The Wish Shift: Part Four free porn video

Part Four: Her Autumn Tears Like Rain Wish Shift: Chapter Thirty-Five The Stromium Connection Year 1 A.S. Day 191 Danny and Sam took the drugs that Danny had taken from Amy's bathroom with them to the police as soon as they left the advocate's office. After telling Kira and Dianne what they saw, Danny didn't have much argument from her. She had noticed it a couple of times as well and just thought it was odd that they were being so agreeable. She hadn't seen them take the capsules or take the phone call. She was just coming in to the tail end of their trance when she had noticed and hadn't made the connection that Danny had. When they were ushered into the office of the DEA liaison the agent took one look at the capsules that they had brought with them and said she couldn't help them with this, but she would take them to someone who could right now. They followed the short fiftyish woman to the elevator and desended to one the sub-levels. Danny was already more anxious from seeing the response of the authorities than he had been before coming here. This appeared to be much more serious than he thought when he and Sam stumbled onto this. The DEA agent stopped at a door with only a nameplate and no title on it. She knocked and stepped in. "Agent Kellerman?" she asked. "These are the people that came in just now." "Bring them in and get them something to drink, would you Charlie?" they hear a nasal voice say from inside the office. They walked into the brightly lit room to meet with Agent Kellerman. He was a tall rawboned man with close cropped black hair. They could see tattoos of swastika's and other white supremacy designs peeking through the crisp white dress shirt he wore. His ice blue eyes passed over them and Danny felt a momentary tremor pass through him. He had seen eyes like that from Lloyd when he was going after something with everything he had and he was glad that he was not the focus of this man's ire. Agent Kellerman stood up and offered them both a seat after shaking their hands. He introduced himself as Maria Kellerman, but told them to call him Miguel. When he saw them come in he also saw them look over the tattoos adorning his skin. He explained to them that he had been escorting a prisoner when the Shift happened and had switched into his body. Where the prisoner had gone to when it happened they still hadn't found out. He told them that he understood that they were concerned about some kind of drug that a relative had started taking and that they said that they had witnessed unusual behavior as well. He asked them if they had a sample of the drug and Danny took the small plastic bag he had put the black capsules in out of his pocket and handed them over. Agent Kellerman opened a drawer and took out a small sample cup and an evidence bag. He triggered a recording device and started listing the details referencing a long string of numbers and letters that they assumed was the case file. He picked up one of the gelatin capsules with a pair of tweezers and gingerly broke it apart over the sample cup. Once he sealed it, he put the other capsules and the cup into the evidence bag and sealed it four different ways. He reached for a button on his desk and asked someone to come in and then looked at Danny and Sam. "I'll send it to the lab for confirmation, but I already know what this is. We've been seeing a lot of it recently." "So what is it then?" asked Danny. "It's called Stromiumhypnol, or at least that's the lab name for it. Field agents are calling it the Jedi mind fuck. This is a powerful drug and it's fast acting too. Where did you get it?" he asked. Danny looked at the agent over the desk. "My daughter-in-law and her husband are both taking it. They have since they got back a couple of weeks ago." "You say they got back. Where did they go?" he asked. "Jake, well Amy now, was having a hard time dealing with the Shift. She kept getting crazier and more unreasonable. When our son Kim told her to either get help or leave after the last incident she found a place that promised to help her adjust," said Danny. "And how long were they gone?" Agent Kellerman asked. "A little over three months," they said together. "That's bad," Agent Kellerman said quietly. "This drug, have you seen the effects of it?" he asked. "I saw a little of it. I was there when I saw them take it and when I asked Amy what it was, she said vitamins. After they took it they both got a phone call and about twenty minutes later we saw what it did. They talked for a short time and when they hung up we noticed that they did what we told them to do for a little while. Then they cleared up and went back to doing what they were doing before," said Danny. "Stromiumhypnol is a close cousin chemically to rhohypnol," Agent Kellerman said. He was bent over the desk scribbling down the shorthand report of what they were telling him. "Rhohypnol I've heard of," Sam said quietly, her face getting darker with anger. "And I know what it's used for too." "Well unlike rhohypnol, Stromiumhypnol doesn't erase your short term memory. What it does is induce a highly suggestive state into a person's consciousness for a short time. It moves quickly out of the body as well and if you aren't looking for it, you won't see many chemical traces of it after 24 hours," Agent Kellerman said. "So it's some sort of a mind control drug then," Sam said. "It's used for that, but in a way, it's more like having too much strong alcohol. You lose inhibitions and you become highly suggestible. When you're under its effect you are more likely to latch on to and take in what someone tells you without question." "How dangerous is this?" Danny asked. "Well I'll tell you what it's not. Now if someone is under this drug they do accept ideas without questioning the source, but it does have a weakness. It can't make you go against something you strongly believe. The controller can't just tell you to do something and you do it. That's not how this drug works," he said. "What is does do, is latch on to your mind and suspend the mental filter we have to separate true from false. It makes the person accept ideas without questioning the source, but it does have limits like I said. Now I could give you this and I could tell you to rob a bank, but if it's something you are firmly against, then you just won't do it. When a new suggestion bounces off some strong belief, the subject usually questions why they should or exhibits confusion, even in a fugue state. If you push too far it can snap them out of it entirely, then the controller has to up the dosage and change their angle to get the result they want," he said "No matter what they may want to do with a drugged person they have to have something for it to work with. Once they have that, the person handling you can use it to get into your mind and re-wire your brain any way they want to. It works like mental building blocks. The person contacting you gives it to you and then they tell you something that you already know is true. This gets accepted right away and you open more of your mind. Then they tell you something else that you know is true. Each time you're opening your mind a little further and further." "Then they plant a small suggestion. Usually the first one is intended to get you to take these things on a regular basis, again connecting to something that you feel is true. If you have a medical condition they become part of your medicines, if you are a health nut, then vitamins, this drug is a mental chameleon." "Each truth that is known is used to anchor the programming that they want in place. It's like building a wall with bricks, but every once in a while you sandwich a brick of bullshit in between the regular true mental bricks. There's so much truth there the bullshit goes unnoticed. They'll take their time building compulsions until they get you to their final suggestion; the one that they have been building up to." "And that is what?" Danny asked. "To go and put yourself into their hands. Once they trigger that command you go into one of their camps and they go at you full time. We suspect that the ones in those camps are kept on this stuff twenty- four hours a day while they get bombarded with only what they want you to know and believe. Then they turn you loose and they keep in intermittent contact daily, getting you to keep taking your pills, keeping your mental state under their thumb and using you to recruit mostly," Agent Kellerman stopped writing and put the pen down. "What do you mean recruit? How?" asked Sam. "Usually by taking over the whole family first. You have the husband or the wife go and volunteer for treatment at their camp for whatever reason they have. Then they come back and you can see the change, but there's something off about it." Both Danny and Sam nodded in vigorous agreement when he said that. "But you don't have that much time to notice, because once they come back the first thing they do is to drop some of these capsules in everyone's drink a few times and then they are put on the path to go off to the camp themselves." "Once they take over a family , they move on to the in-laws and start on them. Not anything noticeable at first. Just enough suggestion to get them taking the drug without question. Then the controller takes over from there. It's like a disease," he said "This looks like it's personal for you," Sam said. "They got my daughter," he said flatly. "They made an early attempt to get moles into the Bureau, but they were sloppy and thought we wouldn't notice with all of the confusion after the Shift," Agent Kellerman clenched his hands "Believe me when I tell you that these people are going down. Every... last... one... of... them." He emphasized the last sentence with a savage fury that made Danny glad that this man was the one hunting these people. Danny gripped Sam's hand tight and looked at Sam. "Jenny is taking these things too," he said to Agent Kellerman. "I saw a bottle of them with her name on it when I went down to visit a while ago. She told me that they were pre-natal vitamins. That's why I thought it was strange for Kim to be taking them." Agent Kellerman looked a Danny. "Who is Jenny and how long do you think she has been taking them?" he asked. "Jenny is our other daughter, she switched while she was overseas working. She's been taking them for a few weeks, maybe longer," Danny said. "I'm not sure how long really." "That's strange," Agent Kellerman said. "Usually they try to get you into a camp within a couple weeks of contact, but they may be trying something else here. Or they may just be having a hard time getting her to bend the way they want. Does she live alone?" he asked. "No," Danny said. "She lives with her boyfriend Derek Peterson." "And he hasn't said anything to you about her behavior?" he asked. "No, he hasn't said anything," Danny said. "This could be really bad then. She may be living with her handler and that is why they haven't triggered the go to camp command yet," Agent Kellerman said. "Or they could be trying out how to infiltrate a household without someone going to the camp first. That would be a new approach for them. Either way the best advice I can give you is that it's better get her out of there as quickly as possible." "Because if you wait too long and they get her to go, it'll be too late. Once she goes into that camp you won't be able to touch her until she comes out again, and then you'll need a full cult deprogrammer and a chemical purge to even begin to make a dent in what they've done," he scowled darkly. Since he'd mentioned his daughter, Danny and Sam were already sure that when he mentioned that part, he was speaking from painful, personal experience. "Are you sure that we can get her to go?" Danny asked. "The people they are doing this to are all long term projects to these bastards. They don't make the mistake of doing a rush job. That's why deprogramming them is such a bitch after they get out of the camps. If you can get to them, before the go in command is given, then you've got a chance. You separate them from the source and the drug drops out of their system pretty quickly. And without the drug to reinforce them, then the commands mostly start fading over time, because most of them at that point are just exaggerating something they already believe or feel anyway. It may take a little while, but they may come back out of it much easier if you can get them away," he said. "And you're sure she is taking these pills?" he asked. "Jenny is taking these pills," said Danny. "I've seen them." "Then the best thing would be to get her out now," Agent Kellerman said, " If she goes into their camp, you won't even know who it is when you see her next time," he said bitterly. "We've already seen that," Sam said grimly. "You keep saying they. Do you even know who they are?" Danny asked. "The organization behind this, calls themselves the Church of the Blessed," he said. "That's that group that Kim and Amy started going to services with when they came back," Sam said. "The Church of the Blessed wasn't their name originally. They were a local fundamentalist branch that only had about twenty sister churches spread over a two state area. Before the Shift they were pretty orthodox in what they preached in most ways. Bastards, but still some form of fundamentalist orthodox. They are against abortion, birth control, homosexuality, hostile to certain types of education and especially to women working outside of the home. They also had some pretty strict rules for women's behavior and dress as well. They were strict on the men too, but they really policed their female members more ruthlessly," he said. "But the thing that really set them aside from other groups was they openly preached white supremacy as a biblical practice. That drove some people to avoid them and it brought them into contact with a lot of other groups with the same ideals. Their contacts with Aryan Nation and other similar groups are what first put them on our radar. But when the Shift came, that whole idea came back on them hard. A lot of their members left when they found themselves shifted into different races, different sexes, and different sexual orientations. For the people in my department, the Shift has been an enormous bucket of cold water on groups like that. You can't be a white supremacist if you are now a black man, you can't believe women are inferior creations if you are now a woman. You can't believe that homosexuality is a choice if you are homosexual and can't help yourself when you now have those desires. For a while after the Shift, it looked like, even with the resurgence in religious belief, that this group was going to fade away." "Then the current Brother Paul started reversing that. The first thing he did was proclaim that the Shift was actually the Rapture and that they had merely misunderstood it's meaning. He then switched the Church's doctrine from white supremacy to the right of the unshifted to rule over the shifted as the new Levite class. And that was what the unshifted members of all of these groups they were connected with were looking for. He gave them a religious justification for feeling that they were superior to everyone else, which is all they really wanted deep down inside their twisted little hearts," he said. "Now a lot of them still have those beliefs they had before, but instead focusing on that, most of their energy is channeled into this." "You said the current Brother Paul?" Sam asked. "That's right I did," Kellerman said. "Brother Paul is a title, not a name. But you don't know that unless you know how they are set up and to do that you either have to be investigating them or in their ranks. Each of the leaders are named after a different Apostle. We know that Paul is the overall leader right now and is responsible for recruiting from outside the flock as they refer to it. We know that Brother Thomas is in charge of enforcing orthodox beliefs within the group as a whole, but mostly focusing on those that haven't had their minds rewired with this drug. And we know that Brother Judas is head of their assassination department. Basically the executioner arm of the inquisition that Thomas runs. We know the other leader's titles, but not exactly what each one is in charge of yet." "Why would they name anyone after Judas?" Sam asked in disbelief. "Because for starters, even before the Shift they didn't believe in the idea of free will. In their doctrine, either you were given over to control by god or by the devil. And since in their view Judas had to do what he did, they naturally fit him into their story this way, that he should be viewed as the apostle who had been given a dirty job that had to be done for the greater good," Agent Kellerman said with a disgusted look on his face. "They're awful flexible with how they view free will and pretty inconsistent when you pin them down. Fucking scumbags," he cursed. "After the Shift they were in complete disarray. We think that Brother Paul was the only member of their governing body that remained unshifted. He seems to have latched onto this idea that the Shift is the Rapture right away and within a couple of weeks, while everyone else was confused, he started reaching out to those other groups they were in contact with as well. He met with all of the unshifted that he could track down and get to. We suspect that the current Brother Andrew was a mid-level member of the KKK before the Shift, and that another, Brother Judas, was part of Long Knives, an Aryan Nation splinter group that thinks AN are too passive." "He pulled all of these together and rebuilt the governing body in his image. The first thing they did was snap up every unshifted member of their own groups and bring them together for conclave. That's their word for what is just an old fashioned Nazi rally mixed in with a KKK meeting and a tent revival. They hammered out what they were going to be and do and then they went after all of their former members in their new bodies, then the bodies of former members. That's where they got my daughter. When I said there was an attempt to infiltrate the Bureau, that was my own daughter trying to slip me this shit." "Once they locked down those groups they started working on others. They tried traditional ways at first, but even with everyone all messed up from the Shift most people weren't having it. Oh, they got some that way, but not as many as they liked. That's when they turned their Church camps into brainwashing facilities. Somebody over there must have known a good bit about the old methods used in North Korean POW camps, because that was all they were relying on at first for those who didn't swallow their narrative right away. They started this whole gays caused the Shift shtick online and that's when their decline started to reverse and they started to grow even larger than they were before. But brainwashing is slow and even with a large operation it takes time. Somehow, someone in their group got access to Stromiumhypnol." "We don't know if they whipped it up themselves or one of the groups they contacted had it in the works. They started using it in their 'treatment camps' and that is when they started rapidly expanding. Now they have an efficient pipeline for recruitment. People come to them, they get a dose during their intake session, they go under this stuff and don't ever come out of it. They don't leave the camp until they have been completely rewired mentally. And the stronger you are the less is left when they are finished with you. If you are a real strong person inside, they can't build on those mental walls, all they can do is knock them down. Those ones end up like automatons, but these pricks don't care about that. As long as the person is following their directives they are fine with making them into living robots." "That's what Amy is like now," Sam said looking at Danny. "And if that doesn't work," Agent Kellerman drew his finger across his throat. "Personally, I know they are up to a lot more than what we know about them now. This is more than just building a religious movement or carving out a local influence. But we can't get agents into them. They are already locked up tight as an organization and we won't run the risk of sending one of our people into that snake's nest as a 'convert'. The only way to find out for sure is to just go in and seize everything seize everything they have and just shut them down," he said. "If you know all of this already, why aren't you going after them and shutting them down?" Sam asked him. "Mrs. Minton, there is nothing that the agents working this case would like to do more right now. And we could do it in a flash, because even though everything is slowly going back to something close to normal, we're still under martial law," he said. "Once the elections are held in November, that authority is likely to be revoked." "But even with the latitude that gives us right now, there are very few agents who want to use that. Martial law is going to end sooner rather than later and when it does, none of us want any of these scumbags to walk on any sort of technicality. We are going to move on them, and I promise you it will be soon. But we're not going to budge an inch until we have their grave dug and their coffin nailed down. Not one of these creatures is going to be allowed to escape." Danny could see the fury in Agent Kellerman's eyes grow as he talked to them about the cult. "So if you won't move on them yet, what can be done?" Sam asked. "Well, for starters, I'll dispatch a team to your son and daughter-in- law's house. We will keep them under surveillance, monitor their communications and when the time comes they're going to take them into protective custody and they will be listed on our records as hostile witnesses. Once they're safely out of reach of their handler they will be turned over to a cult deprogrammer after they go through a complete chemical purge," he said. "We have to be really careful with this step, because we don't want any defense attorney throwing bullshit around. They do have their own legal department handy, so that they don't have to go looking for representation outside their group. We don't want their lawyers trying to claim that we are the ones guilty of brainwashing their membership. So once they're into the rehab program every moment of their time is taped so there will be nothing that can't be answered." "The other reason is that we can't tip off the cult that we have started making plans to move against them. We have an entire floor of agents ready right now whose only job will be to answer phones and act as though they are still under their control in the first few hours. We have other teams watching their homes to intercept in-person visits and prevent them from escaping. You asked me when we will move and all I can say to you is that it will be soon," he said. The door opened behind them and four agents walked into the room. "I'm sorry Mr. and Mrs. Minton, but we are going to have to detain you as well for the time being. I told you this information so you will hopefully understand our need to do this. You will both be kept in a safe, secure facility until after we move on this cult." "You can't do this," Danny said insistantly. "We can and we are Mr. Minton," Agent Kellerman said in an even tone. "I'm sorry, but you are being detained as material witnesses for the time being. From what you have told me you are also in danger of being compromised by people under the control of this group as well. This is for your protection." Two of the agents were standing behind Danny. One of them started to reach for him. Sam was being helped to her feet. "I mean you can't do it personally," he said to Kellerman. "We just told you that our daughter is taking these things. She's not in one of these camps yet, but from what you said it won't be long before she is." "I'm sorry about that Mr. Minton. But we can't take the chance of alerting them, not at this stage." "What about your daughter? Wouldn't you have done anything to keep her safe if you knew this before it happened?" Agent Kellerman didn't say anything. "That's all I want from you," Danny pleaded. "Send somebody there with me, but help me get her out of there. It's not just her. She's pregnant too." "We will put her under surveillance as well and try to intercept her if they do that," he said. "No you won't," Danny said. "You'll let her walk into that camp if you need to, just to keep these bastards in the dark." "Let me go get her. I can tell her that there is a family problem, I can get her out of there and no one will think it's strange." "We can't take the chance that you haven't already been compromised." "We came to you," Danny pointed out. "All that tells us is that, if your son and daughter-in-law have given this to you, then they haven't gotten very far with it." "They're focused on getting their kids into that camp. It's all they've been talking about since they got back," Said Sam. "Wait a minute?" Agent Kellerman waved the agents back. "Sit back down and tell me about this. Why haven't they been able to get their kids?" "Jake has a restraining order against her because of what happened before they left for the camp. The courts won't allow them to be alone with Mattie or Little Jake. Ever since they've been back they've been working on getting it lifted. All Joshua has been talking about is how certain he is that the program there can help Mattie the way it helped Amy. It's literally all they have done anything with. It's their entire focus." "And where are these children now?" "With their great-grandmother. She's nineteen now, so don't get the idea that she's decrepit or something like that." Sam looked at him. "And if we suddenly disappear don't you think that will tip them off that something is going on? Or are you going to fake our death or something to cover it up?" Agent Kellerman looked uncomfortable. Everything that they had said so far was a concern of his. And he did understand where Danny was coming from when he talked about protecting his daughter. He didn't say anything for a moment while he thought it through. "There might be a way," he said finally, dismissing the agents behind them. "We can place an agent with you. This agent can be with you undercover. They'll be our eyes and ears and if they even suspect that you are under their influence in any way we will scoop up your whole family and put you into protective custody with a cover story to explain it." Danny and Sam started talking with Agent Kellerman about how they could do this. They settled on having an agent pose as a mechanic at Sam's shop and live with them in the meantime. Danny would go and get Jenny and then from there they would decide what the next step should be. Agent Kellerman got onto the phone and directed his subordinates to find a suitable agent to fill this role while they talked further about it. "The best thing for you to do now is go back home, pretend that nothing is happening and if your other daughter is taking these drugs then get her out of there as quickly and quietly as you can. The best time for it is to be there when she takes her dose. While she's still in a suggestive state you can put it to her that she wants to go with you to visit for a while and that would be easiest. But if she resists that idea, then it's likely that they have already primed her with a stay command and are really close to giving her the come to camp command. If you run up against that outcome then it will have to get ugly I'm afraid," Agent Kellerman shook his head sadly. The phone rang at his elbow. He answered it and talked a while and then hung up. "We can't go with a mechanic cover story," he said. "We have someone who would be really suited to doing this, but she can't fake that kind of role." "Can she fake being a physical therapist?" Sam asked. "Why that particularly?" Agent Kellerman asked. "Because my nephew George lives with us and he switched into the body of a double amputee. He's been going to physical therapy ever since," said Sam. The door opened behind them and a black woman in her thirties walked in. Agent Kellerman told her to sit down. "This is Agent Brandon Matthews," he said. "You can call me Brandy," she said leaning over and offering her hand. "Brandy has a sister in this group. She left them long before the Shift and was one of the first to let us know what they were doing when her sister contacted her and tried to slip her one of those pills. Her sister escaped before we could take her into custody and is hiding out in one of those camps." Brandy's face darkened when Kellerman mentioned that. Agent Kellerman filled Agent Matthews in on her assignment, the names that she should be looking at and emphasized the key areas for her to act on if they occurred. Then he turned them over to Matthews and told them were under her authority and they needed to be going now. "I am going to have to tell you that in addition to having Agent Matthews with you, we will also be putting you under surveillance as well. You are a potential link back to our investigation and if they do find a way to get access to you we will not hesitate to take you into custody immediately." "If they ever got their hooks into me like you say they do I'd damned well want you to," spat Sam. "I'm sorry I can't give your folks any better news than this, but I promise you that these people will be going down hard very soon." "For now go get your daughter. And if you find out anything new, Agent Matthews, contact us immediately," Kellerman said. "Yes sir," she said and followed Sam and Danny out of the room. Agent Matthews, Sam and Danny walked out of the building. Sam could feel Danny's hand clenching hers hard. She had to remind Danny to loosen his grip a couple of time to keep from hurting her hand. "I'm going down tonight," Danny said quietly. "Can Amelia watch Mattie and Little Jake tomorrow?" "No, she's on duty again about twelve hours. She's pulling a double shift tomorrow," she said. I'll have to stay here with them. You should get Kira to come with you and Dianne will want to come as well." "I wouldn't advise that," Agent Matthews said. "You should not do anything that even hints that you suspect what they are doing. Getting anyone to drop their routine and come down there like that is unusual and you don't want to do anything unusual." Danny looked at her. "Then what would you suggest?" Agent Matthews thought a moment as they walked to the car. "It should be normal and natural. You said she is having a baby right?" "Yes, she's having twins," Danny said. "Then how about you asking her to come here to pick out some things for the twins? You can word it as an ordinary visit that way and no one will think anything is out of place." She paused for a moment. "Another thing. Make certain that you don't give Joshua or Amy any opportunity to slip this drug into anything you consume. Don't have them near any food or drink even if you make it. If they get the order to, they will start on you as well." "I'll remember that," Danny said taking out his phone and starting to compose the text. After he sent it he looked up at Sam. They were almost to the car. Danny said to her. "If Derek is her handler. If he is doing this to her. I'll kill him if I have to, to get her away." Sam got into the car and closed the door. "The hell you will," she said. "Papa Bear is gonna call dibs on that." Agent Matthews got into the car. "I'm not sure that Derek is her handler," she said as they started to drive away. "I knew him before I left the church. We were all in a small group of kids that didn't care much for the church's bullshit growing up, he was even dating my sister for a while a couple of years before the Shift. He had cut all of his ties with them when I knew him and unless they got to him first, he wouldn't care much for them now and I don't see that as changing without outside influence." Danny listened to her quietly while Sam drove them home. He didn't care who Derek might have been before, if he was responsible for this Danny would still kill him. =================================================== Wish Shift: Chapter Thirty-Six You Can't Outrun A Shadow Year 1 A.S. Day 187 Day 232 of Jenny's Pregnancy Brother Paul disconnected the phone and turned his efforts back towards getting ready to depart. He was greatly satisfied with the work he had done already. The little mud woman had finally reached a stage that he could start encouraging her growing love of the Lord's righteousness and Derek would be coming back to them today, albeit only for services. With her now properly primed he was confident that his personal goal of returning Derek to his proper position in life was nearing completion. As he dressed he whistled to himself in anticipation of looking out into the congregation and seeing Derek with his devout wife Vicki and their children by his side for many years to come. Perhaps if Derek's acceptance into the Lord's truth was truly successful he could also look forward to seeing him play a minor role in advancing the faith as well. He felt blessed that this small effort of his was appearing to finally begin bearing the fruit he wished it to. But there was still the minor matter of taking Derek's mud woman on her final steps of her journey with him. He turned his attention back to the mirror and paid attention to his own preparations. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Year 1 A.S. Day 187 Derek didn't even know why he had come here. He really hated being here when he was a kid. There was something about coming back to a place that you have been forced to go to against your will before that just left you with such a nasty taste in your throat. His parents forcing him to come here when he was a kid definitely fell into that category. When he was small and really didn't know any better it was just a place that they went to. And he hadn't liked it then, because it was nothing but a source of punishment for him. Without fail, every single time that he went here, on display as he had come to think of it, he ended up spread across a chair afterward with his pants around his ankles while his father paid him back for some offense he had committed while they were in public. His father and his mother talked a lot about those 'Christian values' that were supposedly so important to them, but most of what he remembered from them was hearing them curse against anyone they had reason to hate. Oh, they never used obscene language, that would be ungodly, but the way they used language to speak of those they hated made it fouler than if they had. They believed in so many things, but it seemed the thing that they believed in the most was making sure that he learned his lessons with enough pain to make him remember them. He learned those lessons. He learned them very well. But if they knew what lesson that he had really learned from them they would have reached for something much more solid with which to more fully impart the next lesson to him. It was a hard thing for a child to admit that he had come to hate his own parents and everything that they were, but they made it easy for Derek. When he told Jenny that they had been t-boned by a cop, that was true, but he didn't mention that they were coming back from meeting with a more radical splinter group about planning a campaign of bombings against doctors and their clinics. He had heard every word that they spoke when they thought that he was asleep, although he didn't think that it would matter to them anyway. They had no secrets about who it was that they hated. When he got older he figured it was also their own particular method that they thought would initiate him into their poisonous life. A miasma of nastiness that would infect him the longer he was exposed to it. He couldn't force himself to shed tears for them and had stood at their graveside with completely dry eyes. He had heard murmurs behind him and the whispers later that the poor boy was so shocked by losing his parents that he couldn't even cry yet. But that wasn't true. He later admitted to Aunt Dina, a very long time later, that as far as he was concerned, he had used up his supply of tears for them when they both were beating them out of him. It had taken Aunt Dina some time to get there. She wasn't even at their funeral. The only reason that she was found out that they were dead was when someone who had known them both called her shortly after the funeral to ask if she was going to be okay. From what Derek could tell, the church had planned to conceal their death from her and take custody of him for as long as they could and trust that by doing that, they could convince the court that it was better that he stay there now, rather than go to his 'lewd and immoral' aunt as they called her when they were feeling generous. Brother Paul, Madeline and all of those others that populated this part of his life really knew him about as well as they knew that Jesus they went on about. That being, that they didn't know either of them at all. They mistook his interest in seeing the very few friends that he had here for interest in the poison that they were trying to shovel down his throat. Aunt Dina knew that. That was why she let him keep coming back here when he could muster up enough resolve to overcome his revulsion about being here. But that interest had steadily waned. It couldn't help but do so. Some of his friends left; they moved away and he didn't hear from them again. Others put up with this garbage until they didn't have to and then walked away without looking back. But the worst friends to lose were the ones that just gave in and willingly swallowed the river of crap the church produced in a seemingly endless supply. They swallowed it to keep in good with parents, with family, with whatever it was that bound them to this cesspool of 'righteousness' like a tar pit. And it swallowed them whole, just like a tar pit would have. And then they stopped being anyone that he wanted to be around anymore. Vicki had been like him and the others when she had been little, but she had also been one of the first ones to start swallowing and he had not given her any further thought, until she came up to him at Aunt Dina's funeral. And if he hadn't been so broken up over losing Aunt Dina he wouldn't have given her that opening. Unlike his parent's funeral, he had no problem producing a river of tears for Aunt Dina. He was the last one to leave her grave. The last one, except for Vicki. He should have been polite to her and just walked away. He should have just refused her offer to stay with him and thanked her for coming instead. But he didn't, and she took that crack in his armor and widened it until she was lodged into his life before he really understood the implications of having her there. Later, when she was firmly ensconced in his life, he had the thought that no matter how far he ran from them the church and the people in it were the shadow that he just couldn't shake from his life. He had stopped coming here long before getting involved with and then breaking up with Vicki. She didn't have anything to do with that. One day he had just gotten here and looked around and he didn't see anyone that was enough of a friend that he would need to subject himself to this by coming here anymore to see them. So he didn't, he turned around, got into his car and drove away. But Vicki had come back into his life and if she hadn't been able to keep her vicious opinions about gays under wraps then, she might have been able to keep him fooled about how much they had warped her for even longer than she did. She had been the last one though. The last one that he knew from here that he had seen regularly before walking away for good. And for a time he thought that he had finally outrun that shadow. And now he was back. Derek looked around the place now. It hadn't gotten any better as he had gotten older. It was familiar in that same creepy way to him. He stayed off to the side with Jenny and wondered what it was that had possessed him to make her come with him here. He just couldn't figure that one out. That could be easily corrected though. All they had to do was walk out, but somehow he just couldn't make himself move and get her away from here so he could spare her the racist bullshit he know would be coming like ants to a picnic. It would be sly and subtle at first and then fall like a trip hammer all at once. They just wouldn't be able to help themselves about that. The smiles that they used to hide the verbal daggers they couldn't help using wouldn't keep them hidden for long. Not when they were in large numbers like this. She didn't deserve that from people that Derek thought were beneath her and when they tried to start in on her, he wasn't going to stand for it from them. He looked around. He didn't see Vicki and that was good. That was the last thing he needed was for his ex to come over and start trying to dump all over Jenny. He didn't even have to wait for it to see just what was going to happen in that event, but so far there was no sign of her. There were more people here as well. That puzzled him. Even when he had been willing to set foot inside these walls, he didn't recall this many people coming here. He looked over at Jenny, she seemed a little out of it as well. She kept looking around, but not saying anything. When they arrived there were lots of people that he saw milling around that he recognized. And quite a few of them had come up to him and made noise about how good it was to see him back today. They were making as much of a fuss over Jenny as well. Acting like they were glad to see her and making positive comments about her condition as well. That wouldn't last long, he knew that without having to see anything more than the opening act. Jenny needed to sit down though. Even with how good she looked in what she had chosen to come here in, he could tell that she was needing to get off of her feet. He slipped her into an end seat on the last row and then sat down beside her. While they were waiting for the bullshitapalooza to start he looked around. There was something very off about being here and it wasn't just the creepy feeling he had from being back in this place. But he couldn't tell what it was. Everything looked like it should. No one seemed to be out of place. There were new faces of course, and many more people who were not white, but that was to be expected. Halfway through the service he realized that was the problem. He recognized them and they weren't where they should have been. Even if the same people were coming here, they shouldn't have had the same faces. There should have been changes that the Shift had caused, but looking around this room it seemed that all of them had been untouched by the Shift. And he knew that wasn't possible. The same people that were married before were acting like they were married now. There were no mismatched couples. No one who was like Kira and Dianne, no one who was like George, no one who was like Danny and Sam or even little Mattie. When they had slipped into the back row he did it for more than just Jenny. He may have been compelled to come here for some reason, but that didn't mean he had to sit up front. And being back here had given them both a wide angle view of everyone there. And that view was making him more anxious with every passing minute. He listened to the familiarity of their service, there was very little about white supremacy today and there were mentions of the Rapture when they referenced the Shift and talk of Levites and their special place in the Lord's plans for them and even as background noise it still made him want to vomit. He had heard the same thing before and he knew the minute they were out the doors they would go right back to what they did before. But that wasn't what concerned him. It was looking over the room and matching the people that he knew and seeing them where they used to be rather than where they should be. It made a cold chill crawl down his spine and even though he wanted to leave he couldn't make his legs rise or his feet carry him away. It seemed like it was forever, but the service eventually ended and he leaned over and whispered to her that they should probably be going now. He couldn't wait to get out of this place. No matter how much it had creeped him out when he was a kid, it was nothing like the feeling that it was giving to him now. He looked over at Jenny. She didn't say anything. She was awfully quiet. She had been quiet since before they had come here. That was something else that he was finding that bothered him more. The way she was acting. Mindy told him it was the pregnancy and it was making her do some nesting thing. He'd looked it up on the net and even with what it said there, it still didn't really explain what it was that he felt was so wrong about what she had been doing. The people were starting to mill around again, he nudged her once more and she looked over to him finally and started to get to her feet. They were making their way through the crowded vestibule when Madeline was suddenly in front of them and asking Derek if he would let her take Jenny away for a couple of minutes. He knew what he wanted to say and there was nothing civil about what he thought about her using the words take away and Jenny in the same sentence, but he didn't want to make a scene. He just wanted them out of here. While they were gone Brother Paul sidled up to him making meaningless noise about his pleasure at seeing the two of them here and how he hoped that it would be the first of many more visits the two of them would be making together. Derek bit back an acerbic response and didn't say anything. He decided that it was time to shut the door on these two. He didn't want to do it here, but it was going to happen very soon. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Madeline took Jenny back to one of the small rooms that had been used for Sunday school before the Rapture. Now though they were more useful for ensuring that there was privacy when there was an opportunity like this. Jenny was not talking very much. Madeline noticed that she had been far more quiet than normal and she knew what was causing it. She was surprised to see it manifesting like this though. But then, mostly when they used the Water of Truth, the ones taking it did this much sooner since they were literally swimming in it. She was close to rejecting a lot of what they had been feeding her mentally. That was one of the things they had found out when they started using this drug. A person could only be pushed so far away from what they were. It was a wonderful tool for priming the pump, but always at some point what they were pouring in would start to back up. Too much of who the person really was inside could only take being bent just so far before their mind started to reject it like a mismatched transplant. She watched Jenny take her pill after she reminded her about taking her vitamins. That was already twice today she had gone under and from the confusion she was displaying there wouldn't be that many more opportunities before the structure that they were building came crashing down. Madeline was going to impress on her today the need for her to wait in silence while men were speaking. She was going to get started on reinforcing the belief in male superiority in her, but one look at her today and she knew that would have to wait until she could get the full treatment in the salvation camp. Instead of that, she spent this time trying to reinforce Jenny's feeling of trust for them and when she was in the deepest part of the trance she told her how much it would mean for both of them to be councilors at the upcoming church camp. How they both were needed to be there and how good it would be for both her and her husband to do this together. Madeline didn't know how long this suggestion would hold, but she thought it would be enough. As soon as she could she was going to tell Brother Paul about the need to get them both to come now. She finished with telling her that Derek needed her help in seeing the value of being councilors and to do as she had done this morning when the time came. Jenny gave the right answers, but Madeline could tell that they may have waited too long already. ------------------------------------------------------------------ Year 1 A.S. Day 189 Day 234 of Jenny's Pregnancy After Derek and Jenny left and Brother Paul was finished with his public requirements he took Madeline back into his office and asked her about what had happened. When they had come back Jenny had been silent just like Brother Paul was expecting her to be, until she was not. She had reached over and touched Derek's arm and told him that she was not feeling so well and that she needed to go home. Derek had made their excuses and quickly left. "What happened?" he demanded. "She should have been unable to even think about speaking while men were talking." "She's on the edge of her verge," Madeline said quietly, with her head bowed. "I planted the idea of coming to the camp with Derek though. I'll have to do it again, but it needs to happen as soon as it can be done," That was the only real trace of Brother James that was left inside of her, Brother Paul thought. When she was doing something that advanced the interests of the church she still had his single- mindedness in that regard. Even with all of the other conditioning that kept her in her place, that still came through. Brother Paul listened carefully. In matters like this, it was one of the few times that he would pay heed to anything any woman had to say. He told her that he would make the arrangements and then told her that she needed to make sure that she was with Jenny in every spare moment that she could find until they were safely behind the gates. Madeline nodded and said that she would do so. She was there the next morning just after Derek left to open Java Jolts. Jenny opened the door and Madeline made an extra fuss over how she looked. She insisted that Jenny should immediately lie down and not concern herself with anything to do with the house today. Madeline reminded her that women in the church needed to look out for each other and she was here for her now. While Madeline busied herself with whatever she saw to do around the house she also made sure that she constantly was checking on Jenny as she lay on the bed in her and Derek's bedroom. ------------------------------------------------------------------- Jenny heard the sound of Madeline in the next room as she busied herself doing what little needed to be done. For some reason Madeline being here today was causing her nothing but irritation. Irritation that was amplified by the fuss both of the twins were causing with their constant kicking inside of her. But as painful as that was, how she felt inside was what was really drawing her full attention inward. She knew what she wanted to do. She wanted to lift the phone and call Dr. Warren. She wanted to call Derek and have him come home and take her to Dr. Warren and at the same time she had something inside of her telling her to stay away from him and that made absolutely no sense to her. Then there was what had happened yesterday morning. When Derek told her that they would be going to church and for her to get ready she had automatically had the thought 'praise the Lord' come to her. It bubbled up in all its alien splendor and hung in her mind and all she could do on the drive there and during the service was wonder what had made her mentally regurgitate that particular thought in the first place. Her need to voice religious expressions in any situation was about an inch deep and mostly centered around saying 'God damn it' or 'Jesus Christ' in an annoyed fashion. Having that thought in that way come from her was like looking on the sole of your shoe after stepping in a dog mine left by a Great Dane. And when had these other things that she had found herself doing start and where did they come from? These compulsions that she had been following in what she did recently just made no sense. This wasn't what she wanted to be like, but she found herself doing it nevertheless. Keeping house, that she could understand. But not the way she had been doing it. And even though she had been insisting that Derek not do anything in that regard, she had been feeling a growing sense of wrongness about it. So much of what she had fallen into doing was suddenly feeling wrong and each time it felt wrong the thoughts kept coming to her again unbidden and she felt compelled to obey. She needed to see Dr. Warren. She had felt a little more settled yesterday though, just after the service. She remembered Madeline talking to her about a pair of openings for councilors at some church camp they were having and it seemed a good idea while they were talking about it, but today it just seemed silly. Derek couldn't be away from his business that long on such short notice and she was in no condition at all for something like that. And since when would they think that an unmarried heavily pregnant woman who was living with a man would be an example at all? She just couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong now though. Madeline brought her pre-natal vitamins to her and she felt better and had less doubt for a little while, but after she left just before Derek came home the doubt and feeling that something was wrong was back. She asked him to take care of dinner for them and saw from the look on his face that her asking him to do that really made him feel much better than if she had met him with it already done. She was glad that it did that for him but she didn't know why that was. ------------------------------------------------------------------- Derek could smell that Madeline had been there again. Her perfume hung in the house like an noxious fart. She came after he left and was gone by the time he got back each day. The only good that came of it in his opinion was that while she was here Jenny was getting the rest that she so clearly needed. He had no idea that having twins would distort her body as much as it had. And with as tiny as she was, the size of her just seemed so much more exaggerated. When he had been talking about getting a part-time employee to take up the slack with her before, he had been thinking that he should do that after she had the twins, but looking at her now and seeing how she had been all week, he knew that he shouldn't wait that long. After having Madeline here all week taking care of things while Jenny rested he quietly made the decision that, as soon as he could, he was going to get someone in the shop and cut his own hours as much as he could so he could spend as much time with Jenny as he could now. And keep Madeline away as well while he was doing that. He had already talked it over with Mindy and he insisted that he could handle things while Derek took care of what he needed to do right now. Usually Mindy would have made some crack at him or done something silly just for the hell of it, but when they had that talk there was none of that. That was how Derek knew that he was really taking this seriously. It would be a bite on him financially, but that was a big nothing to him when he stacked it up against being there for Jenny right now. ------------------------------------------------------------------ Year 1 A.S. Day 190 Day 235 of Jenny's Pregnancy Brother Paul looked over some of the notes that he was trying to make into some sort of coherent plan. Madeline had been with Derek's little mud woman every day this week. Having to advance what he had been planning for her and Derek as much as they were going to have to was a major inconvenience for him. He had been hoping to delay doing that until after she had littered, but now he was going to have to arrange for her to whelp while she was actually in the camp. He supposed that it was good in a way. Seeing just how far they could push this method was part of the purpose of his little side project anyway, but it was still inconvenient. Since the whole timetable regarding her was going to have to be advanced he needed to make some final decisions regarding the two of them. As much as it grated against what he was inclined to prefer, he had decided not to have her spayed after she had whelped. Instead they would use one of the devil's tricks to keep her from dropping any more litters until after she had served out her penance. He had decided that she would go first to Cody since she had injured him more and then later to Stephan. But before that, she would begin her penance with him. She had caused him a lot of irritation during this experiment and it was only fitting that she make it up to him before he turned her over to them. He was looking forward to schooling her in how she would fulfill her role for the next few years and once she had learned her place, then he would see that she took her place in the breeding program with her yet to be selected cursed husband, after she had repaid her debt to Cody and Stephan of course. Having the extra time to work her over mentally would also give her body time to heal after she whelped as well. He wanted her ready to step into her new role as soon as she was able to do so. He had already selected both sets of parents that would take over the responsibility for raising her bastards. Brother Judas had firmly advocated spaying all of the mud people, but while Brother Paul sympathized with his views, the others on the council had committed to other methods. They were already starting to put together the breeding schedule for the next few generations of cursed and Blessed. It would take time, but with the Lord's guidance, within a few generations both of those classes would be instantly identifiable on sight, making it easier to keep the new order intact from then on. Vicki Matthews had been told that she and Derek would be married soon after he entered the camp. Sister Mary had assured Brother Paul that they would schedule their nuptials so that she would immediately conceive. That would be important to reinforce Derek's acceptance of things he thought. But Vicki may have to change her name to Jenny as well as Peterson to help his conditioning hold fast. Brother Paul looked down at the chart that Sister Mary had given him and circled the date that Derek had to be ready by to fulfill his most important role as a Levite and then he checked the calendar again. Two days, he thought. Two days until they entered the camp and he could mark this little goal accomplished and turn his full attention to the larger picture. The Lord was truly kind to him. ------------------------------------------------------------------ Year 1 A.S. Day 192 Day 237 of Jenny's Pregnancy Jenny heard her phone ringing and tried to ignore it. She was spending so much of her time laying down now that needing to get up and go to get it was something that she absolutely did not want to bother with. She had already ignored it twice already, but it had started ringing again in that annoying insistent way and she was tired of hearing it. It took some effort for her to get up and on her feet. She felt all of her aches and soreness move into new and exciting areas of discomfort when she was up on her feet and moving. She needed to answer the phone though, it could be Derek or it could be mom with something that she needed to know about. Mom had been burning up the wires the last few days with how upsetting both Amy and Joshua, the new names that Kim and Jake had taken, were behaving since they had returned. When he told her about the complete radical change in behavior that Amy was displaying she had, oddly enough, felt echoes within herself as well telling her that what Amy was doing was right and proper and shouldn't be questioned at all. Another thing that made no sense to her even as she found herself doing a less intense version of those same actions. It was Brother Paul who was calling her though. He asked her if Derek was there and she told him that he had gone out to buy some fruit and a few other things from the supermarket. Him calling her the way he had made a wave of irritation well up from deep inside, but again those feelings inside her insisted that she should not even have the right to feel that way about any man, let alone a person like Brother Paul and they sealed her mouth in deference to him, even over the phone. He spoke to her and told her that if she had not taken her vitamins already, that she should do so now. She said she would and started going to the bathroom to get them. Even if he was being irritating it was at least for a good reason. She reached into the bottle and took two of them and ran some water out of the tap to take them with. She went back to the living room where she had left her phone and picked it up again and told him that she had done it. ------------------------------------------------------------------ Brother Paul waited while Jenny went to take her dose. He looked over at the clock on his office wall. Depending on how long Derek was still going to be away and how long it would take for it to take effect on him after she passed it to him. He still should have more than enough time to get over there. But just to be sure he intended to tell her that once she had given Derek a double dose like she was taking now that she kept both of them taking another pill and sitting quietly until he arrived. He also was going to direct her to call him as soon as she had given it to Derek. That way he could give them both a stay command. That should keep them in place long enough as well. He put some of the things on his desk away and reached for his coat. ------------------------------------------------------------------- Jenny felt the warm haze fall over her awareness. It felt good this haze. Nothing mattered while she felt it wrapping softly around her. There was no anxiety, there was no doubt, there was only the certainty of what the voice that was speaking with her gave her. It was time to go to that camp that Madeline had told her about. She knew that she had been feeling that it was a silly idea before, but now thinking like that was what the silly idea was. It made perfect sense that she and Derek would both do this. And it made perfect sense that she should give him a couple of her vitamins as well. Yes, they were pre-natal vitamins, but they would still be good for him. She wanted to take care of him and a little thing like that would be easy enough to do. She had already gotten a drink for him ready on the counter. She just needed to go and get them to put them in it for him. She listened to the voice on her phone as she walked into the bathroom. She told him that she was getting them now and put the phone down on the counter. As she opened the bottle and shook a few of them out into her palm she held them there as she put the cap back on the bottle. She was starting to put them in the pocket of her blouse when one of the babies kicked her hard. She felt herself let out a sharp breath and her hand jerked, spilling the capsules on the bathroom floor. She told the voice on the phone that she needed to pick them up and put the phone back down on the counter. As she slowly knelt and started reaching for the capsules the babies started kicking her again. She dropped to the cool linoleum and lay there until they stopped. Even in the warm haze she could feel that pain and she shuddered and gasped at the sudden real sensation of it. She heard the tinny voice on the phone above her and she couldn't reach it. She couldn'