Welcome to Chapter 7.

A quick thanks to my amazing editing team. Your grasp of the English language allows these stories to be what they are. Thank you to the rest of you for your comments, feedback, and high ratings for each chapter as well, not to mention a huge thank you for your participation on the Discord server.

Now, on with the story.

********

I groaned as I looked up at the ceiling from the flat of my back. The cool marble floor was hard against my skin as my eyes creaked open, and I took in the dull light around me. My head hurt, not in the same way as passing out had done the day before, but from where it had hit the ground when I had ceased to be upright. I frowned; something wasn't right. I mean, aside from having passed out for an unknown amount of time again and....

Wait... Marble?

I squinted, turning my head and trying to open my eyes to see what I was lying on, but my vision was still too blurry. I felt my fingertips scratching inquiringly against the hard surface beneath me. It was cold, smooth, very hard, and absolutely not the grey dust that had been inside the pillbox. I groaned and turned my head back to the ceiling, but instead of being a stark gray concrete slab eight feet above me, I found myself blinking up at hundreds of huge, interlocked, carved blocks forming a ceiling dozens of feet higher than it should have been.

Flickering lights cast dancing shadows across it, only adding to the confusion in my slowly clearing mind.

I groaned and sat myself up. Hoisting my body into a more upright position and angling my hands behind me to support my weight.

Well, this is new....

The room I found myself in was huge and wouldn't have looked out of place in one of those films about some ancient culture and some mythical king. It was a throne room or perhaps a temple of some kind, and it was truly astonishing in scale. Large marble blocks covered the floors, and the walls were angled inwards, forming a trapezoid shape, with the ceiling only about two-thirds of the size of the floor. Large colorful frescoes depicting scenes I didn't recognize covered vast sections of the walls as they hung from the ceiling. Despite each one being comparable in square footage to the entire ground floor of my old house, they didn't even cover half of the area of the enormous walls. Large, ornately carved pillars flanked the sides of the room, and glowing, flickering fire torches hung in sconces from each of them while more torches, on five-foot poles, lined each side of the walkway toward the central dais. There were no windows and, oddly, no door. Just the long, crimson-carpeted central walkway toward the angled, raised platform at the far end of the cavernous room.

Standing on the platform, a wide, beautiful smile on her angelic-looking face... was her.

Beauty is an odd concept, and the old cliche that it is in the eye of the beholder is certainly one that I agree with. Yet there are some women who are just objectively beautiful. Hannah was sexy, Robyn had that cute cheerleader look, and Liz just carried herself in a way that perfectly drew the eyes, but of all the girls on the island, Hayley just seemed to take my breath away each time I looked at her. Yet the woman standing on the other side of the room was like something out of a dream. It was a kind of beauty that fairy tales were made of, the type that Hollywood starlets pay fortunes in surgery and makeup to imitate yet still tragically fall far short of achieving.

Her luscious, braided, golden blonde hair, the color of sunshine over midwestern cornfields, hung in an elaborate weave over her shoulder, the ends brushing over the tops of her perfectly sculpted breasts. Her face was a soft oval, and her pert button nose sat astride her thick, plump, moist lips, which seemed to be curled into a perpetual, affectionate smile. Her eyes were an impossible shade of blue. Bottomless pools of color which seemed deeper than the ocean that surrounded the island. Those breasts, proud and pert, were enclosed in a flowing white dress along with the rest of her curvaceous, womanly body. It clung to each flowing line of her in a way that personified feminine sexual beauty. She was everything that could be desirable in a woman in every possible way. She was raw sexuality, she was poise, she was grace, she was beauty on a level beyond divinity.

She was Aphrodite, she was Helen of Troy, she was my lady of the lake. She was more beautiful than Sophia Loren, more elegant than Audry Hepburn, and sexier than Marilyn Monroe. She was water to a dying man, she was the sunlight against the dark, and she was smiling at me.

Suddenly, I became very aware that I hadn't put deodorant on before coming here.

"Welcome, Daniel. You are home." She smiled wonderfully from the other side of the room. I hated being called Daniel. The only person on earth who I tolerated calling me that was my mother, and that was only because I didn't have a choice in the matter. But from her lips, it was different. It was endearing and affectionate, full of warmth, love, and promise. "Please, come sit with me."

I hadn't even noticed the two throne-like chairs on the platform with her, her overwhelmingly beautiful body placed between them. Her eyes sparkled with the smile on her face as my feet started moving toward her. In a massive break with recent tradition, this was not something that they chose to do on their own accord, but a conscious choice by me. She had given me the invitation to be closer to her, an opportunity I would sell major body parts to accept. My footsteps echoed around the vaulted hall, but I barely registered the ominous echoes; every shred of my attention was on her.

"I know you have questions," she kept smiling. I could only nod mutely. "I will try to answer them as best I can. But you should know that some things will just be beyond your understanding. All I ask is that you trust me, and in return, I promise that no harm will come to you or any that you care for."

I swallowed hard, the inside of my mouth suddenly feeling as parched as the driest desert. As dry as Gandhi's flip-flop, a certain former friend would have said. "I... Who are you?"

Her smile grew wider, and the sound of the most beautiful, musical laughter echoed around my ears. "That may be one of those things beyond your understanding, my love," She gestured to the chair to her right as she moved to sit in the other. She waited until I had settled onto it before she continued. "I have been known by many names over many, many thousands of years. The Egyptians called me Min, the Canaanites called me Astarte. The Greeks had two names for me, Pathos and Priapus, and the Romans, Voluptas. The Aztecs, the Mayans, the Chinese, the Filipinos, the Buddhists, the Celts, I have been known to them all. But my favorite name, the one given to me by the Norsemen of Scandinavia, was Freja. I am the Goddess of Sex, lustful desires, and of procreation."

I blinked at her.

Umm... Okay? What exactly does one say to that? "S'up Freja, nice to meet you"?... "What sort of meds are you on?"... "What sort of meds am I on?"

The questions came thick and fast into my mind, each of them more incredulous and disbelieving than the last. Yet, looking around, there were a few clues that hinted toward her telling the truth. The voice in my head, the vaulted hall with no entrance, the control over me and the others, not to mention the fact that I wasn't freaking the fuck out at the whole absurdity of all of it. It had to be another form of influence over me, there is no way in hell I would have reacted with anything less than laughter and the offer of psychiatric help in any other circumstances, yet I found myself feeling calm, collected, and - more importantly - accepting.

To be fair, the only real possibilities that could explain looks as astonishingly beautiful as hers were that she was either an Angel or a Goddess. There was no question of Divine involvement. Either that or the whole thing was a figment of my imagination, in which case, I owed myself a massive high 5 for coming up with something as incredible as the sight before me because I wasn't aware my imagination was that good.

"No, you are not crazy, my love," the amused giggle came from beside me. "And assuredly, neither am I."

"So, why the different names?" I said eventually. It was the first question that came to my mind that didn't involve turning into a fawning sycophant.

Her smile widened a little. "I knew I had chosen well. To answer your question, I am a concept, a part of the human condition, and like most other concepts, my... purview... overlaps with others. My sister, for example, is the Goddess of Love and Beauty. A face can be beautiful, but so can a sunset or a painting; beauty means different things to different people. The same for Love; the love between two people is different depending on who they are. The love between a husband and wife, between a mother and her child, between friends, between brothers, the love a ruler has for his people. Unrequited love. She rules over them all. But people feel the need to give different names to different aspects of our personalities. For me, sex and lust are different. Sex is for procreation. Lust is frowned upon. Procreation changed; I became the Goddess of childbirth, of motherhood, of children in general. They took one part of my personality, mixed it with those of another Goddess, and gave it a name. And so, I - or parts of me - are known by lots of different names to the same people, and because I am a concept, not a person, my presence is universal, as are all gods. We influenced the development of ancient society to allow humanity to thrive."

"Modern society, however," She went on. "Seems to have gone in the other direction. All facets of our personalities deemed to be "good" have been grouped together under one almighty deity. Everything "bad" is said to be under the control of his antithesis. For me, I have been split. Sex is good, so is reproduction, provided they are after marriage," this part was accompanied by a not-so-subtle roll of her eyes, "lust is bad. But all are interwoven; lust is necessary, essential even, and certainly far more prevalent in the world than sex. You could say I am more Devil than Angel." She finished with a giggle. "There is only one God who is known by only a single name in all cultures. My brother, the God of Death."

"He sounds like a charmer," I said before I could stop myself.

She giggled again, leaning back into her throne and appraising me. "He is necessary, perhaps the most necessary of all of us. The only thing that gives life meaning is the fact that it will end someday. That is why you are here."

"Wait... What?"

Her smile seemed to falter a little, and she took a deep breath. "War, famine, pestilence, three of the four horsemen of the Apocalypse, are really only different faces of the fourth, Death. The only times that I am able to manifest with this level of power are preceding times where Death reigns supreme. I come to the world as I am now, just before a cataclysmic event in human history. The last time I was here was just before the last world wars, the period of almost continuous death between 1914 and 1945. My function is to start the process of repopulation, to select, and protect the chosen few who will start the process of rebuilding humanity after Death's great purge."

"What do you mean, is something going to happen?"

"That is beyond my sight. The last time was just before the outbreak of what you now call the great war, followed by the spread of the Spanish Flu and then the Second World War. By the time His little tantrum had finished, almost 15% of the world's childbearing population had been killed. That may sound like a lot, but that equates to over a billion lives that never were in the century since. If that happens too many times, humanity will fade into nothingness. I don't know if it will be a war, a new plague, or environmental changes. Death can be pretty creative when he wants to be, but something is coming. So I brought you here to protect you from it."

I nodded slowly

Makes sense.

"Wait, you brought us here?"

The amused smile returned to her face. "Of course, it's not often a group of people, all sexually active, all possessing one of the skills needed to survive, and mutually attracted to each other, fall a mile out of the sky and survive. You didn't think that was something as commonplace as physics, did you?"

"Erm, actually..."

She giggled loudly. "No, my love. You, all of you, were saved on purpose. I have brought you here to fulfill a purpose."

"To procreate..." I squinted at her, double-checking that I was following.

"Yes, you are going to impregnate all of the women who have imprinted onto you, as will the other men in your group. The women will remain in a state of sexual heat until they are bred, then they will go back to normal until they give birth, then the cycle will start again. Well, almost normal. Their memories of home will continue to fade. It is cruel but necessary; all of them have lost more than you can know... or they are about to."

"I'm not sure how they are going to feel about that."

She sighed heavily. "You are a good man, my darling. I have watched you for most of your life, just as I have all the others. You are all good people. Louisa and Robyn, as painful as their losses have been, were actually spared horrors that not even I can bring myself to describe. Death is unpredictable, but he is vicious, and his plans would have seen their souls destroyed and lost from the world forever. All I know is that, had the crash never happened, their lives would have been the absolute worst of tortures. Tom is a man who has faced more struggles than you can fathom, yet his heart is as pure as they come; his offspring will inherit his genius and will go on to lead humanity into the future. Ray's offspring will correct the mistakes of the past, making sure they never happen again. He alone is able to limit the future plans of Death."

"And me?"

"Your offspring are the light and the dark." Her smile stayed firmly in place. "Like the fight against Fascism or the cold war, your offspring will grow to become leaders of nations, bitterly opposed to each other. But your calm, your reason, your ability to see the best in people, these are things they will inherit from you. When the two factions set aside their differences and find common ground, it will inspire the rest of the world to do the same. When humanity finally finds world peace, in hundreds of years' time, it will be because of you."

"What is going to happen?" I asked after a few moments to let this information set in. "To the rest of the world, I mean."

"I don't know," she sighed and leaned further back into her chair, her long flowing locks cascading over her chest as she shook her head. "He is my brother only in as far as we were both created from the same unknowable source. I don't know him. I know the God of War is involved, but he is always involved with some part of the world or another these days. He inspires bloodlust, that is a form of lust unto itself. The lust for wealth or power are not as different as you would think from the lustful desires for sexual release." Her eyes glinted at the last thought. "But death, both my brother and the literal concept are unknowable. All I can tell you is that whatever is coming is going to be cataclysmic. I wouldn't have this much power if it were anything less."

I sighed and sat back on the throne, subconsciously imitating her.

"You are concerned for the ones left behind. The people you knew from home." her smile softened. "Curious..." Her eyes twitched a little as I felt that itch in the back of my mind.

"What?"

"Normally, a person in your position would be concerned with family or lovers, Your parents, or even Sarah. But in your case, your concern lies for the wife of your former friend and their children... You had strong feelings for Stacy. Yet it was purely platonic."

I didn't even bother trying to deny it. She was in my head; she already knew. "Can you tell me if she is going to be alright? If her girls will survive?"

Freja paused for a moment, her eyes seeming to gaze over as she stared at some invisible point on the wall over my shoulder. "I cannot be certain," she finally said. "The children are far too young to track their lusts, and Stacy is grieving the loss of her marriage. Her lusts are clouded, and I cannot follow them. Do you remember the story of Peter Pan?"

"What?" I blinked at her and the sudden change of topic. "Umm, yeah. Why?"

"In the story of Peter Pan, his little fairy, Tinkerbell, is injured. To heal her, Peter Pan has to clap. Do you remember that?" I didn't, but I nodded anyway. "That is the easiest way for me to explain my powers to you. Tinkerbell got hers from clapping, I get mine from acts of love and sex. It took the manipulation of hundreds of people and thousands of moving parts to get you and the others onto that plane. That took Power. It took even more Power to keep you alive when it crashed. I will make you a deal. If you help me to replenish my power, I will do what I can to get Stacy and her children to the island where I can guarantee her safety."

"And I do that by..."

"Having as much sex as possible, yes." She grinned. "With as many women on the island as you can."

There was something about the way she said the last part, I squinted at her.

Her grin widened. "Oh Dan, my sweet, sweet man. The women in your group are not the only women who will be brought to my sanctuary. The next group is due in a few weeks. It will take a much larger gene pool to repopulate than is available here. The task I have charged you with is to seed them as many times as you can. All of the ones who choose you, anyway."

I reached up and pinched the bridge of my nose but nodded slowly. The influence on me was clearly still in full effect. My hesitancy in taking advantage of these women was nowhere to be found. If anything, I felt a very pronounced throb in my shorts. My concern, however, was firmly fixed on how to provide enough shelter for everyone. How to feed them and ensure their good health, and, if I am being honest, the ease at which the idea of breeding all of these women was not only accepted but becoming normal to me was something that I felt would come to bother me later during my next lucid moment.

Oh, that reminds me.

"What happened yesterday? We all passed out."

"I'm sure you meant last week," she replied without that smile ever leaving her face.

"What?"

"How long do you think you were sleeping for?"

"I don't know, a few hours, at least."

"You were unconscious for 11 days."

I opened my mouth, but my brain and my tongue didn't seem to want anything to do with each other. Tired of hanging open and looking foolish, my jaw closed itself again without a word being uttered. "You're going to have to run that by me again," were the words that finally came out.

She sighed. The smile finally faltered a little. "There are things you need to understand, my love," she started. "Whatever my brother is planning, it isn't some far-off event in the distant future; it is happening now. Right now. Desperate measures were needed to make sure he wasn't pulling his little sidekick pestilence into it. I needed to check you all for diseases and illnesses and heal what I could. None of you were carrying anything unexpected, but both Ray and Elizabeth were showing the early signs of cancer. Now they don't. Louisa was infertile. She suffered a very nasty infection when she was young, and let's say that Hannah was carrying something that would have made you very itchy. Healing you all took time and a lot of power. I moved you all to the lake to keep you fed and watered, but I had to sleep after I had finished. That was those few hours of .... Lucidity... as you called it. It also allowed me to properly look into your minds, more than I was able to before. It was you who inspired my current physical form," she gestured her hands down her body. My eyes had little choice but to follow them.

I nodded slowly, I was about to say something else, maybe to ask if we could expect it to happen again, or maybe to see if I could find out a little more about the island when her head shot up. "Someone is coming, my love. We don't have much time left. I need you to listen. I am helping you all to fulfill your destiny, to make the world a better place, but you do have a choice. If you fight it hard enough, you can break free of me. I am asking you not to do that. You are all so much more important than you can understand. But if you swear to be my agent on earth, if you give me your vow that you will do your best to honor my requests, I can promise you happiness that none of you would ever be able to have imagined in your old lives. I will give you paradise. Please, I need you." She stood quickly, stepping towards me, leaning forward, and kissing my cheek. "Our time has come to an end, my love. Go forth and multiply."

Only the sounds of her giggle echoed in my ears as the cavernous, vaulted room faded into nothingness around me.

********

"Dan? Are you in here?" Came a voice through the door of the bunker as I pulled myself to my feet and brushed the dust from my clothes.

"Err, yeah. I'm here," I called back weakly as I looked around the interior. The visions I had experienced were already starting to feel like a fading dream.

Liz stepped through the doorway, looking around curiously. "Oooh, nice find! This looks Japanese to me."

"How can you tell?"

"Just something I remember seeing in a documentary once. I could be wrong but..." she shrugged. "It will be good for shelter in an emergency, though. It will be a bit cozy with us all pressed in together." She finished that with a smile, sliding up to me and wrapping her arms around my shoulder, and pressing her bikini-clad groin into my thigh. "The others are not far behind me. We all got a little curious after you didn't come back for a while. Otherwise, I would make you christen this place with your big cock up my tight ass," she grinned and wiggled against me as I started picking up the sounds of distant voices coming through the slit.

I chuckled, surrendering to the inevitability of my situation, and wrapped my arms around her, my hands dropping down to her ass, squeezing the glorious orbs and grinding her onto my thigh. I could already feel the wet heat against my skin as she gasped. "I didn't think I had been gone that long." It was true, but my concept of time could have been completely out of whack based on the 11 days we had lost.

"Oh, you haven't. Maybe half an hour or so," she said with a purr, now actively rubbing her pussy onto my thigh. "Katie was talking about following after you to suck your dick again. But I am being a greedy little bitch and want to have you first."

The voices were getting louder, and I turned my head and stooped down a little to peer out of the slit. I could make out Ray and his girls at the head of the procession coming this way, while the others all seemed to be talking to Amy. Louisa and Tom were nowhere to be seen. While I was looking, I slipped a hand around Liz's hip, pushed it into the waistband of her bikini, and stroked two fingers into her. It was sudden and possessive, and the mewling groan that tumbled out of her mouth as her legs wobbled was more than enough proof that it was appreciated. "Oh, Fuck. I am soaked for you!" She gasped as her head fell into the crook of my neck, and she started kissing at my pulse. "We need to get up that mountain soon. I am losing my mind here!"

"I am going to fuck your ass," I whispered to her, another moan falling from her as the words sunk in. "But only after I have filled this pretty little pussy with my cum." I flexed my fingers against her G-spot to emphasize my point.

"Oh, God, yes. I want you to breed me. Jesus, I've never thought about that before, not with anyone else. But with you? Fuck yes, I want you to fuck a baby into me!" Her breath was coming fast and heavy, and her lips had stopped working at my neck and were just panting on my skin.

"And then take your ass."

She came. A flood of juices washed over my fingers as her sex clenched powerfully onto my fingers. "Ohgodfuckimcummmingg," she panted loudly as if the trembling legs and copious juices weren't enough of a giveaway. I just smiled and kept working my fingers into her, stroking and running their tips over her vibrating G-spot.

The voices were almost out the door by the time she had finally pulled herself together. She pulled my fingers slowly out of her, and lifted them to her lips to clean her juices off me, her eyes locked intently onto mine as her other hand re-adjusted her bikini bottoms. "Holy shit! I am going to fuck you until one of us fuckin' dies!" she laughed breathlessly, dropping my hand just as Ray's head appeared through the doorway.

"Of course, you wander off and end up finding treasure," he grinned at us. "Why wouldn't you?"

"I was bored, it was something to do," I shrugged back with faux nonchalance and a grin.

Ray looked around the inside without actually stepping in. "Well, it doesn't have a bar or a hot tub. Still. Six out of ten for effort."

"No pleasing some people," I rolled my eyes with a laugh; the sounds of Liz beside me and Ray's girls outside, all giggling, bounced off the interior walls. "Go find your own full intact World War II pillbox if you don't like this one."

Ray threw his head back and laughed loudly. The booming sound echoed off the walls and the hills around us, as Liz and I followed him outside. "I don't get it, though," he said after calming down, looking up at the mountain as he spoke. "What is it defending? This is a very strange position to have one small fortification. There has to be more."

"Maybe we will be able to see more from the mountain," Liz said from behind a barely concealed smirk as Ray started walking the outlines of the worn-down trench network between the bunker and the mountain.

Ray glanced up at the Northern mountain, completely oblivious to the tone in Liz's voice, and nodded. "The angle looks good, but to be honest, that one would be better" He nodded to the mountain ridge next to the one we were standing in front of. "Maybe you will be able to see if there is something on the other side."

Liz looked up the mountain. "It's a harder climb. It may be easier to go up the north mountain and walk along the ridge to get above here. But it will take longer."

"Well, I think we have found our central meeting point," Hayley said from behind us, giving me a knowing grin as she stood with an equally smiling Hannah. Katie was looking a little put out, but not enough for me to worry about, Robyn whispered something into her ear, and a seductive grin curled onto her lips. "Why don't you two get started on your climb, we can all start setting up some sort of camp."

"I'd like to look over there in the trees to see if there is any more fruit. That would help us a lot," Amy nodded.

"I can go with you," Hannah smiled at her. "Hayley too." Hayley just rolled her eyes and nodded. Amy, on the other hand, almost purred, making me immediately wonder what I was missing.

"Katie and I can refill all the water bottles," Robyn volunteered.

"Is there anything we can do?" Ray asked.

"Actually, yes," I spoke up, tossing him the trenching shovel that I had left just inside the bunker. Ray's eyes widened as he looked at it, not only realizing what it was but understanding its importance. "I found that on the ground over there...." I pointed out the spot where I had tripped over it. "... and there are a few more tools inside. Do you think you will be able to have a proper look around and see what you can find? That shovel alone is worth its weight in gold for building any sort of shelter."

"Consider it done," He nodded firmly.

"Alright," I said, turning to Liz. "looks like we are ready to climb."

"Let's go, big boy," she grinned back, pulling a few giggles out of the others.

"Good luck, man." I called to Ray as I started following Liz.

"You too, fella, you too." He laughed back.

We had walked in silence for what must have been twenty minutes, far outside the earshot of the others, before Liz spoke. "I've changed my mind. I have a new plan."

"Oh? What's that?" I asked, looking up forebodingly at the monumental climb before us.

"I want you to fuck a load into my cunt, first, then one into my mouth, and then I want you in my ass! I brought this to help," she said, pulling a tub of Vasaline out of her sling.

I almost choked on my own tongue. "Where did you get that??"

"Out of Amy's first aid kit. We won't need much to lube me up, I will put it back when we are finished."

I didn't even know what to say to that. The girl was certainly prepared.

"To be fair, I would be on my knees sucking your dick already, but I want that first massive load inside me. I don't know why, but the more I think about it, the more I want you to knock me up." It was the casualness of the way she said it that took me back. It was said with no more emphasis than if she were changing her mind about what clothes she wanted to wear. Like it was just a thought.

"I... Umm... I aim to please."

"She chuckled, turning to look at me with a very familiar sparkle in her eye. "Oh, baby. Everyone down here is going to hear exactly how much you are pleasing me."

With that, she took my hand, looked up the mountain with a deep, determined breath, and we started to climb.

********

And that's it for chapter 7. Thank you for reading.

Stories are released to a schedule which can be found on my profile. The next chapter of the Island will be submitted on Monday, and the newest chapter of this flagship series, NewU, will be submitted Thursday. As it stands, I do not foresee any interruption of that schedule over the Christmas period, but there may be a delay in the time it takes lit to post them to you.

Please feel free to rate and comment as you see fit. Authors thrive on the feedback of our readers.

In the meantime. You are all awesome...

Nova