue, but he didn’t want to show it.

“We need runners. People to go back and forth, check progress and whatnot. You can come back to me here,” He said, “I’ll oversee everything, and when I’m not in charge, AJ is.”

It was the natural choice, but when he looked to her, he found a certain nervous, reticence looking back at him.

“I dunno about that,” She said. “I think I’d be better off trailing Leah.”

Jake wasn’t sure if he was more astonished or annoyed. Normally she’d have jumped to take responsibility. And now she was dodging it to run off with her girlfriend? He gave her a “what the hell?” look, and the one he got back was so uncertain and vulnerable that it made him back off.

“Alright, Farrah then,” He said, “You good with that?”

From this party, he received a nod of assent.

“My bodies will help,” She said, “If there’s two of me running around learning everything, we can do twice the work.”

“I’ll take the pumps,” Lacy said, stepping up.

She wore a surfing top, and a bikini bottom, as though she’d anticipated a drenching.

“That’s dangerous, joonam,” Her mother objected. “It could flood down there.”

“And someone still needs to do it. I’m stronger than most,” She said, resolutely.

“I’ll go with you,” Rachel offered, “Same reason.”

Jake nodded his ascent. He sensed tensions between Farrah and her daughter of the choice, and decided to move on before they could flare into trouble.

“Jules, your jobs…how do they work?” He asked. “Do you have something that can help with the generator?”

She groaned.

“Handyman is one of my jobs. I can’t say I’m in love with the outfit, but if it helps, it helps.”

“Alright. Assigned,” He said.

As he did, her clothes, a pair of denim shorts and a sensible tee, transformed into a pair of workboots and kneesocks, paired with a tiny white strip of a tubetop, a utility belt, and a pair of denim overalls so short they left half her ass and her entire back exposed. She blushed furiously.

“Yeah…this will help,” She said, after taking stock of herself. Her head tilted toward the ceiling in concentration, as though a new book of information had opened in her mind, and she were thumbing through its index, “Yes…okay…I’d know how to work it.”

“Megs, you go with her. You know the second most about all this,”

Megan tilted her head.

“Curious as I am to see a generator built by people capable of the things Leah is, I wouldn’t know anything about it.”

“Right,” Jake agreed, “That ties you for second most. Get after it.”

“She can help me with the cooking once we get this all together,” Julie said, “You’re all going to be starving by the time we’re done here.”

“The rest of you are on window duty…” He started, but Leah scoffed.

“There’s too many. Here,” She said.

The hostess stepped to one of the lobby’s huge picture windows, her eyes rolling back in her head as she lifted her arm. The ground trembled, and slowly pushed upward. Cracks appeared between panels of sidewalk and decorative cobblestones, both rising as Leah compressed the earth itself, stealing it from the grounds beyond the hotel to form a semi-circular wall. It stretched into the air, first 10 feet, then twenty, then thirty.

Leah dropped to her knees, blinking furiously, as a trickle of blood emerged from her nose.

“Jesus…” AJ said, rushing up to catch her, “You okay?”

Leah coughed, shaking her head.

“I’ll…need a moment,” She said, “Moving that much…material. It’s very hard for only one of us.”

“Take your time,” AJ said.

Leah stood, shaking her head.

“Would that I could,” she said, “But we don’t have it. I need to get to the producers.”

She gestured toward a hole she’d left at the wall’s base, and a bridge she’d built in beyond.

“We’re going out into that?” AJ asked.

“No choice. It’s where the communications tower is,” She said, “Can I trust you to get me there??”

AJ nodded.

“'Course you can. Let’s get to it.”

As they moved toward the door, and the storm beyond, Jake stopped her with a touch.

“Are you sure about this? I can’t afford to lose you,” He said as quietly as he could manage.

She rolled her eyes.

“Don’t me melodramatic. It’s not like I’m…”

“Walking into a hurricane?” He challenged.

AJ furrowed her brow.

“Look, none of us can afford to lose her, from the sound of it. So I’m taking one for the team,” She said, then pulling the thoughts from his head, added, “I’m not just dipping out with my fuckbuddy. You know me better than that.”

He did. Still…

“What’s going on with you, though? Normally you’d jump at the chance to help take charge.”

Her eyes darted to the others. A steady exodus had begun, one woman after another leaving in pursuit of the tasks he’d set them to, but the few that remained watched their hushed conversation.

“Can we talk later? I wanna tell you, but with the walls falling in, it's not the time,” She said.

“Of course,” he agreed at once, “Just promise you’ll take care of yourself.”

The clasped hands, and shared a firm shake.

“You too,” She said.

He watched, worried as they vanished into the storm.

*****

The board lurched, pushing her forward. Farrah threw three shoulders into it before it could give way, one body bracing against a pipe, pushing back first while the other checked it like a linebacker. They both pushed forward, and for a moment, the water rushing in abated.

“How are we doing?” She said, her voice over the din of sloshing water and humming engines.

It was her professor's voice; even, commanding, but loud enough to carry over the chatter and moving bodies of a lecture hall’s worth of unruly college students. Even with years’ old practice, its steadiness surprised her, as it masked a rising panic. The water was up to her hips now, and rising.

“We’ve got three of six going,” Rachel said. “But I can’t find the chains.”

The board lurched against her, belching dirty water out across her hair and shoulders, and again, Farrah fought to push it back in place. She was bracing herself against a burst pipe, which gushed water; the most serious of their problems, though hardly their only one. All around them, water gushed from drainage pipes, dripped from the ceiling, and oozed through pores and cracks in the walls.

Rachel ripped a yellow chord back, the water burbling beneath her. It roiled, then steadied, and for a moment, it finally seemed they were keeping pace. But even that small victory rested on Farrah, and the implacable tide she merely inconvenienced rather than stopped.

They were under siege, and losing.

“I can’t find the starter chords anymore,” Rachel said. “They’re too far under.”

“Fuck it,” Lacy said.

She straightened her back and took a deep breath.

Farrah had enough time to cry “Joonam, no!” before she dove in an arch, vanishing beneath the water.

Farrah lived through a short eternity, its possibilities stretching before her in a slow motion nightmare. Lacy was pinned beneath something. She struck her head and swallowed a lungful of water. She was pulled into the undertow of mechanical pumps, wide eyed and clawing at the water as she drowned.

Then the water broke, and Lacy emerged, the plastic end of a yellow cord in her hand. She relaxed her body, following the chord into the water as it snapped back, then yanked it again. Another pump lurched to life, and for the first time, the water, now chest deep, began to recede.

“Yes!” Rachel cried, throwing up her hands.

Lacy bounced her toes, bringing her hands in a two handed five. Farrah let go with a grunt, a torrent of dirty water flowing out around her. But even that wasn't enough to overwhelm the pumps, now that so many were in business.

She sprinted forward with one body, wading toward the stairs to report their success. Her other squared up, hands on hips.

“Don’t you ever scare me like that again!” She said to Lacy, who turned to her with a grin.

“It’s okay. We got it!”

Farrah raised a finger, and her voice with it.

“No! The next time something this dangerous is happening-”

Lacy’s expression twisted, bemusement giving way to sudden anger.

“What? Someone had to do it!”

“It didn’t have to be my child,” Farrah said.

Even now, Lacy had several inches on her, and she used them to tower over her.

“Well, it was! People needed me, and I stepped up,” She said, before adding more angrily, “Ryan is dead. I’m drowning him in this basement.”

Rachel stumbled back against the wall, watching as daughter competed to impose over mother.

Only there was no competition. Farrah shrank, thrown as far off kilter as if Lacy had slapped her. She gaped, stunned into silence by her child's sudden fury. Lacy must have seen it, as when she spoke again, her voice was gentler.

“I don’t need you to rescue me, Lady,” She said. “I can do that for myself now.”

She felt proud. Sad. Confused. It was all she ever wanted for her child, son or daughter. And yet, she felt a piece of her was passing by. Here, standing in the basement, she fought to keep her composure. It was her other body, now all the way back to the lobby, that she allowed to tear up.

“You’re right,” She acknowledged.

It was true, and she could see Lacy needed to hear it. She leaned forward, and planted a kiss on her cheek.

Lacy relaxed, but didn’t seem to know what to say, though Farrah couldn’t tell whether yielding stunned her into silence, or the fact of the outburst itself. Neither seemed to know how to break it, until the crackle of the hotel intercom spared them the trouble.

“This is Leah,” A voice called, as though it needed identification. “We’ve arrived and are back in communication with the mainland and the Producers.”

“Joy,” Rachel scoffed, “Thank god we have those assholes lording over us again.”

“When you’re finished with the safety tasks we outlined, please meet in the hotel ballroom. I have announcements.”

“I should go check on the others,” Farrah said, “Put a pin in this?”

“Sure thing, Mom. Be safe,” Lacy said.

Farrah nodded, noting the strange reversal which had taken place, and returned the courtesy before departing herself.

*****

As he waited, Jake busied himself rearranging the food carts; their order, the utensils, the placement of the bowls and plates. After giving his orders, he’d slept through much of the storm; so weary that he’d fallen under only moments after stretching out on one of the lobby’s couches. Mercifully, his sleep had been dreamless, though so deep he’d struggled to remember where he was when Farrah had awoken him for her first report.

Now, his strength modestly recovered, he’d wanted to jump in and help, but Farrah dissuaded him. “You’re the most essential one here. All bets are off for us if something happened to you,” She’d told him, and knowing she was right, he conceded unhappily. Now he struggled to busy himself about the ballroom. It was his third pass it, and as he began, Megan looked up from her book.

“That seems somewhat superfluous at this point, no?” She asked. “You’ve done a good enough job, I think.”

He frowned.

“I guess you’re right,” He conceded, hoping his irritation wasn’t evident.

He moved onto the tables, and the napkins and flower arrangements adorning them.

“That’s always been superfluous,” She added. “I doubt anyone will care about the tablesettings.”

This time, Jake crumpled a napkin, tossing it down on the table.

“Well then what should I be doing?”

Megan put a mark in her book and set it aside, then stood, stretched, and moved to a seat beside him. Annoyed with her as he was, he couldn’t help but admire the new confidence, evident both in how she carried herself and her willingness to confront him in the first place. Slowly but surely, she was growing.

Still, he wished her growth had not been directed toward him.

“It’s going to be fine,” She said. “Farrah just told us everyone was safe. Many of them are nearly done.”

“Everyone but AJ,” He said and, catching himself, added, “And Leah.”

Megan frowned, adjusting her glasses.

“Yes…but AJ is..AJ. And Leah has fantastical powers. I’m sure they’ll be fine!” She said, “Besides, they at least made it to the tower safe and sound.”

The smile she gave him was reassuring, but did not, to his eye, seem altogether genuine. Still, she was trying, and he put his arm around her and gave her a squeeze.

She and Julie had been the first to arrive back, Megan in the blouse and skirt she’d begun her day in, Julie having traded the handy man’s overalls for a simple white apron and heels that she wore over nothing whatsoever. Apparently, starting the backup generator had been as simple as following a 10 step process, clearly defined by a manuel. Between it and the walk to and from, the task had only taken them about 20 minutes.

Afterward, Julie had switched to cooking, making up pots of soup, fried chicken, mounds of potatoes, roast vegetables, and other warming, filling comfort foods that starved, hungry people could grab and eat quickly. Megan had wanted to join the girls upstairs, patching leaks in the ceiling and barricading windows, but Jake forbade it. Given her magically enforced propensity for accidents, her presence was more likely to hinder than help, he reasoned; though on a much deeper level, while he wanted all of them to be safe, she was blood.

Jake let his gaze drift toward the ceiling, a huge, glass enclosure from which hung elaborate chandeliers of polished chrome, gold and crystal. Rain hammered it, rolling off in sheets which made a blur of the roiling black sky, lit only the occasional stab of lighting.

“Should we be worried about that?” He asked aloud.

“Hm?” His sister inquired, then followed his eyes. “The ceiling? Oh, I don’t think so. In hurricanes, the most threatened surfaces are the ones facing the wind, and this has several buffers. Besides, the lightning’s a good sign. It likely means the eye’s passed and we’re through the worst of it.”

Jake gave her a quizzical look.

“English literature, molecular biology, and now meteorology,” He teased, “What’ can’t she do.”

Megan beamed.

“I did my homework when I heard the storm was coming.”

Their conversation ended abruptly as a far double door was pulled open so forcefully that it bounced back off the walls with a resonate crash. Three figures, each dirty, wet and bedraggled stepped through, but it was Lacy who announced them.

“We came, we saw, we conquered,” She cried out, and in a moment that was classic Ryan, overexcited and overstimulated, added, “Veni, vidi, vici, bitches!”

Jake went to her, embracing her with both arms.

“I’m glad you’re okay. Really glad,” He said.

Without hesitation, she stood her toes and kissed him. It was clear she’d been entirely soaked through, and sweaty and dirt streaked besides. But she was warm, and safe, and for now at least, that overwhelmed every other consideration.

Rachel and Loretta trailed behind him, both of them in as ugly shape as she was. He hugged each of them in turn. Rachel kept it brief, and Loretta in turn.

“It was dicey there, for a minute,” The latter admitted, “But with all six of those pumps running we should be fine.”

“We’ve been done for a while,” Rachel added, “But we wanted to make sure we didn’t need to bust out any of the backups. That said, it was bad enough that I barely had my head above water for a minute there.”

“Jesus…” Jake said, stepping back.

Lacy walked right past them, as if unbothered by her apparently near death experience.

“Ohmygod, who made food?” She asked, piling a chicken thigh and a spoon of potatoes on her plate before she’d even finished speaking, “Whoever it is, I’m marrying her. I’m starving.”

“It was Julie,” He told them. “She’s still back in the kitchen making some bread, I think.”

She responded with a mouthful of chicken.

“Well, offer stands. I’m down if she is.”

That party arrived now, and as usual, exceeded expectations. Her cart carried not just bread, but multiple varietals, along with pastries, a cheesecake and thermoses of hot coffee, tea and cocoa.

“I made as much as I could,” Julie said, “I figured you guys would want some carbs after everything. And some hot stuff. There’s also beer, wine and liquor on that cart right-”

She was interrupted by Loretta, who embraced her.

“Darling, you are an angel. But take a seat and join us,” She said, “I reckon there’s more than enough for everyone..”

“Alright,” Julie said, smoothing out her apron and taking a seat. She looked down it, realizing only belatedly how exposed she was, then apparently decided she didn’t care. “Could you pour some coffee for me? Now that I’m off my feet, I realize how ready I was for that.”

“Ma’am,” Lacy said with a grin, “You get anything you need.”

Lindsey, Emily and Hannah arrived next, all of them soaked through and in torn clothing, barring Emily, who had only her pink and gold hair, plastered to her body, to preserve her modesty. The three of them looked even more weary than the last.

“Are you guys alright?” He asked, greeting them.

Hannah answered with a tired nod.

“Safe. Uninjured. But we’re fucking tired,” She said. “We’ve been running around like crazy plugging any leaks in the windows and roofs. Leah’s barrier kept most of the place safe, but those two two floors…”

“We decided that if the roof was letting a shitload of water in, it was as bad as the basement,” Lindsey explained, “So we worked as hard as we could to plug it.”

She broke off when she saw Lacy, rushing to tackle her in a hug and kiss her with such a fervor that a bare leg lifted from the ground. Jake smiled, and forcibly suppressed a strange jealousy at the sight.

They fell in together, talking, laughing, drinking and eating. Mostly, they celebrated their relief. They were safe. The storm had hit, and together, they’d endured it, and their solace at the end was the community they shared together.

He wished he could share in the excitement.

She approached his side, pulling him close, and he turned to find Emily’s pale blue eyes looking up at him.

“What’s wrong?” She asked, kissing him.

He returned it, pulling her tight, but his expression didn’t change.

“AJ,” he admitted glumly. “She and Leah still aren’t back.”

“They will be,” Emily reassured her, but the uncertainty in her voice was evident.

Why wouldn’t it be? It’d been nearly two hours since the announcement to meet her.

Yet finally, after an interminable stretch, Farrah’s second body entered the back of the room.

“They’re back!” She announced, “Though AJ looks like she’s in rough shape.”

An understatement. She entered leaning on Leah, blood oozing from a gash on her upper right arm, and a cut on her thigh. Her eye on that side was puffy, and partly swollen, destined to ripen into a black and blue shiner by the next morning.

He embraced her as feverishly as he had anyone in his life.

“Jesus, I’m so glad you’re alright,” He said.

Although she relaxed somewhat in his arms, its return was half hearted.

“I’m fine,” She said, before wrenching herself free. “Took a chunk of my own cabin to the side, but I’ll live.”

She walked past him, dropping herself into a chair.

“Puis-je vous apporter?” Amelia asked her.

“Beer. And liquor,” AJ said. “I guess some food or whatever. I don’t care.”

Emily bit her lip, drawing her legs against her chest.

“Is it that bad??”

AJ frowned.

“Neither of you will be staying at your place any time soon,” She said, “Me and Rach’s is trashed, too. Basically all the bungalows are turbo-fucked, but any of rooms in the building should be fine.”

“Ours too,” Megan added, “Anything that deep under the water really ought to have survived the tumult.”

“Where do we stay, then?” Rachel asked. “I was annoyed at first by how few of our things made the transition over here. I guess I should be thankful now.”

Leah stepped up to answer.

“There’s more than sufficient room in the hotel complex. We’ve something like two dozen unoccupied rooms,” She said, “And we’ll have a group out soon to restore everything as best they can.”

“And the roommate situation?” Emily asked.

Leah pulled back her hair, that with the sole exception of the woman she spoke to was the longest of the group, and wrung it out on the carpet with a twist of her wrist.

“Do I look like I give a damn?” She asked, “You all know one another well enough by now. Settle wherever you bloody like.”

Tossing it back, she stood a little straighter.

“I need to get changed into something more presentable. I’ll see you in a moment.”

Lindsey arched an eyebrow at her.

“You’re gonna get all gussied up now?” She asked.

“Showbusiness, love,” She said with a wink.

Jake watched her go. Not for the first time, he was struck by how effortlessly their hostess could toggle her personas.

Still, the comment was disquieting. He turned to AJ, taking a long look at her, and didn’t like what he saw. She was rigid; tense, with a furrowed brow and distant eyes. She’d already emptied a small glass of whiskey, and was as aggressively demolishing the glass bottle of High Life she’d been handed. She was angry.

She caught him looking and, proving that either could read the other after a decade of friendship, nodded.

“The show must go on,” She sneered, “She told them what we were going through. I guess they’re sending a bunch of people to come fix things fast.”

All of them stopped to hear what AJ had to say. Aware she had become the center of attention, she sighed.

“Mostly, they were sending the results.”

“Of the contest?” Lindsey said, giving voice to their collective disbelief. “They’re keeping this all going?”

“Apparently it won’t take long to clean up,” AJ said. “Soon as she gets back, we’re going to get into it.”

A collective fervor broke, several of them shouting at once. They’d all been holding out hope, Jake realized, and she with them, that the storm might end all this; that the magnitude of the destruction would cause their overseers to pull the plug. Looking at the palace around them, not only built for the program, but to function in spite of everything, he saw the folly of that conceit. They weren’t done; they couldn’t be. Even these people, for all their capability, possessed limits to their resources. And enough of them had spent here that they wouldn’t go home; not at halftime, but only when everything was well and truly finished.

Their hostess had returned, resplendent in a stunning red evening gown that exposed her back, wrapped around her waist to lift her breasts, with a skirt window that exposed a long, olive leg.

“I do apologize, everyone,” She said, tossing back her luxurious mane of hair, “But it is time to announce the results of the second round.”