"Jesus," Jeff said as two women pushed their bodies against his and stuck their tongues in his ears. A third — one of the naked ones — grabbed him from the front and jammed her tongue in his mouth while taking his hand and putting it on her left breast. He dutifully squeezed it. All three of the women thanked him over and over for freeing Mars. A man stepped forward and put a marijuana pipe in Jeff's free hand.
"There you go, my ass buddy!" he yelled over the noise. "The finest AgriCorp green there is. I work in the fields and I picked it myself just for this occasion! Take a hit!"
Jeff put the pipe to his mouth and three more people shoved laser lighters forward to light it for him. Meanwhile, the naked girl who had kissed him had dropped to her knees and was pulling his shorts down. Jeff coughed out the hit as he felt her mouth upon his manhood, slurping at him.
"She's such a cheap slut," one of the other girls said with a laugh. "Don't you just love her?"
"Fuckin' aye," Jeff agreed, letting his head fall back on his shoulders. The two girls took this as an invitation to start kissing and sucking on his neck. He let them work on him for about a minute before gently disentangling himself, explaining that he had to get to the hospital. They pouted a little but let him go. He pulled his shorts back up, covering a turgid and wet erection and didn't make it more than two steps before another woman, this one in her forties, grabbed him and stuck her tongue in his mouth as well, her hands squeezing at his ass.
"Thank you," she told him between kisses. "Thank you for making us free!"
"You're welcome, baby," he said, unable to help but give a few squeezes to her tremendous breasts.
Xenia and Belinda were both getting mobbed as well. Xenia's shirt had been pulled up and a man and a woman were suckling on her breasts. Belinda was tongue kissing with one woman while a man was down on his knees before her, orally servicing her. They finally disentangled themselves as well and put their clothing back in order.
"Now that's what we were fuckin' fighting for!" Belinda said happily as another woman stepped forward and kissed her on the mouth.
"Fuckin' aye," Xenia agreed, giving a squeeze to the crotch of someone who was offering her a marijuana pipe.
They began to work their way toward the MarsTrans station on the next block. It took them almost twenty minutes to reach it because people kept stopping them, kissing them, groping them, allowing them to grope them back, and giving them hits off pipes and joints and even the occasional bong. Every one of them thanked them profoundly and sincerely for what they had done. By the time their train pulled into the station all three of them were stoned out of their minds and brimming with sexual arousal.
The train was about half full. They made their way to the back of one of the cars and every person they passed thanked them, most with just words, a few with kisses and gropes. They found a row of seats and sat down just as the train pulled out of the station.
"That was quite a welcome home," Belinda said. "I think it made everything we went through out there worthwhile."
"You ain't shittin'," Jeff said. "I ain't never had me no blowjob in the fuckin street before."
"I'm fuckin' horny," Xenia said, her eyes a little glassy. "I don't think I've ever been hornier." She looked at her two companions. "Both of you, fuck me, right here, right now!"
Belinda smiled. "What's the magic word?" she asked.
"I love you," she told her. She turned to Jeff. "I love you too. I love both of you deeply and completely. Now fuckin' fuck me!"
"I don't think she's being sincere, B," Jeff said sadly.
"Me either," Belinda agreed. "It's the horniness talking again."
"Are you out of your fuckin' minds?" Xenia yelled at them. "I could get laid anywhere, by anyone right now." She stood up. "Attention, everyone in this car!"
Everyone turned around in his or her seats to look at her.
"I'm extremely horny right now and I want to get fucked! Is there anyone in this car who would be willing to fuck me right here and right now?"
Hands went up from every man on the car and from well over half of the women. Even a few of the children raised their hands.
"Sorry, false alarm," Xenia said. "At least for now. If these two dawgs here don't wanna do the job, then I'll get back to you."
There was some good-natured groaning and a few teasing remarks about teasing thrown back at her. She sat back down.
"You see," she said. "It isn't just sex I'm after. I could get that if I wanted it. I want sex from both of you, the two people I fucking love! Now are you going to give it to me, or what?"
They looked at each other for a moment and then both of them shrugged.
"It wasn't exactly what we were dreaming of I'm sure," Belinda said, "but I'll accept your sincerity at face value on the grounds that I'm hornier than I've ever been as well."
"I'm down with that," Jeff said, standing up and pulling his shirt off his body.
And so their first act of love with each other took place on a half-empty MarsTrans train. It was quick, forceful, and very satisfying. It was also quite entertaining to those passengers who were lucky enough to have picked that particular car to ride in.
Eden General Hospital was a bit of a contrast to the celebrations in the street. It was packed to well beyond capacity, the overflow having spilled out into two adjoining office buildings. Harried doctors, nurses, and other technicians move frantically here and there. Every available floor space was filled with cots in which wounded MPG soldiers or wounded WestHem soldiers were being housed and cared for. Scores of uniformed MPG soldiers — undoubtedly on the same mission as Xenia, Belinda, and Jeff, wandered here and there. A large line of them had formed before a main desk terminal that was staffed by four security guards.
"We'll never find anyone in here," Belinda cried. "Look how many people there are."
"Yeah," Jeff said, looking at some of the soldiers in the lobby cots. He saw people with arms and legs missing, with horrible facial injuries, people on ventilators, with holes drilled in their necks. "I had no idea there were so many."
"Come on," Xenia said, pointing to the line of troops. "Let's get in line. They should be able to tell us where to go."
They waited in the line for more than forty minutes before making it to the front. Once there they gave Zen's name to the security guard. He looked it up on his computer. "He's in the Bangkok Building next door. Second floor, sector Bravo six. The notation says he's able to have visitors."
"How about Matt Mendez?" Jeff asked. "I commed his dad and he told me he was here too."
"You know his date of birth or his social?"
Matt rattled off his date of birth.
"Upstairs," the guard told him. "Fiftieth floor, nephrology wing. He's accepting visitors as well."
"Right," Jeff said. "Thanks."
"You wanna go visit your friend first?" Xenia asked.
"Yeah," he said. "If you don't mind."
"You want us to come with you?" Belinda asked.
"You're my bitches now, aren't you?" he asked them. "Of course I want you to come with me. We'll be quick."
They walked to the elevator and had to wait another twenty minutes before being able to board one of the cars. The trip up to the fiftieth floor took another ten minutes. They emerged into a sterile hallway and followed the signs to the Nephrology Department. It was a small ward that had been designed for perhaps twenty patient beds. Currently it was housing well over a hundred. Most of the patients had visitors with them, adding to the overcrowding. Still the mood seemed more festive than somber and the smell of marijuana smoke could be detected even here.