Clouds of Tyranny

CHAPTER 10: WHO’S THE ALPHA FEMALE HERE?

Tara lay in bed in a deep sleep with the soft silk sheets beneath her, the cool breeze caressing her flesh from through the window. She awakened by soft moist lips pressing against her dry mouth; a sensual tongue licking her lips as a hand came and it’s fingers glided in between her breasts down to her belly and curved around to hold her side as the tongue enter her mouth. She dared not open her eyes. She felt the strong male body press down against hers as her hands rubbed his back as they continued to kiss. She moaned in pleasure as she felt pressure and then something slip inside her; hard, painful, but pleasureful. She felt it thrust in and out of her slowly, then his hand slid slowly down her thigh on the side of her butt. He began exhaling loudly at the passion he was experiencing with Tara. She moaned louder and louder feeling him go deep inside her. She had to, she couldn’t help herself, she had to look.

Tara’s eyes slowly shuddered open to see Lock atop her making love with her. Just the fact that it was Lock made her moan louder because this what she wanted, all she ever wanted. Their breathing heightened and he dropped his head on her shoulder about to fill her with complete tranquility. She throbbed and felt herself letting go.

“Tara!” yelled Ruthie, waking her up from a very sensual dream.

“What? What?” yelled Tara angrily, mad that that dream was ruined even though it was just a dream; the only thing real was the perspiration in her pajama pants.

“This is Alex, a new girl,” said Ruthie excitedly motioning towards Alex.

Tara rubbed her eyes and extended a hand reluctantly.

“I’m Tara, nice to meet you.”

Alex shook her hand smiling at her; Alex was wearing military boots, black cargo fatigues, and a long sleeved mesh top that hugged her flawless thin body.

“Yeah, got here last night. Lock brought me from Pan’dier last night.”

“Ya know,” said Ruthie, “Tara here has a bit of a crush on our Lock.”

“Ruthie!” grunted Tara angry at Ruthie’s big mouth.

“Well, you do.”

“Doesn’t matter, “scoffed Alex conceitedly, “You’re not his type anyway.”

“How would you know? You just met him.”

“I bet I’ve done more with him than you.”

Tara got angry as her teeth clenched together and her fists tightened.

“I’m gonna go change,” said the green haired girl.

Tara left with her change of clothes toward the bathroom.

“What’s her problem?” asked Alex, “I was just breaking her chops.”

“Her crush is really bad. Scary sometimes.”

Alex laughed at the inexperience of young girls.

“If you crush on someone, you’ll never get them. Men like confidence; know you’re beautiful and they will too.”

“That’s right,” agreed Ruthie, “So, what ‘did’ happen last night.”

“Nothing, just a lot of confusion.”

After Tara dressed from her nightclothes back into her white skirt and green tank top, she left the bathroom and saw that everyone else had already gone to breakfast. Tara walked down the hall thinking about her ‘new’ competition.

When she reached the dining area, she walked over to the infirmary looked in to see how Clyde was faring. Clyde was reading a book so Tara left him alone and went back; when she reached the dining area she saw that Alex was in her spot next to Ruthie. The only vacant spot was next to Pearl where Ray usually sat, but he was missing. Tara walked around the table and sat next to Pearl.

“Where’s Ray?” asked Tara looking around.

Pearl used her fork to cut off a piece of the grayish meat that sat in front of her.

“He couldn’t behave himself, so he gets to sit over there with Smith,” said Pearl pointing to the next table and Tara’s eyes followed to see Ray waving to her.

She waved back and smiled.

“What’d he do?” inquired Tara.

Pearl sighed as she glared at the back of Ray’s head.

“Something along the lines of carpet and drapes at Alex.”

She looked over at Lock who was on the other side of Pearl and he raised his eyebrows in a halfhearted ‘Hello.’ Tara blushed and turned away. Lock raised a single eyebrow, What was that about? he thought.

“Did you ever actually meet King Velxeer?” asked Ruthie at Alex.

“No, but my father did.”

“Wow, his son is so cute. Can’t wait till he’s king then I can be his queen,” giggled Ruthie.

“Not if I beat ya to it,” winked Alex.

Tara’s eyes narrowed at Alex; she dint much care for this ‘new’ girl.

“Aren’t you a little OLD for Prince Luther?” said Tara stabbing Alex with reality.

Alex glared in Tara’s direction for rebuttal.

“Aren’t you a little YOUNG for Lock?” Lock’s head peeked up from his breakfast.

“What are you two going on about?” asked Lock sternly, “Why don’t both of you-“

“Do I have to break up an argument every single morning?” asked Smith angrily.

All got quiet.

“We are all on the same side, you know,” said Smith.

No one said a word and they all went back to eating.

“After breakfast we meet. I need to know what you know,” he said pointing at Alex.

After breakfast, Pearl, Alex, Tara, Ruthie, Ray, and Smith went into the meeting room next to Smith’s room; it had a large table in the center of the room with twenty chairs around it and the walls were covered with maps of the world, individual continents, and blueprints of various towns including Pan’dier. They all sat down and Smith stood waiting.

“What are we waiting for?” asked Pearl. Then, the doc pushed Clyde into the room in a wheelchair.

“I CAN walk, you know,” whined Clyde.

“Yes,” said the Doc, “And I can scratch my back with a sickle, but that doesn’t mean I should, right?”

“Please, be my guest,” laughed Clyde.

“Didn’t you give him any drugs to make him less irritable?” sighed Smith.

The Doc looked at Smith confused.

“This IS him on drugs.”

Ruthie giggled over in the corner where she was sitting Tara and Ray. The other end had Alex, Lock, and Pearl; Pearl and Lock were merited with being at a higher level than everyone else due to their experience in the field and Alex was seated with them because she has the information they need. The doc scooted Clyde over next to Ruthie; the two of them held hands under the table.

“Let’s begin,” began Smith, “Tell me what the situation is in Pan’dier.”

“Well,” Lock began to say, “about two or three lieutenants as well as approximately fifty soldiers and a dozen attack dogs scattered throughout the town of Pan’dier.”

“How are the civilians?” inquired Smith.

“There being forced to cook for them and offer their homes as shelter, but no extremities. A few murders have already occurred, though.”

“Good. Now, Alex, tell me what you know.”

Alex stood up as Smith sat down.

“Pan’dier is just as Lock said; though I would have been an additional casualty if he hadn’t arrived. I do know for a fact that in two weeks they will take yet another town under their power, but this time there will be no survivors. Their plan is to take the town from three sides and kill all who inhabitants it and turn it into another base to bring prisoners.”

“No, where?” asked Pearl.

“Harmon.”

“Dammit!” yelled Ray, “That’s my hometown.”

“Two weeks, plenty of time to plan a counter attack,” said Smith, “What else? Any insights on how many are actually IN the Empire?”

“About two hundred thousand strong and growing larger every day. Currently, Francisco Gerard is the head man, Ralph Germ is in charge of diplomacy, and the armies are commanded by a real homicidal maniac, Krazz.”

“Krazz what?” asked Lock wanting to know his last name.

“He just calls himself Krazz; he brags about killing the innocent and it’s rumored that he has raped and killed over a thousand little girls. He has no remorse and no conscience. He will not hesitate to sacrifice a million lives just to get what he wants. And to top it off; he’s one of the most skilled fighters anyone has ever seen.”

“How do you know all this?” asked Smith.

“Huh? Oh. Uhh, a few of the soldiers got drunk one night at the pub in Pan’dier and blurted everything out and I overheard them talking.”

“Hmm,” said Smith.

“Okay, Lock, Pearl, and myself will devise a plan to infiltrate Harmon prior to the empire’s attack to map out our battle strategy,” offered Alex sounding like an experienced general when she shouldn’t. “Ruthie, take Alex and Tara in the training move and continue your training with Tara and I want a report on Alex’s capabilities,” ordered Smith.

“Got it!” said Ruthie. Ruthie gave Clyde a kiss on the cheek and left the room followed by Tara and Alex.

On the way to the training room Ruthie enlisted a dozen of the young men from the men’s dorm to challenge Alex and Tara’s abilities. When they made their way inside there were three more wooden dummies standing there waiting to test Tara’s majick. She started by trying to move one of them using telekinesis; this time it was much easier because of all the emotional feelings of passion and jealousy inside her. Alex stood with several young men looking at her.

“Okay, which one first?” Ruthie asked herself.

“One? You three! Let’s go!” she ordered pointing at three boys of about eighteen years of age.

They hesitated for a moment.

“Do yourselves a favor; forget I’m a woman.”

The boys looked at each other and ran towards her; the first two at the same time and the third behind them. Alex side kicked the one the right in the chest pushing him into the boy in back. The boy to her left swung his fist toward her head as she dodged her face out of the way and caught his arm and turned her body flipping him over the front of her shoulder. The boy recovered from her kick and rushed towards her; Alex waited for him to get close enough and did a back flip extending her right foot forward kicking him in the chin in midair before landing on her feet.

The last boy ran up and froze just before she roundhouse kicked him across the cheek. She looked down at her handy work where three injured boys lay; one of them unconscious.

“Next,” she asked.

The rest of the boys stood there shaking their heads from side-to-side. She laughed and looked over at Ruthie who stood there with her jaw to the floor. Alex chuckled and looked over at Tara who was looking right back at her.

“You want some too?” yelled Alex with her arms stretched out to her side.

“Sure,” whispered Tara in anger as she walked slowly and casually to Alex.

When she was ten feet from Alex, Alex put up her fists.

“I’ll go easy on you little girl.”

“That makes one of us,” grinned Tara maliciously.

Tara thrust her right palm forward and Alex felt a cannon ball hit her in the chest as she flew back forty feet till the wall stopped her and she fell to the floor.

“Looks like she brings out the worst in you,” whispered Ruthie to Tara just before running to check on Alex.

Alex laid there thinking she’s so lucky I promised not to use MY power, damn you Lock! Ruthie kneeled down to check on Alex.

“You need the Doc?”

Alex jumped up to her feet like nothing had happened, but was still in pain.

“Why would I?” Alex walked out of the training room giving Tara an evil vengeful look.

“No! Absolutely not!” yelled Smith at Lock’s idea.

“You know damn well he’s a valuable asset,” retorted Lock.

“I kicked him out of here for a reason.”

“Smith,” interrupted Pearl respectfully, “He might be able to help. I mean, he can go places and not be seen. That’s something that could benefit us in Harmon.”

Smith sighed and slammed his fist on the table to prompt silence.

“Fine, go request his help. Pay him no more than a pound of gold.”

“One pound to risk his life for a man that banished him from his home?” objected Lock.

“One pound! If he doesn’t want it, he can stay in the wasteland of a swamp he lives in,” said Smith then walked out of the meeting room.

Pearl and Lock looked at each other as they heard Smith’s door slam from next door.

Ruthie and Tara walked in the room distracted by the noise they just heard.

“How’d it go?” asked Pearl.

“Well, I think Tara’s ready for the field.”

“Good, and Alex?” smiled Pearl.

“She’s very talented, but I don’t think it would be a good idea to send them on the same mission together.”

Lock looked at Tara questionably.

“What happened? Did she do something to you Tara?”

“No,” smiled Tara, “The other way around.”

Pearl hung her head and slapped her forehead with her palm.

“Go get some rest guys. We’ll discuss our mission later.”

“K, bye,” squeaked Ruthie as Tara followed.

Lock shook his head at the idea of Tara and Alex, then turned to look at Pearl who was scanning him up and down followed by an intense look into his eyes,

“I don’t see it.”

“See what?” asked Lock.

“What all the fuss is about.”

“What are you talking about?”

Pearl sat down and waiting for Lock to sit with her which he did.

“Are you blind?”

“No.”

“So you can see the way Tara looks at you?”

“Sure, she respects me. I saved her life, after all.”

Pearl laughed maniacally at his ignorance.

“No, she can’t STOP looking at you. In her mind you’re the man of her dreams. She wants to marry you, but only cause she doesn’t know any better. I doubt she’s ever been in love.”

“So, she has a crush on me?”

“Wow, the last horse finally finishes the race. Just don’t hurt her Lock and the best way to not hurt her is to not get involved, got it?”

“Of course, I would never-“

“Oh, and as far as Alex goes; I know.”

“Know what?” Pearl stood up and looked down at Lock with a suspicious grin on her face, “I ain’t stupid.”

She turned her back on him and left him to sit by himself... Lock stayed sitting for several moments thinking…