"What?" says Judy, "I don't hear anything."
"They're calling you, lad. Out there."
"Who?" asks Andy, listening.
"They are, for Crissake." He lets go of Judy and kicks over to Andy. "Listen, you're a great kid. Can't you see me and Judy have some business to discuss private?" He turns Andy gently around and pushes – him at the bean-stakes. "It's New Year's Eve, dummy."
Andy floats passively away through the fence of:' vines, raising a hand at Lorimer and Connie. Bud is back with Judy.
"Happy New Year, kitten," he smiles.
"Happy New Year. Did you do special things on New Year?" she asks curiously.
"What we did on New Year's." He chuckles, taking her shoulders in his hands. "On New Year's Eve, yes we did. Why don't I show you some of our primitive Earth customs, h'mm?"
She nods, wide eyed.
"Well, first we wish each other well, like this." He draws her to him and lightly kisses her cheek. "Keerist, what a dumb bitch," he says in a totally diff voice. "You can tell you've been out too long when the geeks start looking good. Knockers, ahhh-" His hand plays with her blouse. The man is unaware, Lorimer realizes. He doesn't know he's drugged, he's speaking his thoughts. I must have done that. Oh, god… He takes shelter behind his crystal lens, an observer in the protective light of eternity.
"And then we smooch a little." The friendly voice is back. Bud holds the girl closer, caressing her back. "Fat ass." He puts his mouth on hers; she doesn't resist. Lorimer watches Bud's arms tighten, his hands working on her buttocks, going under her clothes. Safe in the lens his own sex stirs. Judy's arms are waving aimlessly.
Bud breaks for a breath, a hand at his zipper.
"Stop staring," he says hoarsely. "One fucking more word, you'll find out what that big mouth is for. Oh, man, a flagpole. Like steel… Bitch, this is your lucky day." He is baring her breasts now, big breasts. Fondling them. "Two fucking years in the ass end of no place," he mutters, "shit on me will you? Can't wait, watch ittitty-titty-titties-"
He kisses her again, quickly and smiles down at her. "Good?" he asks in his tender voice, and sinks his mouth on her nipples, his. hand seeking in her thighs. She jerks and says something muffled. Lorimer's arteries are pounding with delight, with dread.
"I-I think this should stop," he makes himself say falsely, hoping he isn't saying more. Through the pulsing tension he hears Connie whisper back, it sounds like "Don't worry, Judy's very athletic." Terror stabs him, they don't know. But he can't help.
"Cunt," Bud grunts, "you have to have a cunt in there, is it froze up? You dumb cunt- " Judy's face appears briefly in her floating hair, a remote part of Lorimer's mind notes that she looks amused and un comfortable. His being is riveted to the sight of Bud expertly controlling her body in midair, peeling down the yellow slacks. Oh god-her dark pubic mat, the thick white thighs-a perfectly normal woman, no mutation. Ohhh, god… But there is suddenly a drifting shadow in the way: Andy again floating over them with something in his hands.
"You dinko, Jude?" the boy asks.
Bud's face comes up red and glaring. "Bug.out, you!"
"Oh, I won't bother."
"Jee-sus Christ." Bud lunges up and grabs Andy's arm, his legs still hooked around Judy. "This is man's business, boy, do I have to spell it out?" He shifts his gyp. "Shoo!"
In one swift motion he has jerked Andy close and backhanded his face hard, sending him sailing into the vines.
Bud gives a bark of laughter, bends back to Judy. Lorimer can see his erection poking through his fly. He wants to utter some warning, tell them their peril, but he can only ride the hot pleasure surging through him, melting his crystal shell. Go on, more-avidly he sees Bud mouth her breasts again and then suddenly flip her whole body over, holding her wrists behind her in one fist, his legs pinning hers. Her bare buttocks bulge up helplessly, enormous moons. "Ass-s-s," Bud groans. "Up you bitch, ahh-hh-" He pulls her butt onto him.
Judy gives a cry, begins to struggle futilely. Lorimer's shell boils and bursts. Amid the turmoil ghosts outside are trying to rush in. And something is moving, a real ghost-to his dismay he sees it is Andy again, floating toward the joined bodies, holding a whirring thing. Oh, no-a camera. The fools.
"Get away!" he tries to call to the boy.
But Bud's head turns, he has seen. "You little pissass." His long arm shoots out and captures Andy's shirt, his legs still locked around Judy.
"I've had it with you." His fist slams into Andy's mouth, the camera goes spinning away. But this time Bud doesn't let him go, he is battering the boy, all of them rolling in a tangle in the air.
"Stop!" Lorimer hears himself shout, plunging at them through the beans. "Bud, stop it! You're hitting a woman." The angry face comes around, squinting at him.
"Get lost, Doc, you little fart. Get your own ass."
"Andy' is a woman, Bud. You're hitting a girl. She's not a man."
"Huh?" Bud glances at Andy's bloody face. He shakes the shirtfront. "Where's the boobs?"
"She doesn't have breasts, but she's a woman. Her real name is Kay. They're all women. Let her go, Bud."
Bud stares at the androgyne, his legs still pinioning Judy, his penis poking the air. Andy puts up his/her hands in a vaguely combative way.
"A dyke?" says Bud slowly. "A goddam little bull dyke? This I gotta see."
He feints casually, thrusts a band into Andy's crotch.
"No balls!" he roars. "No balls at all!" Convulsing with laughter he lets himself tip over in the air, releasing Andy, his legs letting Judy slip free. "Na-ah," he interrupts himself to grab her hair and goes on guffawing. "A dyke! Hey, dykey!" He takes hold of his hard-on, waggles it at Andy. "Eat your heart out, little dyke." Then he pulls up Judy's head. She has been watching unresisting all along.
"Take a good look, girlie. See what old Buddy has for you? Tha-aat's what you want, say it. How long since you saw a real man, hey, dog-face?"
Maniacal laughter bubbles up in Lorimer's gut, farce too strong for fear. "She never saw a man in her life before, none of them has. You imbecile, don't you get it? There aren't any other men, they've all been dead three hundred years."
Bud slowly stops chuckling, twists around to peer at Lorimer.
"What'd I hear you say, Doc?"
"The men are all gone. They died off in the epidemic. There's nothing but women left alive on Earth."
"You mean there's, there's two million women down there and no men?" His jaw gapes. "Only little bull dykes like Andy… Wait a minute. Where do, they get the kids?"
"They grow them artificially. They're all girls."
"Gawd…" Bud's hand clasps his drooping penis, jiggles it absently until it stiffens. "Two million hot little cunts down there, waiting for old Buddy. Gawd. The last man on Earth… You don't count, Doc. And old Dave, he's full of crap."
He begins to pump himself, still holding Judy by the hair. The motion sends them slowly backward. Lorimer sees that Andy-Kayhas the camera going again. There is a big star-shaped smear of blood on the boyish face; cut lip, probably. He himself feels globed in thick air, all action spent. Not lucid.
"Two million cunts," Bud repeats. "Nobody home, nothing but pussy everywhere. I can do anything I want any time. No more shits." He pumps faster. "They'll be spread out for miles begging for it. Clawing each other for it. All for me, King Buddy.
I'll have strawberries and cunt for breakfast. Hot buttered boobies, man. 'N' head, there'll be a couple little twats licking whip cream off my cock all day long… Hey, I'll have contests! Only the best for old Buddy now. Not you, cow." He jerks Judy's head. "U'1 teenies, tight li'1 holes. I'll make the old broads hot 'em up while I watch." He frowns slightly, working on himself. In a clinical corner of his mind Lorimer guesses the drug is retarding ejaculation. He tells himself that he should be relieved by Bud's self-absorption, is instead obscurely terrified.