Welcome to the Island, chapter 9.

As always, It would be remiss of me to go any further without offering my heartfelt thanks to my incredible editors and to you, the readers, for your support and feedback. You all make this story what it is.

Now, on with our tale.

********

It had taken at least a few hours to climb up the northernmost ridge of the volcano's caldera. Without any means of accurately measuring time, I had no idea how many, I just knew it had taken a while. Coming down the western ridge was significantly quicker. Maybe it was the sheer steepness of the terrain, perhaps it was the much-needed assistance from gravity, or it could have been that Liz had a plan and was practically running down the mountain while bouncing with excitement and dragging me along with her.

It will forever be one of the great mysteries of physics to explain how neither of us fell and rolled the rest of the way down. Liz was obviously very confident and experienced on her feet. I think I was just lucky.

It was odd how quickly we all seemed to be getting used to the uninhibited sexual displays. Ray was still in the midst of his threesome when we made it to the foot of the mountain; one of his brunettes was riding him slowly and sensually while the other was grinding herself onto his face while they both kissed above him. Ray was flat on his back and seemed to be having trouble deciding where to put his hands. Liz called excitedly over to them as she skipped passed, timing it almost perfectly with the onset of the girls' orgasms. She waved over Louisa and Tom as well as she dragged me along the path toward the river. They had already finished, but through the long grass, it looked like Louisa was perfectly happily cuddling quietly into the side of our group's youngest member.

It didn't take long for Liz to wrangle everyone together, though, and we soon found ourselves back in the river with the rest of the girls. All of them jumped up excitedly and hugged Liz as we arrived, followed by all of them, apart from Amy, doing the same to me, all four of them planting wet, sloppy kisses on my lips and purring something about missing me. Or at least a certain part of me. Amy flushed a little at hearing the comments but was smiling at me the entire time. I ended up sitting between Hayley - who was pressed into my right side - and Hannah, who was lounging across the river bank with her head resting in my lap. Liz was sitting on a rock in the middle of the river, commanding the entire group's undivided attention as she laid out her theory.

"Wait, hold on," Robyn said with a look of concern as she glanced over to me after hearing Liz out. "You don't think you can build a shelter?"

"Yeah, man," Ray added. "I know it was a big ask, but nobody meant to put pressure on you."

"No, no, no," Liz answered before I had a chance to. "It's not that he can't. He just laid out to me all the work that it would entail, and even I didn't think there was that much to it. He would be able to do it. I just don't think any of us really understood or appreciated how hard it would be, how much work would be involved, and, more importantly, how long it would take."

"I mean, is there a rush for it?" One of Ray's girls, the one with the bigger chest, asked.

"Depends how you feel about giving birth out here," Amy answered with a teasing grin.

Ray, who had chosen that moment to take a large mouthful of water from his bottle, sprayed it out of his lips and started to choke. The girl who had asked the question patted his back almost casually as she pondered the answer. "It could take that long?"

I nodded. "With all of us chipping in, it would take at least a few months, but as more of you become pregnant, the workload would just be too much for you. Heavy lifting is never advised during pregnancy, from what I understand..." I cast a look over to Amy, who nodded vigorously. "...so eventually, it could end up as just the three of us doing it. That would stretch the time scales out to... Fuck, who knows." There was something in the back of my mind wondering how it was possible to be okay with knocking up four or five girls and worrying about how quickly I had gotten used to the idea.

"I suppose that this, in a roundabout way, brings up the issue of tracking all of your menstrual cycles," Amy added. "I'm going to go out on a limb and assume nobody found packs of pregnancy tests in the cases."

"Hold the fuck on!" Ray spluttered, apparently having regained the ability to breathe again. "Pregnancies? When was that decided?"

"In the lake," his other girl shrugged. The rest of the women nodded as well, all of them with slightly bemused looks on their faces. "What did you think would happen with all the sex we've been having?"

"I... but..." the levels of confliction on his face were almost comical. "Decided what?"

"Well..." Amy answered for him. "... Hayley, Louisa, Robyn, Hannah, and Liz actively want a baby, so they are going out of their way to get knocked up." My ears pricked up. This was news to me too. I flashed a glance at Hayley and Hannah, only to be replied with a sweet smile and a casual nod from each of them. "Katie, Zoe, and Caroline are not opposed to the idea but not actively trying. If it happens, it happens." Amy finished.

"And what about you? Have you decided yet?" Katie grinned at Amy.

"Yup. But that's something I'm keeping to myself for now."

"Holding it close to your chest, eh?" Hayley laughed.

"Aah, and what a chest it is," Hannah chimed in, pulling a round of giggles from the rest of the girls.

Yes, yes, I would be lying if I said I didn't sneak a quick look... and agree wholeheartedly.

Ray's face looked like it was being boycotted by his blood supply. "But... I had the snip," his frown turned into a genuine attempt to scrunch up his own face. "Didn't I? I think I did... or was I just planning on having it done?" He scratched his head. "I can't remember."

"Well, having spent a fair amount of time down there," the larger-chested brunette said with a smirk. "I can say I haven't noticed any scars."

"Let's just assume that all of those very tasty swimmers are fertile and healthy, then," the other girl grinned.

"Fuck!" He murmured, still scratching his head. "Little Rays running around. That sounds..."

"Wonderful." The smaller-chested girl finished for him.

"Yeah, it kinda does, doesn't it." He smiled a little and pulled them both a little tighter against him. Yeah, I noticed the sudden change in his mind from the other day too.

Louisa and Tom, having given up the pretense of being nothing more than friends, snuggled in a little tighter against each other. Tom was taking in the whole scene, but Louisa was nodding softly as her hand wandered absently over her belly.

"So... umm... moving on, before Ray has an aneurysm," I chuckled. "How was your walk? Did you find any more food?" I asked Amy and Hannah.

"Oh yeah, loads. Probably even more than by the beach. Look," she pointed out to the bank of the river behind me. There was another stack of mangos and bananas, along with something else I hadn't expected to see.

"Are those Watermelons?" I asked in surprise.

"Yup, there are hundreds of them; the plants seem to stretch for miles around the forest floor," Amy answered.

Liz frowned. "Well, that pretty much answers the questions about animals. There is no way they would just be left there and not eaten if there were any herbivores around, and no herbivores mean no predators."

"Well damn, I was hoping for a barbeque. Guess we are going to have to try our hands at fishing then."

Liz was grinning and nodding as she looked at me, shifting a little uncomfortably on the stone. "Are you okay?" Hannah asked, squinting at her. "You seem like you are in pain."

"Oh, I'm okay," Liz said, her smile growing a little more mischievous. "I made Dan stick his dick up my ass."

Robyn sat bolt upright from where she had been lounging in the water. "You fit that thing up your ass?!? Holy shit, girl, I'm impressed!"

"I'm not sure shitting is something she is going to be doing for a while," Amy chuckled. Liz giggled but nodded anyway.

"Let's not turn this into a conversation about my bowel movements," Liz said with a playful smile.

"Or lack thereof," teased Hayley.

"What was it like?" Robyn asked, leaning forward intently.

I didn't get to hear the answer. Katie stood up with a huff, strode towards me, grabbed my hand, pulled me out of the tangled sandwich of Hayley and Hannah, and dragged me off towards the pillbox. "You are going to fuck me. Now!" she snapped, but if her face would have me believe she was furious that I had taken Liz before her, there was a hint of a playful smirk behind it as she glanced over her shoulder at the rest of the group. Enough to tell me that not only did she not mind, but the idea that she'd had to come to me turned her on a little more than she would like to admit.

A few minutes later, I was on my back next to the pillbox and was having my shorts yanked off my legs. Katie, it would seem, was much like Hayley and Robyn in that she knew what she wanted and was perfectly happy to take it. With some form of witchcraft, she managed to get my shorts down to my ankles and her bikini bottoms off at the same time and didn't waste another moment in mounting me. There was no foreplay, no preamble, and no messing around. This girl wanted my dick in her as soon as was humanly possible.

She groaned deeply as she sank herself down onto my rigid hardness. Of course, I was not one to be a lazy lover. If she wanted me that badly then I would make sure she left satisfied. My hands started wandering. Over her sides first and up to the swell of her softly swaying breasts, her eyes were closed as she let her mind focus on the sensations of her body. My hands moved slowly but firmly, mapping and exploring every inch of her before they moved onto her chest, pushing her bikini top aside, catching her diamond-hard nipples between my fingers and rolling them as I groped and squeezed those wonderful, bountiful mounds of flesh. I pinched them a little harder, tweaking and flicking, rolling and pinching them between my fingers, flexing my fingers against her tits to tug her nipples out, holding them still against the rocking motion of her chest induced by her grinding body.

Her eyes were locked on mine. Lust-filled, pleasured... challenging. She knew what treatment the other girls had off me; they had made a point to tell as many people as they could. Katie was going slow and sensual, almost daring me to lose patience and give her the screwing that she really wanted. That railing that the others had gotten out of me.

Well, then... I aim to please.

My hands dropped from her tits and grabbed hold of her ass, pulling her dripping, molten cunt up my shaft and holding her to the very tip, slapping her ass hard enough to mark her skin and pulling a loud yelp, followed by a deep, mewling purr from her lips, then I started to fucking rail her properly. Jackhammering and pistoning my cock into her, mercilessly hard and relentlessly fast. She was just being held in place and used, pounded, and fucked senseless.

The challenging, teasing look in her eyes had vanished in an instant, instead replaced by an expression of dumbfounded euphoria. Her eyes were rolled back, her tongue was hanging out, and a series of high-pitched squeals tumbled from her lips. Harder and harder, deeper, faster, and rougher, every thrust into her sodden cunt impacted with enough force, to splash her juices onto her trembling thighs and bounce her tits harder on my chest.

Every stroke pulled a monosyllabic word from her. "Oh... my... fuck... ing... God... fuck... me... take... me... breed... me... fuck... cummingg... cumming... cumminggggggg!" Her scream exploded into the air. I could just about make out a ripple of giggles floating from the direction of the river, but with no intention of even remotely slowing down, the giggles were quickly drowned out by another scream as one massive orgasm rolled seamlessly and without break into another. Her entire body was vibrating, and her pussy had clamped down onto me with enough force to almost push me out of her, but I was not in the mood to show mercy today.

I pushed in harder, forcing every pulsing, turgid inch of my length through the powerful grip of her clenching muscles, using the spasms of her sex to milk me. She looked down at me, her eyes only half focused but behind them was a recognition, a surrender; She had firmly shifted her decision away from seeing what happened to actively wanting to be bred by me. And right now, the future father of her baby was fucking up into her like she was little more than a hole to use to milk his cock.

I could feel the shiver of humiliation, of degradation, that slight tinge of shame ripple down her spine.

And she fucking loved it.

The instant she allowed herself to realize it, she exploded. She came so hard that I'm pretty sure she blacked out for a moment. Going limp in my arms for a few more rampant thrusts before sucking in a deep breath as she came to. "Fuuckkkk... Fucking cum in me, fill me, flood me, make me fucking take your seed. Knock me up, paint my egg in your cum. I'm fertile. I know I'm ovulating, do it now. Make me a fucking mom! Fuuuuckkkk, I'm cumming againnnn! The last syllable of the last word was dragged out into another loud, ear-splitting scream as she bucked and thrashed intensely on top of me.

She hadn't even had the chance to come down from one high when she was flipped onto her back, her legs hooked over my hips in a high, splayed vee, before my cock was being hammered into her and she was being fucked ruthlessly towards her next. There was an impatience to my pounding, a desire to get her off as hard and as quickly as I possibly could so I could jet my seed into her and get the ball rolling on this whole pregnancy thing. I was acutely aware that the feeling wasn't mine, almost certainly influenced or even implanted by Freja, but I seemed completely unable to resist the impulse to follow it.

I fucked Katie like I was trying to hurt her. I wanted her to feel this for days. I wanted that dull, throbbing ache running through her battered pussy to remind her of the fucking that she had teased out of me, to make her think of the cock that would absolutely do it all over again as well. I could feel myself building, getting closer, edging inexorably for that peak. She could feel it, too. She saw the urgency of the look in my eyes just as clearly as I saw hers. "If you want it," I growled. "You are going to cum hard for me and milk it into you!"

It only took as long as it did for the words to register in her brain before her whole body tensed, her muscles contorting her to arch so hard she was almost levitating off the ground. A long, guttural, and breathless groan flowed from her throat as I savaged her convulsing cunt with deep, powerful thrusts. Using her like a sleeve to get me off. Using her body for my own pleasure. Taking what I wanted from her, But more importantly, I wanted her to know it.

She was mine!

I exploded into her. A barrage of ropes of my hot seed splashed against her walls as I frantically fucked them into her. Each was as powerful as the one before it, each powerful enough for her to feel as they painted her inner walls. She felt all of it. The pressure of my seed inside her as I kept stroking my cock into her, the fullness of it, and the inevitable feeling of some of our essence leaking down onto her ass.

She pushed me out of her with a groan, clamping her hand over her fucked and filled pussy, stopping the leakage and keeping my seed inside her. It was like she was on autopilot, the hazed, unfocused look in her eyes just obvious enough that this was not some sort of conscious action, but an instinct -perhaps divinely incepted - to maximize the probability of conception. I just dropped back on my haunches, wiping the sweat from my face and breathing heavily, watching Katie twitch with the aftershocks of her colossal climaxes.

I wonder why Freja doesn't just make it 100% guaranteed that the girls get knocked up. That being said, maybe she has.

Yet there was something in the back of my mind that told me that although she could certainly dramatically increase the chances, she couldn't fundamentally alter the biological process, meaning there would always be a certain element of chance involved. I looked down at Katie, her skin shining in the late afternoon sun with the sheen of sweat that now covered her entire body. The heavy rise and fall of those bountiful breasts on her chest, and the look of pure satisfaction on her face as she recovered.

"Keep fucking me like that," she murmured between long sucks of air, "and I am probably going to fall in love with you."

I chuckled to myself... for about a second.

Then it hit me.

The realization was a moment of lucidity unto itself. That simple statement sparked an equally simple question in my head. If she was going to fall in love with me, how did she feel about me now? How did any of the girls feel about me, for that matter? How much of this was genuine affection, and how much was Goddess-invoked desire? And, if, as I suspected, it was almost all divinely influenced, how could I possibly justify my actions? That wave of guilt washed over me again. I had all but forgotten about that conversation with Ray on the beach, the one about trying not to take advantage of them unless that urge grew too strong. But in a single day, I had fucked two of them with the explicit intention of breeding them, and I had barely felt that urge at all.

"You worry too much, my love." Frejas voice echoed in my ears as I tried to look anywhere except the mess that was Katie.

"Or not enough!" I thought back. "And I never asked why you keep calling me that!"

"Do you know what love is? Could you define it?" She asked with a calmness that was completely absent from my chest.

"What? No, nobody can. That is one of the unanswerable questions, like what is the meaning of life? Or how high is up?"

"Then let me tell you, darling," I could almost hear her smile. "Love is compassion, it is respect, it is affection, it is intimacy, it is passion, and it is commitment, all of it taken to levels that transcend language and felt towards another person. You, my love, are the perfect embodiment of those emotions. You feel them more acutely, you live them more honestly, and only you are capable of loving those women the way they need to be loved. It is why you were chosen. You will never be rich, you will never know power, and you will never be adored by the masses. But what you WILL know is love, and you have the capacity for it perhaps more than anyone else who could have been brought here. More than almost any man alive. More than that, these women are the ones best suited to receive, share, and reciprocate that love. I may be a Goddess, but not even I can force those emotions onto a mortal."

"So, they are NOT being forced to feel anything for me or do things against their will?"

"No, my wonderful man. Lousia did not wish to couple with you, and neither did Zoe or Caroline, so they didn't. Amy hasn't made up her mind about who she wants to join, so she is free to decide. All I can do is allow that love and lust to blossom between WILLING partners."

I nodded slowly, pondering what she was saying. There was part of me that wondered if she was just telling me what I wanted to hear, but another greater part of me knew that wasn't the case. I nodded again - more firmly, this time - pulled myself together, swallowed that knot of doubt in my chest, scooped up the still-cooing Katie, and carried her back to the river.

********

I suppose it would come as no surprise to anyone to learn that Liz was right. Our group of intrepid survivors spent a lovely night under the starlit skies, warmed by the pleasantly temperate air - and each other - before heading out as a group to the eastern mountains.

Tom had spotted the first bunker long before anyone else. I will be honest; I didn't really see it until we were almost on top of the damned thing. Tom had pointed it out, Liz had bounced excitedly on the spot, Louisa had given Tom the kind of kiss that made me seriously consider dragging one of the girls off for a quickie, and then the group ran down the hill towards it. Ray and I just looked at each other, shrugged, and followed.

Even from only a few dozen feet away, it looked like a green protrusion of land. It was so overgrown from the moisture-rich sea air that barely a few inches of concrete were visible without moving vines aside. It was so overgrown that the foliage had actually shielded it from the worst of the weathering. The bunker looked as strong now as it must have done when it was built.

"Where's the gun?" Ray asked the group as we all pulled down enough of the vines to reveal the gun port. "I mean, if there was no battle and if the island was never taken, what happened to the guns? Or all the other, you know, military stuff?"

Liz opened her mouth to answer, frowned, and then closed it again. "That's... a really good question. I have no idea." she finally said after apparently thinking about it for a second. "Hey, there is a tunnel back here!"

That pretty much ended the issue for all of the girls, but Ray flashed me a confused glance as we climbed through the square hole in the concrete and into the bunker, and Tom immediately started kicking away the sand and dust on the floor of the fortification to examine what little that remained of the aiming mechanisms. Basically, a series of semi-circle tracks in the ground on which the gun could be turned to aim. Maybe it was a guy thing, maybe it was a Goddess thing, but the three of us seemed to be the only ones concerned with the fate of what must have been a fucking huge piece of military hardware.

It was not a mystery we were going to solve anytime soon, at least not by staring at the floor of the now-empty bunker. I turned my attention to the others as they pulled down some of the drier, older vines, wrapped them around sticks to form rudimentary torches, and then lit them with the lighter.

"Aww, you're not going to pull off your clothes and use those?" I teased as Hayley handed one to me.

"Nine naked women walking around for you to feast your eyes on, you'd like that, wouldn't you?" she grinned back.

"Errr... Yeah. Yes, I would." I laughed.

"I wouldn't mind either," Ray grinned.

"Nor me," Hannah grinned at us from the tunnel door.

Hayley just giggled and thrust the torch into my hand. "Maybe later."

The tunnel was not like the tunnel I had expected from watching shitty World War II movies. It wasn't a hole in the ground scratched out of the mud and propped up my logs. This was an honest-to-god underground bunker, or at least the entrance to one. Both walls, the floor, and the ceiling were lined in what looked to be incredibly strong and durable reinforced concrete. I could make out the patterned bulges of the rebar frame beneath the surface as their shadows danced in the firelight. It would have taken an unimaginable amount of work to carve all of this out and reinforce it with this much concrete, especially considering it must have almost all been done by hand.

Fuck, those Japs were industrious little fuckers, weren't they.

I could see the overhead rails dug into the roof or the tunnel from which shells could be slung and transported, old lights were screwed onto the walls close to the ceiling, and loose lines of wire hung from one to the other. After only a few dozen feet, doors started appearing on either side of the corridor. The first one was jammed shut. Ray winked at his girls and then slammed his shoulder into it.

"STOP!!" I yelled at him, my voice reverberating off the walls and carrying much louder than I expected in the confined space before echoing off into the darkness. Everyone froze and looked at me.

"What?" Ray asked in confusion. "It's just rusted shut."

"You don't know that. If the ceiling above the door has deteriorated, the weight will be resting on the door frame. For all you know, that door is load-bearing. If you bust it open, the whole damn thing could cave in on your head." I answered harshly. "Look, if a door isn't already open, or at least easily openable, leave it alone, at least until we get the lay of the land in here."

Ray cast a nervous look at the top of the door, nodded, and took a step back. From that point onwards, each door that we passed had its handle tried, was given a little bit of a push, and, invariably, left alone. Structurally, the parts of this tunnel closer to the surface would be the most likely to suffer from collapse. Less and less groundwater would penetrate into the deeper sections as most of it would run down the mountain. But these rooms, only a few feet below the surface, didn't have that luxury and may have succumbed over the decades. Ray may have been right; it may have just been rust, there certainly didn't appear to be any signs of water ingress in the tunnel itself, but it wasn't worth the risk.

The further we ventured into the bunker, the quieter everyone became. After a while, only the muted sounds of footsteps on concrete and shallow breathing could be heard. The air smelled old, not stagnant - there was at least one other opening somewhere in the facility, and a soft but steady air current was drifting past us, enough to recycle the air - but it was evident that no human had stepped foot in these tunnels for a very long time.

Finally, we came to an open door. "Hey, looks like we have a winner," I said as I stopped to peer inside. Nobody answered; they just kept walking straight past the opening and further into the bunker. "Errr, earth to... well, anyone. We have an open door here." I glanced inside at the bank of ancient-looking communication equipment lined against the far wall and then back again as the rest of the group kept ignoring me and wandering forward. "HEY!!!" I shouted after them. With a few shrieks of surprise, all of them spun around to look at me, their faces a mix of irritation at being scared and shock at me being the one to scare them. "Why are you ignoring me?"

"What?" Hayley frowned, "You didn't say anything."

"The fuck? I just told you all there was an open door here."

"Really? Did you? Where?"

"Errr, yeah? What the hell is wrong with all of you? It's right here!"

"Um, Dan, it's a solid wall. What are you talking about?" Ray said carefully, looking at the opening.

I squinted at him, then squinted at the very obvious open door and the room beyond. "Sorry?"

"Dan, you are standing next to a concrete wall, love. Are you okay?" Hayley said as she stepped closer.

"What is wrong with...? Are you winding me up? Can you not see this?" I waved my hand through the doorway. Hayley just kissed my cheek, frowned at the door, shrugged, took my hand, and slowly pulled me after the others. I narrowed my eyes at the others and looked back over my shoulder at the room.

What the fuck is going on?

"Oh yay, I've found the end," Liz announced, pulling my attention forward again. "Oh my God, it's huge!"

"Oh, wow." One of Ray's girls said as she followed behind her.

"Dan, what do you think of this?" Ray asked, looking back over his shoulder as Hayley's hand dropped into mine.

"Oh, this you can see?" I muttered as I followed them in.

"What was that, babe?" Hayley asked, smiling as she looked around the room.

"You all just called me nuts for spotting the room back there?"

"Oh baby, look at this place. This would be perfect, don't you think?"

I narrowed my eyes at her. Something strange was going on. Even a cursory glance back down the passage was needed to spot the very obvious opening in the wall. How the hell were they able to pretend it wasn't there? I sighed and shook my head; I would have to think about that later.

The room that had everyone so excited was, to be fair, pretty damned impressive. At least fifty feet long and half as wide, it looked to have once served as the barracks for the men who operated the guns in the batteries on this part of the mountain. Rows of dilapidated and rotten bunk beds lined the far wall, some of them still holding up the remains of what looked to have once been straw mattresses. The walls on either side of our tunnel were lined with equally aged tables, chairs, and stacks of equipment boxes.

As impressive as that was, I was more interested in the ceiling. Two parallel walls, pretty close to each other as they had been in the tunnel, were a fairly sturdy engineering concept. The less space between two supporting walls, the less chance there was of the roof between them being undermined by the weight and collapsing. A room like this, however, had walls sometimes as far as twenty-five feet away from parts of the load-bearing ceiling. If this structure were to collapse, this is the first place it would happen. There were ways to offset the risks; angling the top of the concrete slab that held up the earth above it pushed the weight toward the walls, it made the center thicker, and, therefore, heavier, but it redistributed a lot of the load it was carrying. Without drilling into it, or digging it out, however, it was impossible to tell if that's how it had been constructed. To the careful eye I was casting over it, though, it not only looked solid, but seamless. Somehow, it had been built as a single solid construction rather than smaller sections being joined later. It made the whole thing significantly stronger. There was no water ingress, no signs of dampness, no cracks, no vegetation or roots growing through it. It was in remarkably good condition.

I couldn't help but admire the craftsmanship. Modern construction techniques had concrete blowing pumps that could spray the walls with as much concrete and cement as was needed. But I had absolutely no idea if those techniques were available in the late thirties or early forties when this place must have been built. Doing all of this by hand, especially to this standard, would have involved a truly eye-watering amount of work.

"Yeah, this looks like it would work nicely. We would need to clear all this stuff out," I said, happy with my cursory inspection and nodding to the old beds and tables. "That is good for little more than firewood. We would also need to sort things out like lighting and bathrooms, but the room itself looks about perfect."

"Do you think it's big enough?" Hannah asked, giggling as her voice echoed loudly around the room.

"Well, it's a damn sight bigger than anything I was going to build, and my guess is that it isn't the only one. It would be good to explore those to see where they go." I pointed out the yawning tunnels leaving the three other walls of the room."

"This one seems to go to another gun emplacement," Amy said, looking down one of the corridors. "I can see the light from outside."

"This one is dark," Katie said as she looked down the tunnel opposite our entrance.

"So is this one," Ray said, peering into the last one. "I'll be honest, it's giving me the creeps," he finished with a shudder.

"Pussy," Tom's voice echoed perfectly around the room. There was a brief moment of astonished silence before first Louisa, and then everyone, burst into laughter.

"Cold, man. Cold." Ray laughed, clapping the young man on the shoulder.

"Alright," I said as the laughter finally died down. "Let's head back outside and start gathering some kindling to make more torches. These ones aren't going to last much longer."

"Yeah, I agree," Liz said with a nod. "It would be worth sleeping in the bunker itself until we work out a way to get permanent lighting in here as well. Torches or a fire would be great, assuming there is proper ventilation, but I'd hate to get lost down here at night when there is no light from outside if a fire went out unexpectedly."

The rest of the group took only a few seconds and a quick glance at their diminishing torches to agree wholeheartedly. We made our way back down the tunnel we had entered through.

I went first, stopping outside the open room and looking inside again, but this time I watched the others more carefully. Not a single one of them cast so much as a cursory glance at it. I frowned again. Something was seriously strange about their refusal to acknowledge the room I was now standing in.

I shook my head and was just about to leave when something on one of the tables caught my eye. It was an old-style reel-to-reel voice recorder. I had seen one once before; my grandfather had been some sort of journalist back in the war and had kept a lot of his reports. He had been more than happy to show them to my elementary school class when we had studied the greatest generation.

What was more interesting about this one, however, was the piece of paper hanging above it, on which was written, in perfect English, "Play me!"

It couldn't possibly still work, could it?

Letting my curiosity get the better of me, I stepped forward and pressed the play button, and listened as a voice echoed out of the speaker.

"My name... My name is Dr. Simon Walker. United States Army Medical Corps. If you are hearing my voice, your life is in grave danger..."

********

And that's a wrap for chapter 9.

Dum Dum Duuuuuuum... Yes, I like a cliffhanger. I hope you are enjoying the story. The rest of the story will continue next week. I look forward to seeing you then.

Thank you for your comments and feedback. It never ceases to amaze me how supportive and receptive my readers can be. I look forward to hearing what you think of this, and my flagship story - NewU - in the comments or on the Discord Server.

Stay Awesome.

Nova