HSA: 511 - Spread

Early June, 1988

Suzie double checked her gear, making sure all the wires fastened securely to her harness. “Alright, I’m good.” She grabbed hold of the rope and didn’t wait for Martin’s go ahead before swinging out over the open chasm. She heard his yelp of protest, but the drop wasn’t that far. She might even survive it if something came loose or snapped.

“Crazy woman!” Martin yelled after her. He sounded his usual frustrated self, but with the slightest hint of shocked awe lurking underneath. Suzie expected he admired her foolhardy daring, though he’d never admit it. He kept the wires steady though, and that’s all she needed at the moment.

Moving down the rope with ease, her flashlight did little to cut back the dark. The cavern walls closed in quickly as she neared the Eye, as they’d dubbed it. She’d wanted to called it what it actually looked like, the Vagina, but that had made Martin uncomfortable. The shaft narrowed into a four meter long, narrow opening. At either end, the slit was too narrow to get through, but at the very center, it opened enough for a full sized adult to pass with some difficulty. Suzie had been caving for years and never liked the narrow passes. For the Eye though, she wanted to make an exception.

She found it two years earlier on an idle run through the hillside. Small openings into the cave network weren’t uncommon, but most of them had been marked by government surveying teams over the years. Or, at the very least, the locals knew about them from hunters or other folk who spent time in the woods. The Eye, so far as Suzie knew, was known only to her and Martin, their own private gate into a brand new cave system. She’d wanted to start mapping it right away, but once she told Martin he put her on ice.

“Unsafe” he’d said. So far as they could tell, the Eye did not have an outlet into any of the other nearby cave systems. That meant some nasty stuff could be waiting in the dark beyond the small opening. Bad air worried Martin the most, which is why Suzie had a small oxygen tank strapped to her side. He’d done as many tests as he could, all of them came back negative for any buildup of carbon dioxide, but they weren’t reliable, especially when done by dangling wires down a shaft. In the end, he’d agreed to let them go down with some extra kit, but that didn’t speed up their exploration.

Life still pressed in otherwise. Suzie couldn’t go without Martin, and she didn’t want to share her discovery with anyone else. Martin’s job kept him busier than he liked, and Suzie, despite her enthusiasm, couldn’t go into an unknown cave at the drop of a hat. Once the extra gear arrived, they fought schedules for four months before finding a weekend with enough time to get in a good dive.

Suzie knew the walls narrowed near the Eye, but actually reaching that spot still surprised her. The cavern walls squeezed in around her shoulders. The gentle sway of the rope kept bumping her into the walls. Beneath her, the shaft opened into the Eye. Martin had no idea how such a crack could form at the bottom of a tunnel, but it did heighten his worries about trapped gas and spontaneous flooding. She slowed her descent, letting her feet drag along the walls of the cavern as she tried to angle herself to get the flashlight shining through the opening. Their tests had let them know a floor waited about ten feet beyond the opening, but that didn’t mean much. The depth test could have landed on a small outcropping beside another fifty foot drop. The idea of a massive chasm of blackness waiting a few feet beyond the Eye excited and terrified Suzie. Still, she kept going.

At the opening of the Eye, Suzie could no longer turn. One foot landed on the narrowest bit while the other lingered over the opening. Another haunting thought of something reaching up through the opening and grabbing her foot gave her a moment’s pause. Her instinct overrode the errant thoughts, though. They’d not been able to accurately judge the breadth of the opening from the surface, but Martin would be disappointed to learn that Suzie could barely squeeze down, ruling him out completely unless they widened the opening. Her back scraped against the wall as she started to push herself down. Once both feet were through, she kicked around cautiously, praying she wouldn’t collide with another wall only inches away. But no, her lower leg could move freely in any direction beyond the opening. She doubled checked her ropes, took a deep breath, and started wriggling down.

She stopped at her shoulders. Martin called down to ask if everything was alright. Suzie shouted back, “Yep!” and hoped that would keep him calm for long enough to get out of earshot. Her arms went up over her head, and she released the tension on her rope, causing a short quick drop as the Eye swallowed her. Her body lights created a small bubble around her, but not enough to see anything. She flicked her main flashlight on, and a bright orange beam scattered on slightly wet, dark walls. Turning the light down, she saw the cavern floor right where they’d predicted, about eight feet from where she hung.

The walkie-talkie clipped to her shoulder strap chirped. “Suzie? Can you hear me?”

She didn’t have the hands free to reach her own radio, so she craned her neck down to press the button. “Yeah, I’m good. Give me a minute.” She spun to examine the chamber, looking for any other tunnels. The rock looked like limestone, not uncommon in the area, but also not usually so uniform. The far corners of the cavern remained dark. She would have to get on the ground to find any other narrow exits. Looking directly under her, she was pleased to see a clear area to land. A few rock outcroppings crowded the cavern, but otherwise it was a smooth bowl buried thirty feet under the surface.

Touching down, she unbuckled herself from the harness, and grabbed her radio. “Martin? Still with me? How’s reception?”

“Little scrambled, but you’re clear enough. What’s it looking like down there? No lightheadedness?”

“I feel fine. Pretty hollowed out. Not much to remark on really. Hang on. Martin? There’s a door.”

At the far end of the chamber from where she’d landed, an old, mostly rusted iron door sat embedded into the wall of the cave. Its dark surface sucked in the light and made its presence all the more ominous. Turning her attention back to the cavern, Suzie realized why the area looked so clean and neat. “Someone already cleared this tunnel. These rocks are cut, not eroded.” Crossing back to the opposite end of the tunnel, she saw the remnant of old joists and timbers. “Holy crap, we’ve wandered into an old mine shaft or something.”

“Get back in your harness. We’ll need to pull you out. Maybe call a preservation society or something. God knows what’s down there.”

Suzie ignored him, going back to the door. Why a door? An iron door at that. Mines don’t have doors, especially hand crafted ones set into the fucking limestone itself. She looked closer and realized how rainwater escaped the cavern. Near the bottom, the rust had broken through enough for several sizable holes to form. The shifting earth had also rocked the door from its hinges, creating a few more gaps. Suzie guessed that the only thing holding it in place was its own weight.

As she examined the door, she saw words hammered into the metal. Written in an old script, she struggled to read them in the low light. Most were prayers or odd verses of scripture. The prayers asked for forgiveness, and the scriptures spoke on Sodom and Gomorrah or other tales sinful lust. Some were written so small that they’d already faded into the rust. At the right side of the door, an old iron ring acted as the doorknob. Above the ring were the words, “A place forsaken by GOD.”

“Hey, Martin? I think you might be right. There’s some pretty freaky stuff down here.”

“Good, some sense finally. Get back in your harness. I’ll reel you up.”

And that will be the last time we ever see the bottom of this cave. Some protection society will take over and amateur cave divers will be blocked from this place. I’ll have to spend the rest of my life wondering what’s beyond that door. “Sure, sure. I just…I have to try and open it first.”

“What? Open the door? Suzie are you nuts? They probably hit a gas pocket and walled it off.”

She ignored him. Putting down her radio and flashlight, she grabbed hold of the iron ring. Planting her feet on the slick rock, she pulled as hard as she could. A groaning, grinding sound of metal against stone filled the chamber. Martin’s shouts echoed down the entrance, but disappeared into the cacophony of the door grating against the floor. Each inch took all of her strength and agonizing seconds of effort, but once it started to open, she didn’t want to stop. The air changed as a cool gust from the closed chamber rushed out toward her. After a few long minutes, the door stood open wide enough for her to pass through. Martin’s chaotic chirping on the radio had become more garbled, and she left the device behind. Flashlight in hand, she stepped into the next chamber.

The light’s beam scattered again and again, reflecting between thousands upon thousands of golden crystals. Suzie’s breath caught in her throat. She’d never seen anything so beautiful. The crystaline structure sprouted up from the floor of the chamber like a tree with its branches arcing out to cover the entire ceiling and walls with short, flat crystals. Only around the door was the stone free of what looked more like a biological growth than a geological one. Shining the light into the center of the structure filled the room with a warm glow that drew in her attention. Suzie looked into the center of the crystals with a determination to see something more than the reflection of light. God, it’s beautiful.

The light filled her mind. She knew what she needed to do. Walking to the nearby wall, she took hold of one of the crystals and pulled. It came away easily. She collected three dozen, stowing them in her kit. Once she completed her task, she turned back to look at the crystaline structure with a feeling of great sadness and gratitude. Why would they lock you away? Why would they put such a gift back into the earth? She left the chamber and picked up the radio.

“— Suzie? C’mon, Suzie. Don’t do this to me.”

“Martin, it’s all right. I’m coming up now. I found something incredible. You have to see it.”

The drive to Suzie’s house unnerved Martin. He was concerned that she’d suffered some kind of oxygen deprivation down in the cave. While not showing any other symptoms, she did have a dazed look about her. Further, she wouldn’t let Martin see whatever she’d collected down beyond the Eye. For the whole drive, she kept her bag clutched tightly in her lap, sometimes looking at it as though she were carrying an infant. She conversed normally when prompted, describing the old door in great detail, perhaps even with derision, like it had offended her by existing. Martin wanted to make plans to call a preservation society or someone from the other spelunking teams for some advice, but Suzie told him to wait. She said everything would make sense back at her house.

When they arrived, she told Martin to sit on the couch in her living room. “I want to get cleaned up,” she said. “While I’m showering, I want you to look at something.” She opened the bag and withdrew a small, golden crystal. Martin’s eyes went to it immediately.

“You found that in the cave? What kind of….oh,” Martin’s eyes blurred. He couldn’t see the crystal any more, only the light around and inside it. It was beautiful. In the crystal’s light, he could see the whole of the world. On it, he could see an array of glittering glass, empty of anything. These glass shapes moved about with no clear purpose, sometimes colliding into each other, sometimes shattering, sometimes splintering into new fragments. Yet none of them had the light except one, Suzie. Martin’s sense of reason and logic wanted his body to feel fear, but a new, lovely drone in his mind pushed aside those thoughts. The new voice had one clear directive. Spread.

Martin snapped out of the crystal’s trance. He didn’t know how long it had kept him in that daze, perhaps minutes or perhaps hours. It didn’t matter. He rose off the couch and went to the back of the house, knowing what he would find. In the bedroom, Suzie laid back on the bed, one of the crystals sliding in and out of her naked pussy. Martin noticed the pile of crystals beside the bed and wondered if she’d used each of them as a dildo already, perhaps as a way of christening them for their next purpose. That didn’t matter either. So many things had become needless trivialities to him. Only one thing mattered — spreading the crystal’s light. And, more importantly, creating new light.

Suzie spotted him in the doorway. She pulled the makeshift dildo out of her pussy and tossed it onto the pile. Rolling over onto her hands and knees, she jutted her ass up into the air. She hoped her body pleased Martin. Before the crystal, she’d toyed with the idea of having sex with him. On more than a few occasions, they’d wound up back at one or the other’s homes after a day of caving. Sweaty and energized by the excitement of exploration, she knew of a few moments that could have easily slipped into a more carnal affair. She could have asked him to join her in the shower. He could have asked her to stay the night. All those moments passed, though. Suzie figured they’d both valued the friendship too much to risk exploring any other path. Now all of it seemed so small. Perhaps they’d simply been waiting for the crystal’s blessing.

Martin’s thoughts were less broad. The drone of the voice clouded his mind and encouraged the more primal thoughts bubbling up from his subconscious. He’d watched Suzie change her gear or swap clothes several times. Her body always tempted him. He’d fantasized about her more than a few times over the years. Seeing her now, on all fours on her bed with her pussy dripping wet, overloaded what little sense he had left. If this was what the new voice in his mind wanted, he saw no reason to object. The voice agreed, Enjoy. Spread. Martin stripped out of his clothes and climbed onto the bed behind his friend.

His hands moved over her body as she wriggled under his touch. He’d not been with a woman in a while, but he doubted his last encounter had anything close to the same feelings of sensuality and urgency. Suzie wasn’t a woman yearning for pleasure, at least she wasn’t only that. She was a vessel waiting to be filled. Martin’s hands moved up her sides, enjoying the feeling of her warm skin under his rough fingertips. She leaned into his touch, encouraging him to explore her body. Martin’s hand reached her breast, cupping it and letting his climber’s palms brush against her hard nipple. He massaged gently as his cock wedged itself between her pussy lips. Some last insecurity caused him to glance over at the crystals beside the bed, wondering if his cock would compare either physically or metaphysically. That worry vanished as he pushed forward, sheathing himself inside of her.

Suzie groaned as her walls stretched to accommodate Martin’s cock. He started to thrust in and out of her. His hands moved to her small, tight ass, squeezing or pulling as he felt the need. Suzie closed her eyes and enjoyed the feeling of him sliding in and out of her. She knew he wouldn’t last long, but that was fine. They would have plenty of times to experience each other. He pushed inside to his limit as his balls slapped against her wet lips. Martin groaned, and Suzie trembled with anticipation. The first gush of cum shot inside of her, pouring into her womb as Martin’s orgasm shook him from head to toe. Surprisingly, the feeling of cum spraying inside of her put Suzie on the very edge. Her hand moved down to rub her clit as she pressed back hard against Martin’s twitching cock, keeping him buried deep inside of her as her pussy walls milked him. The light touch of her fingers pushed her over. Muscles all through her body tensed as waves of pleasure crashed through her. She let out a choked scream as her mind filled with brilliant light.

They slumped against one another. Martin’s cock softened until it slipped out, followed by a torrent of cum. Their reverie was short lived, though. Each climbed off the bed, driven into motion by the thrumming light in their minds. Martin started to dress himself while Suzie simply put on her robe. She gathered the crystals from beside the bed and put them in a small bag. Once Martin had on his pants and shirt, he led the way to the front door. They stepped outside and focused on the house across the street.

Mark and Emily Nelson had been married for four years. They spent their Saturdays around the house. Mark watched football, and Emily gossiped on the phone. They knew their neighbors casually, but didn’t associate with them directly all that much. The single woman across the street in particular put Emily on edge. She didn’t like the “modern” woman that Suzie represented. Emily assumed that distaste had been adequately conveyed in the few times they’d interacted with one another. It didn’t increase Emily’s opinion of Suzie that she pranced around in skimpy clothes all the time while Mark was out washing the car or mowing the lawn. Emily didn’t think of herself as conservative, but her mother had effectively instilled a deep rooted hatred of sexuality. If Mark minded, he didn’t let her know. She never exactly understood the connection between his quickly deteriorating physical fitness, and his growing drinking problem.

Emily sat at the dining room table flipping through a magazine when the doorbell rang. She heard it so infrequently that she’d forgotten about it. Mark grumbled as he hopped out of his recliner and went to answer. Emily’s curiosity couldn’t let her husband handle it himself though. She dropped the magazine and walked out to the foyer to see who was bothering their peaceful afternoon. Her lip curled to see Suzie stepping through the door. Emily didn’t recognize the man behind her, but didn’t give him much regard because she realized that the whore from across the street had walked into their house with nothing on other than a night robe. Mark’s eyes had bugged out staring at Suzie’s fully exposed breasts. Emily opened her mouth to demand an explanation, but at right that moment Suzie held up a small crystal.

Emily and Mark stared at the peculiar object as Suzie led the four of them walked into the living room. Emily tried to tear her eyes away from it, but every second she stared at the thing made her determined to see more. She thought she saw something moving deep inside the refracting light. The draw of it filled her thoughts with a soothing voice. Spread. Her body started to react before her mind could accept it. Her nipples ached to be touched. Her underwear grew wet with arousal. Even her ass and thighs yearned to be groped. A similar reaction took control of Mark as Suzie put the crystal down on the table. His pants tented as he started to strip. Emily moved to her husband with the clear directive in her mind. Spread.

Kneeling in front of Mark, she unzipped his pants and pulled out his cock. She never liked sex very much, but that seemed like another life. How could she not like it? It was the one true purpose of existence. To spread. She opened her mouth and let her husband’s cock slide over her tongue. Mark grunted, but didn’t look down at her. His eyes remained transfixed on the crystal. Emily started to bob her head along his shaft, pleased with the feeling of his twitching cock as it wriggled against her tongue. She gagged a few times as she tried to take more of his length down her throat, but if her enthusiasm was appreciated, Mark didn’t show it.

On the other side of the room, Suzie let her robe fall off as Martin shucked off his pants. He sat down in Mark’s recliner and Suzie climbed on top of him, facing away so that he could toy with her ass as they both watched the newest initiates spread.

Mark finally looked away from the crystal. The voice of his distance self tried to scream in alarm as he looked around at the living room. Moments before, he’d been having a beer while watching the game. Now the neighbor girl was riding some guy’s cock in his chair while Emily sucked his dick. Her mouth was warm and wet, but he knew that would be a waste. He pulled her off his cock, guided her over to the couch, and pushed her onto her back. With quick work, they both undressed fully. Emily’s big tits wobbled as she adjusted herself to a comfortable position on the couch. Her fuzzy pussy spread open for her husband as he climbed between her legs. With a quick push, he sheathed himself inside of her like he had time and again over the past few years. This time was different though. They both knew that. This time they were a breeding pair with one purpose.

Mark grabbed the back of his wife’s knees and started to slam into her with all the force he could muster. Across the room, the stranger’s hands pawed up to cup Suzie’s breasts as they grinded against each other. Mark could clearly see the other man’s dick sliding in and out of Suzie’s already creamy cunt. He wanted his wife’s to look like that, to always look like that. She would be leaking his cum from now on. Mark dropped forward, pushing Emily’s knees out of the way. His mouth lowered onto her nipple and sucked, hard. Emily squealed with pleasure, the first honest sound she’d ever made while they were having sex. That was enough to drive him over the edge. His hands moved up to wrap around his wife as his balls emptied into her. Nearby, Suzie squealed as she received her second load from Martin.

After the four of them recovered, Mark and Emily had hundreds of questions, but none of them could escape their lips. They looked at Suzie with confusion until Suzie retrieved a bag from the foyer. From inside she took out two more crystals. Emily took one and understood. Spread.

Report of HSA Agent Richard Lee

Case #511
A Crystalline Structure located underneath the town of Aberdeen, Tennessee
October, 1988

The initial report filed was regarding a missing person. Actually, it was the third missing person filed within the span of a week. Even so, the alarm didn’t trip for a while because the people weren’t actually missing. Local police went to investigate based on calls from out of town relatives or employers, found the persons in question happily at home, and dismissed it as a prank of some sort.

When the third case came up, an Officer Wilson Ethridge went to confirm the residence of Emily Nelson on his way home rather than during regular hours. Officer Ethridge approached the house he believed to be Ms. Nelson’s, but saw through an open window a pair of people having sex. From his own admission, Officer Ethridge was embarrassed, but recalled seeing something strange in the room beside the couple. He described it as a glowing golden light. Considering it initially to be a strange lamp, Officer Ethridge decided to return the following day, but on his way to his vehicle noticed the same strange light coming from every house on the street. He investigated further, discovering eighteen of the twenty-two houses on the street contained the light. As each house followed the same template, they all shared a large bay window on the front facing side. Officer Ethridge was able to confirm at the time that in each house, a couple was involved in sexual activity, seemingly in sync.

The HSA division was contacted a week later when a local operative caught wind of the strange phenomenon. Officer Ethridge had been recommended to a psych evaluation from which we procured him for his story.

Our own investigation began soon after. We identified a four block radius in a suburban area. Not all houses were affected. Those that were generally housed a young couple or young individuals. Every woman interviewed was two months pregnant. All homes contained one of the crystals. The subjects surrendered the crystals happily, as though glad to be rid of it. Not an uncommon feature of HSA relics. During followup interviews, however, subjects experienced difficulty recalling any activity which occurred since June of this year. Our agents also noted dramatic changes in personality. Subjects were often irritable and erratic.

While investigating the source of the crystals, I connected the statements of REDACTED and REDACTED who were involved in amateur cave exploration to some local history we discovered about a mine shaft which was abruptly abandoned in the early 1800s. In a follow up interview with those subjects, we were able to ascertain the location of item 511. After a short excavation, our team removed several human relics including an iron door installed by the town locals at some point roughly 200 years earlier. The structure remained in tact, showing no space where the confiscated crystals could have been removed from, but the organic nature of the structure indicated rapid growth might be possible. The structure itself, like the recovered crystals from affected homes, appeared dormant. After a quick initial investigation, I determined the best path was to further obstruct access to to the structure while also damaging it as much as possible.

At my direction, a portion of the crystal was recovered for study. Afterward, the cavern was primed with explosives. We believe that 80% of the structure was destroyed. The collapsed earth was then further buried by concrete before additional earth brought in to cover the anomaly with a natural setting.

Addendum, May 1989
Agent Richard Lee

At my discretion, I tasked a team of agents to monitor the pregnancies which resulted from the phenomenon last year. None of the cases presented any unusual symptoms and all carried successfully to term. The only unusual development is that all sixty three of the children were born with hazel eyes.

Otherwise, the cases continue to be monitored. Most of the couples who experienced the phenomenon have since separated, sharing custody of the child. Many have moved. Will continue monitoring.

Addendum, January 2011
Agent Richard Lee

This case has dogged me for twenty years. I fought for budget preservation again and again, but a little of it chipped away every year. I monitored all sixty-three with round the clock surveillance for the first year. Then yearly check-ins for a while after that. Then we started losing them. By the time I knew, we’d lost track of all but twenty-nine. When the new director took over, the program was terminated altogether. I kept track though, of all that I could. Now, I’m retiring as well. The fifth field agent in the entire history of the HSA to manage it, but I didn’t do so without plenty of failures.

I wanted to tie this one off somehow though. Called in favors. Tracked down as many of the kids as I could. They’re all in their twenties now, most of them normal — at least as normal as kids are these days. I don’t think any of them know about the others or what happened to enable their conception. That’s probably for the best. I could go into my little lake house perfectly at ease, I thought. Until I learned about Benjamin Nelson.

Benjamin died in a tragic car accident two years ago. Nothing suspicious about his death and nothing on the autopsy other than booze. Call it a hunch born out of forty years running down shit so fucked up you’d rather go insane than deal with it, but something made me curious. The kind of curious that makes you open a door that should stay closed. I got a shovel, I went to Benjamin’s grave, and I dug. Not once did I think I was wrong, and sure enough, when I opened that casket, there he was, a half rotted corpse with about six dozen golden crystals sticking out of him.

That’s how this thing spreads, I suppose. Like a reproduction cycle. Find humans, or some creature at least, get them to share the crystals with others like them. Life cycle takes those humans to the far corners of the world, and we stick each other in the ground.

I considered telling the higher ups. Conscience wouldn’t let me do nothing, so I’m writing this. Otherwise, what good would it do? What real harm was done all those years ago? People fucked like rabbits for a few months? That’s no reason to disappear fifty people. I followed those kids. Most of them were good, maybe even better than most. So, this is all the bosses get. I redacted the rest of the names. Burned the rest of the files. For anyone who comes looking though, I’ll leave this. At least four of the crystalline kids moved to Chicago. It’s not the early 1800s anymore. Maybe I’ll live long enough to see what one of these things does to a real city.