Onto the mall...

Tom could see the strip-mall looming ahead of him, and now the community hub almost seemed ominous. Every time he glanced up he saw them, crowds of exquisite, sensual women wandering about with the searching stares of jungle cats.

Three months ago the major patrons of this mall were families, teenagers and couples, now it looked very different.

Tom had never seen so much bared flesh, tight clothing and skimpy outfits in his life. As he passed through the automated doors two examples of womanly perfection fell into step on either side of him and took him gently by either arm.

Tom's head snapped up in alarm and he stared at them in terrified shock. On his left arm was an amber haired beauty in painted-on denim shorts and a sheer spaghetti-strap top that might charitable be called a singlet. Her sleek and toned body brushed up against him as he walked and she smiled sweetly at him.

"Hi, I'm Stacey." She began only to be interrupted by her companion on his right, a buxom brunette with flawless soft skin and gentle curves dressed in a shamelessly small leather miniskirt and a tight black t-shirt. It looked like she had attacked it with scissors and cut off just under her swollen breasts, baring her a country-mile of firm pale midriff.

"I'm Trixie." she added, pressing herself into Tom and pressing his trapped arm into her bulging cleavage.

"I'm busy!" he cried, desperately shaking them off and dodging into the supermarket before they could grab him again.

Snatching up a shopping cart he shook his head despairingly trying to clear it before beginning the urgent task of filling his cart with foodstuffs and vitals as fast as possible. This was the world he lived in now, he had once worked in this mall himself before it all went to hell.

The news said it all, something was happening and no one had a clear idea of what to do about it. The government was barely operating now with many officials missing or gone into hiding, the police were stretched beyond thin and the vital public utilities were running in a strictly minimalist sense.

Many of the stores in the mall were closed and had been for weeks, it was as if society was surviving on as little as possible as the men began to disappear and more and more of these unbelievable women emerged.

Tom had first heard reports about a virus that was spreading. No one knew how or where it came from but it was doing something to the people it infected and that's all they would say on the television.

Of course the authorities were still denying it and confuscating certain facts but it was readily apparent to everyone that this aptly named 'XXX virus' was very real and spreading fast as a some kind of sexually transmitted disease.

There had been vague reports about the development of new vaccines and experimental preventatives but soon the major cities had been overrun and the mass disappearance of men had become undeniable.

Tom remembered that part well, as his own mother had been visiting his aunt in the big smoke when the outbreak was announced and neither he nor his sisters had heard from her since.

Their father had died years ago and now effectively parentless Tom had little choice but to take it upon himself to look after his younger sisters and keep them safe from infection. The XXX-virus was rumoured to pass from woman to woman quickly, sometimes without the sexual interaction that was required catalyst to spread it into the male population.

It all seemed very complicated to Tom, all he knew that guys whom had sex with these randy seductresses disappeared and he desperately didn't want to become another statistic. No matter how sweetly, cock-hardeningly tempting it was.

Oh sure, there were 'cures' being marketed now but he had no way of proving how effective they were against this new virus without testing them himself and he wasn't about to risk it. Not when he had a family looking to him for support.

Pushing the half-filled shopping cart down a back aisle as circumspectly as possible Tom spotted a lanky young man with messy red hair being herded by a group of tittering girls in the grocery store's uniform.

He was wearing greasy mechanics overalls with the name “Rodney” stitched in a small embroidered box high on his chest and was being ushered towards a door marked 'staff only' by three scantily clad and very excited check-out chicks. Any one of them could have graced the cover of Teen Vogue magazine. Tom felt his heart drop into his stomach.

Not another one... not another loss…