Wild Rides

Chapter 24 - The Love Bug

"Gone?" I spun around immediately. Adorable babies arriving at the most unfortunate of times? I could deal with that. Stepping on or losing the tiny guys that would need to be fed and kept warm from the moment they hatched was not happening.

It was dim. Only the old solar lighting system with its grime-covered bulbs provided illumination. However, Xoxo's eyesight should have been much better than mine. It broke my heart to see her so tired and exhausted. Not only had the babies drained her throughout the brief arm pregnancy, but she had also endured near constant alcohol and drug use, only some of which was intentional, as well as a lack of sleep and a hell of a lot of stress. We were both exhausted, but she was at her limits.

I gave her my most calm smile, trying to reassure her that we would get out of this situation as we had the others even if I didn't know that was true. Slowly, I pointed to her middle where, as we had rushed to find cover, her arm head rubbed against her shirt and the sloth babies immediately clung to the first textured thing they could.

Her gasp of surprise and radiant smile was worth all the stress in the world. The little things looked exactly like the pictures with their long arms and short legs, football-shaped heads topped with giant, blinking, frog eyes. They looked up at their mother and made little chittering noises, hugging tighter as they sensed the danger of the situation. Just like a newborn gazelle, their hardwired instincts were to react to the presence of a predator. In their case it was to grab on first and ask questions later.

I needed to get her somewhere safe where she could rest and we could make a hobo stew for them of some kind. From what I had read, they could consume most things, including a variety of organic material that would not be edible for others.

The sounds behind us were faint, the Caldum trying to navigate the tunnels that we had mapped to our best abilities. Some of the dead ends were cave-ins and who knew what cracks, crevices, or hidden doors we had missed. We had only stumbled across three hatches that led to the finished and well-traveled passageways below us, the rumble of traffic to the underground city vibrating through the soles of our feet.

They would grow as quickly as they could take in food, which meant the more that we fed them, the bigger they would get.

I ushered her to one of the dead ends and made sure that she was comfortable, hiding her between deep grooves from unfinished digging. It was one of the tunnels with a hatch which meant that we had another escape route if needed. Though I doubted even a team of frothing and murderous Caldum could have torn her attention away from her new precious fuzz blobs.

Then, I rushed back to the weakest point we had identified where several aged and wooden support beams struggled to keep the ceiling up, cracked and bowed. There were piles of dirt and grit on the floor indicating that a collapse was fast approaching. That wasn't the only thing that was on its way.

The Caldum team rounded the corner, led by Drago surprisingly instead of Locknir. That was a small mercy, because if that big, angry zaddy gave me a furious growl, I was sure that I would turn into a puddle on the floor and beg him to fuck me instead.

What could I say? I loved hate sex.

While Drago was a little bit smaller, he was nearly as intimidating. However, all of his attention had been focused on Xoxo and not me, granting me some nymphomaniac compulsion immunity.

"Where is she?" he seethed, showing me pointy teeth that had raked teasingly across her flesh.

"Oh, no," I crooned. "Looks like somebody caught the love bug. You got it bad don't you?"

He did not approve of my taunting, taking a slow step forward.

"Ah-ah," I warned, shaking my finger. "You made the mistake of giving us too much of a head start or rather...throwing us outside to die. You see, I came here with Xoxo as my partner, but now, she's more valuable as an incubator don't you think?"