Yes

As always, the streets were less than brimming with life. People rarely ventured outside unless they were going down to the centres to pick up their rations of the serum and the food which the government provided them with. Other than that, they preferred to stay indoors in the hope that this would keep them from catching the sickness, unless they were **** out by the sector guards to listen to the priests’ paranoid and vitriolic sermons. Druuna had once stumbled upon a short description of old religions in one of her books, and it had left her confused with its description of ideas like love, eternal life and benevolent creator. The priests never mentioned any of this, only one’s duty to remain pure and resist sin.

Shastar and Caliban were no longer in conversation with one another, the trio all walking in silence so that they could direct their full attention to their surroundings in the hope of spotting any patrols before being spotted by them.

Luckily, they succeeded in this twice, having time to slip into cover as the patrols walked past them. For Druuna, the latter of those two occasions became a tad bizarre as she lay in cover with Caliban and Shastar behind an old dumpster, where she had to stifle a horny moan as she felt Shastar’s hard cock press against her ass.

As for the journey itself, it soon took Druuna into parts of the city which were unknown to her as they had long since been abandoned as the population waned and the sickness spread, including industrial which must have closed down decades ago as unemployment rose to become nigh on universal.

Here, there were even more patrols, but again they managed to avoid them, with Caliban proving his worth by walking ten paces ahead of Druuna and Shastar and signalling to them whenever he spotted a patrol. Not only were the patrols more common in this area, but they were bigger and better armed as well, spanning between six and ten men all armed with rifles rather than the three or four who shared one rifle.

Eventually, the three of them reached a small shed at the back of a dead-end street with abandoned factories towering over it. Here, the three of them got into cover behind a huge pile of rubble and lay in wait there as Caliban and Shastar surveyed the alley’s mouth.

“What’s going on?” Druuna asked Shastar.

“We’re waiting to see if we’ve been followed,” Shastar whispered to her as he drew his revolver.

After several minutes of tense waiting for somewhere to appear at the other end of the dead-end street, the three of them finally agreed that they hadn’t been followed, and Druuna got to follow the two men into the shed, which turned out to be filled with various pieces of junk.

In the back of the shed, however, there was an uncovered manhole which they quickly climbed down, and Druuna found upon reaching the lower end of the ladder that it had led them down into a dank and dark room.

At this point, Caliban produced a flashlight and turned it on, scanning one of the panelled walls until he spotted a purple stain. Putting his hand on the edge of a panel about two feet away from the stain, Caliban pushed against it until it began to slide backwards like a door, startling Druuna and revealing a corridor behind it.

“Don’t worry,” Shastar had noticed the expression on Druuna’s face, and saw fit to calm her down a little.

Despite Shastar’s words, Druuna still felt a little nervous as she walked into the corridor, with Caliban leading the way while Shastar pulled the hidden door closed behind them.

Druuna found as they reached the end of the corridor that it led into a long series of stairs which took them further into the underworld, each crisscrossing flight of metal stairs being about fifteen long and looking a little too rusty to give her some proper peace of mind.

Still, the trio safely reached the bottom of stairs, and by now Druuna guessed that must be a least a hundred yards below the surface, only to find themselves at the start of a new corridor, this one being better lit up than the one just below the shed.

Doing her best to avoid the puddles in the corridor which had been formed by water that had escaped from the piping that ran along the ceiling, Druuna felt quite relieved when it turned out that this corridor didn’t lead into a new one, but instead to a large and completely undecorated room with heavy metal door at the far end of it.

Stepping up to the door, Shastar banged on it twice and then waited for five seconds before banging his hand against it once more.

Five seconds later, a ringing noise could be heard before the door’s lock was inactivated and Shastar was free to open it.

Once inside, Druuna found herself standing in a truly enormous room, quite possibly the largest one she’d ever seen, and guessed that ten apartments like hers could easily be fitted inside.

Spartanly decorated and with several doors leading into it beyond the one through which Druuna and the two men had entered, the room was bathed in an orange light originating from the ceiling high up above, with a rectangular pool of water which looked perfectly clear, Druuna had never seen such a large body of uncontaminated water before, and a large stone throne at the far end of it.

Sitting on the throne was a man who watched in silence as the three visitors walked up to it. Druuna found the man to be of an indeterminable age, his face was wrinkled and his hair and large beard were gray, but he still looked very fit under his cargo pants and thin sweater, and when he suddenly rose up to greet Shastar, he did so with surprising speed.

“Shastar!” the man exclaimed with a smile as he reached Druuna’s lover, offering his hand to him and looking genuinely pleased to see him.
Shastar took the man’s hand and shook it, smiling as he greeted the man with a happy “Hello Lewis”.

“We were afraid we’d lost you,” Lewis declared to Shastar, giving Caliban a quick greeting before greeting Druuna with a “And who is this?”

Druuna was still wearing the cloak, but she’d tossed the hood back to reveal her head, and she now found that Lewis seemed to appreciate her beauty in an almost asexual way, with none the usual ogling that men would carry out at first sight of her lush lips, but rather seeming to enjoy her like a connoisseur would enjoy a great piece of art.

“And who’s this?” Lewis asked, a thin smile forming on his lips.

“Druuna,” Druuna introduced herself, and then for the first time got to experience having her hand kissed as a form of greeting. She didn’t know that people could do that.

“How much have you told her?” Lewis asked Shastar, who replied with a “Not very much, there hasn’t been time for it.”

“Tell me Druuna, how much do you know about the sickness?” Lewis asked her as the whole group moved towards the throne, “Do you know what causes it?”

“The priests claim that the sickness is here because of our sins.” Druuna replied.

“And do you believe them?”

“No,” Druuna admitted, after only a brief moment’s hesitation.

“Good girl,” Lewis chuckled and then turned his attention to Shastar, “You certainly showed up at the right time.”

“Yes, I heard that you’re under some pressure.” Shastar told him.

“You got that right, those bastards know what I look like… they’ve captured some of my people and have made them talk.”

“Poor bastards…” Shastar said, and Druuna shuddered. The thought of what the priests might to do you to make you talk was pretty gruesome, and she’d heard the usual horror stories about their methods.

“Yes, though now I’ve got a new medicine to combat the sickness, I might manage to convince people to switch sides.”

“You’re going to need help with distributing it,” Caliban cut in.

“Yeah, and there is one major side effect.” Shastar added.

“Yes, I know…” Lewis admitted, holding his hands up and shaking his head, “but this might be the cure!”

Upon hearing this, Druuna instantly found herself wishing that Lewis was correct. She doubted that she could have the strength to deal with Shastar being turned into a monstrosity once more.

“Of course, I’ll have to monitor the test subjects for a while before I’m certain of it.” Lewis went on, and Druuna wondered if Shastar was one of these “test subjects” or if there were others.