by Holly Ardent
The Swap Meet
In a Fallen Future #5
(Post-Apocalyptic MILF Erotica)
Holly Ardent
Text copyright © 2016, Holly Ardent
All Rights Reserved
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Shortly before the Crash, the state of Colorado starting doing some bargaining. The Colorado Renewable Energy Collaboratory (CREC) had been around for some time, although with its decentralized setup that consisted of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and three Colorado universities it wasn't a quick or well focused research project. The state volunteered to completely fund them, but only if they focused on four things in a priority the state chose. Those four were:
Increasing the efficiency of storage for generated power (which was read as develop lighter and more powerful battery systems).
Increasing the efficiency of solar panels while decreasing the cost of manufacture. Also developing solar panels that would use materials local to the state.
Increasing the efficiency of wind power generation for both small and large scale.
Increasing the efficiency of hydroelectric (water) generated power (on a large scale only).
The research went quickly with the NREL providing all of the background information that the universities would need. The three universities split up the four goals between themselves. The NREL was given all the data from the research as soon as the universities could, as payment for their part of providing the base data for the research. Colorado's government only took these drastic measures when it become blatantly obvious that the mandate for fifty percent renewable energy used in the state that they had made was nowhere close to where it needed to be by this point.
Several of Colorado's elected government members were not your average politicians and had run on platforms pointing out that the career politicians got us into this mess and couldn't get us back out. That platform was sufficient to get several people into key positions where they could help make policy and stop the bullshit that the other politicians kept trying to shovel.
As a result, Colorado was taking steps that the country, or the states on an individual basis, should have taken years earlier, but there was still the question as to whether or not these efforts were being made soon enough.
As the renewables program developed greater efficiency advancements in both energy storage and power generation, prototypes were churned out. After a brief test phase, large runs of each type that had resulted in major enhancements to efficiency were built and a decentralized power generation network was developed, blanketing the state. The utility companies were footing most of the bill, but the state was providing the equipment at less than five percent over cost and was also training the technicians to work with the new equipment at no additional cost.
The utility companies originally complained vocally, but scuttlebutt had it that they were very happy with the deal since any company not in compliance with the renewable mandate would become state owned in just a few more years. The additional research had taken some time, so the utility companies were squeaking in just under the wire thanks to the state's help.
The NREL was very happy with the data they were given, but one small problem cropped up. The universities had, since they were told to work with local materials for the solar panels, worked all four problems with local materials in mind. Not all states had access to those materials so in many areas the new technologies developed weren't as useful as they might have been. It wasn't totally useless, but it wasn't a plug and play solution either. More research was necessary to translate the technology to something that could be used by other areas.
Utah and New Mexico had many of the same resources as Colorado so power generation using the new technologies was used as an off the shelf package there. Unfortunately for most other areas, the clock was ticking and there was no time for the additional research needed to adjust the technology to be specific those areas.
The end result was that power outages began to become more common in other areas of the country as time went by. Colorado's decentralized system of renewable power took up the slack and kept outages to a minimum in most of the state. Utah and New Mexico weren't as far along as Colorado, but most of their major population centers retained power as well. As word spread of the better living conditions in these three states, refugees started to trickle into them. When the research program released its final enhancements, the trickle of refugees became a flood and Colorado instituted its state ID program because of that.
Over the course of the three years previous to that the rest of the country, and most of the first world nations, saw the standard of living drop tremendously. By this time many people in the United States of America wouldn't accept paper currency any longer. They insisted on gold, silver, or barter. The dollar was worth only what it said it was backed with, “The Full Faith and Credit” of the US Government. That is to say, by the opinion of most people at that time, nothing at all.
The US government had hidden the, now obvious, truth for too many years for people to have faith in them any more. As for the financial credit of the US government? That's what caused the problems, an upward spiraling national debt, foreign countries calling in debts that the USA owed them, and the government's attempt to inflate the debt away by the constant creation of US dollars.
By this time the USA was a simple shell of what it had once been, but it was still considered a functional, if no longer first world, country. It still had an intact military and very little else. The national government had violated many laws by using the military inside the country to put down riots and enforce martial law so one of its priorities was keeping the military intact.
The eastern and western US coasts had been hit hardest by the Crash. The population of the states in those areas so far exceeded what they could locally support that starvation and disease were rampant in them by this time. The national government had tried to provide food for everyone, but the mid-western states that specialized in agriculture started having their own shortages. When that happened they refused to ship out any more food, thereby spelling doom for the coastal states. The yields from the agricultural states dropped dramatically as gasoline and other petroleum products became scarcer and incredibly expensive.
* * *
Back to the story:
My daughters were the first ones awake, excitement for the swap meet waking them early. They were loud enough to ensure that no-one else got much sleep after they woke though. The swap meet was a chance for them to maybe get some new toys or books. In addition they also got to see more children close to their own age. Normally they'd only see the children of people in our immediate neighborhood or the other children they went to school with.
Only about one in three of the children in the area went to school. The rest off them were either being home schooled, had to help out with survival as a full time job, or just had parents unwilling to pay for their education. Normally they were all at the swap meet though.
The swap meet was more than just an opportunity to get things for the children. It was a chance for everyone in the area to socialize with one another. Originally it had just been swapping items, but within a few months of the first one some changes occurred. Now there was normally live music, busker style, from people with musical talent in the area and Allan ran a concession table for snacks.
Also our neighborhood had gotten together with Allan and arranged to use part of the store for a monthly neighborhood meeting after the swap meet finished. It gave us a chance to discuss and vote on things that affected the neighborhood as a whole like the guards, or people that wanted to move into a vacant house in the area, and other thing
s of the sort.
When I dragged myself out of the bedroom sleep was still calling me and I was trying hard to ignore it. Sandra had gotten the fire stoked and was rummaging through the kitchen looking for something to make for breakfast. It was a dramatic improvement from the way I'd seen her last.
I took over in the kitchen, shooing her out so I could cook. I served up a filling, if simple, breakfast that consisted of pancakes made from wheat berries ground into a flour nearly as fine as the commercially available flours used to be. I used up the last of our eggs, some goat milk, some vegetable/sunflower oil we'd pressed from our own plants, and a touch of baking powder (another provision that I'd previously bought in bulk then vacuum sealed the individual containers).
We didn't have pancakes frequently any more because the same amount of flour would make a small loaf of bread, but they were very popular when we did. I normally saved making them for special occasions but with the swap meet today and the holiday season around the corner I splurged.
As an aside: vacuum sealed wheat berries that have not been ground down yet have very nearly an indefinite life span. It is relatively easy to grind them into flour either with an electric grinder or the more manual intensive hand grinder. Having never expected the electricity to stay on as long as it had, I had the more labor-intensive hand grinder. I could grind enough berries for a two pound loaf of bread in just fifteen minutes though, so it wasn't quite as bad as it sounded.
We had our own maple syrup, tapped from the red maples on our land. We were lucky, the most common maples used for syrup production were sugar, silver, and red. The red maples grew very happily in our locale although I'd never had any luck with the silver or sugar when I tried those varieties. We frequently made a separate batch of syrup that was half maple and half rose hip. It was very tasty, and the added vitamin C made it quite a bit better for you than the straight maple syrup. Not to mention the fact that it stretched our limited quantity of maple syrup.
After a pancake breakfast with maple syrup (which made me very nostalgic for the easy access to bacon and sausage that we used to have before the 'just in time' delivery system went belly up) we cleaned up and then had to restrain the girls. The swap meet didn't start until ten AM, but they were eager to get going already. The meet ran until two PM and then we'd have our neighborhood meeting from three to four.
Planning for half an hour to get down there, we still had an hour and a half before we needed to leave. I wandered through the house locking windows and doors. I also went outside to check the locks on the root cellar/storage area that was external to the house. That one stayed locked all the time, but since we only went into it once a week, except during harvest when we moved things into it to store, I felt the need to check it every day. It contained, pretty much, my family's guarantee to survive the winter well-fed, as well as quite a few other non-food items I had stockpiled before the Crash.
Finally it was time to leave and we loaded up my cart, strapped my shotgun on it, made sure Molly was carrying her pistol (I made a mental note to see if Rita knew how to fire a gun and to train her in it if not), and headed out.
When we arrived, the parking lot contained quite a few of the local residents already. The day laborers and whores were still in evidence, but had been 'asked' to move to the grassy areas on the sides of the parking lot for the day by Allan and his guards. They were still available if anyone wanted to hire them, but with all the children that showed up at the swap meet people tended to get a little nervous if they mingled with the families.
Promptly at ten AM the doors opened and people began to flood in. The swap meets were less formal than the market days and people would just find an open area where they wouldn't block traffic, lay down a blanket or section of cloth, and lay out the items they had to trade. Then they wandered around and if they saw something that interested them they'd let the person who had it know what they wanted and what they had and try to work out a swap from there. The haggling got a bit heated sometimes, but overall it was a mostly peaceful way to work things out.
I saw Allan as we entered the store and he was grinning from ear to ear. He gave me a wave and thumbs up when he noticed me. Edging through the crowd, he got close enough for me to hear him and said we should talk later on. From his cheerfulness and genial manner I assumed that he and Mary were working out. Getting good sex on a regular basis tended to leave me cheerful like that as well.
Evidently Allan had taken my advice regarding cleaning the store. It was significantly improved from when I last saw it and that also improved the light levels inside, making it easier to see everything.
I saw Molly scanning the store, but she didn't seem to find what she was looking for. She turned back to me with a disappointed look on her face and gestured to an open area.
We set up where she'd pointed and started laying items out. I held my wagons back for the moment since I knew a couple of families with older girls that had moved out already and younger boys that were still at home. I was thinking that they'd be my best bet for finding items for my daughters or Sandra, and that they might be interested in the wagons for their remaining boys.
Rita was just sitting on the blanket we'd laid out, looking around. She'd seen the store on market days, but the crowd for the swap meet was nearly three times as large as a normal market day. She was overwhelmed by the large crowd in the store and I knew that everyone wasn't even here yet. I bent down and whispered reassurances in her ear, but she pulled me closer and whispered back in mine.
“It isn't so much the number of people but the fact that none of them know me or me them. Also that none of them know that I'm your lover or even that I've moved in with you. I'm a little worried about how they'll react.”
“Well, I think there won't be much in the way of problems about it. The folks around here tend to just go with what works. No religious freaks to be hollering about how sinful it is. I think the worse we might encounter is some jealousy from the men, plus disappointment that they didn't think of it first.”
I settled down beside her and kept whispering to her.
“Look on the bright side, maybe we'll start a trend. It would certainly spice things up around here. It's a nice stable community, but it's been trending towards getting stuck in a rut. They stick with what works, but haven't been looking at other options that might work better. This'll liven things up for them and regardless of what they may think of you or the situation, you're stuck with us. If they complain, I'll stop selling to them and most of them buy food from me at least some of the time. You can meet the folks from our immediate neighborhood after the swap meet and I'm sure we'll find out what they think then.”
I gave her a kiss, neither too chaste nor too passionate, and asked her if she'd keep an eye on the bag holding my wagons. She seemed happier with something useful to do and I wouldn't have to carry it around now. Waving to Rita, Molly and the girls I set out to find the families I mentioned earlier.
As I wandered the store I noticed quite a few people that I didn't recognize. There were more that I did, but I was used to at least recognizing almost all of the faces at the swap meet even if I didn't know their names. A lot of the new faces belonged to people that didn't have children with them.
I found the first of the two families I was looking for and looked over their items. Making small talk with them I let them know that I was looking for a presents for my daughters, plus things to help out Sandra, telling them only that her home had been raided and she had nothing now. I also told them about the wagons I had available. Billie, the mother of the family, leaned over to her husband and said something to him. He nodded and sat back down while she stepped over to me.
“We might be interested in one of your wagons sir. But I think I know what Sandra might like best that we have. It would take some silver along with one of your wagons though. Not to be intrusive, but what size chest does Sandra have?” Billie asked.
I was slightly stunned. While I'd looked and enjoyed watching h
er figure, I'd never tried to guess what size her breasts were.
“I'm not sure, it isn't exactly anything that's come up in conversation,” I stammered
“Well, there are all kinds of women around here, can you show me one the same general size?”
I looked around, my face still probably having the look of an ox being led to slaughter. Then I discretely pointed at a woman.
“Maybe close to her over there?”
“Tell you what sir, why don't I come on over and look at your wagons and if Sandra is there I can get a better guess at size.”
“Okay, but please call me Tim, not sir. I may be getting old, but being sirred makes me feel it a whole lot more.”
I led Billie across the store to where we were set up. Just my luck, Sandra wasn't there at the moment. I introduced Billie to Molly and Rita, then explained that Sandra wasn't here at the moment. Billie started talking to Molly while I got the two wagons out for her to look at. After a moment she came over and examined the wagons. After some careful scrutiny and consideration she set one to the side and handed the other back to me.
“Your wife says that Sandra is the low end of a 'C' cup. Now, what I have are several bras that are 'C' cups, still in their original packaging. Not something you'll find easily nowadays. The elastics are still good and they've never been used. We never put them out on swap days since they aren't quite what we think of for the swaps, the meet being a family based thing, plus it'd take a heck of a swap to part with one with no hard cash coming our way either. But we always bring them along just in case, we've traded a few off in the past but we still have five.”
She paused and shrugged expansively.
“We originally got them on sale in anticipation of our oldest daughter needing them, but with the Crash she never really finished filling out the way we expected so never had a use for this size. Your wife says she thinks they would be wonderful for Sandra. Plus, I'll tell you, the bras you can make at home nowadays are none too comfortable even if they do work. By the way, your wife thinks it was your idea and she thinks you're a genius, I didn't correct her on that.”