And he wanted to teach the children to read and write! But unless the people began to think in new ways, the village was doomed. All these people would gradually die. If the children could read, there might be a chance they could find new ways to live. If they could create things…Not bring back the past. Obviously the past had gone wrong in a major way. But devise a new pathway forward. And the only way he could imagine that happening was with a new generation and new ideas. For sure the current village leaders couldn’t think of anything new. They were stick-in-the-muds all of them. But perhaps that was because they were always so tired, and hungry.
Luke stared at Andy, the village headman. He was a good person, fair in his decisions, but he’d never tried anything new at all that Luke could think of. Some of the previous leaders had tried new crops. They’d saved the seeds from nuts and berries gathered from the forest and grown them themselves. But back then the rabbits had eaten a lot of their tiny plants. That was no longer a problem. The rabbits hadn’t touched the tree seedlings. In fact, the men struggled to catch rabbits anymore. The bunnies—and other wild animals— had moved deep into the forest. Or more likely were almost hunted out.
Enough thinking. Everyone had eaten. Now it was time for him to speak.
“I want to teach the children to read and write. We all used to have these skills, but over the past ten or twenty years, they’re dying out. If the children are to develop the village, to lead us in the future, they need to be literate. I’m willing to teach them, but if another person would prefer to be the teacher, that’s okay by me.”
“The children don’t have time to waste on such useless, outdated things. Their labor is needed in the fields. It’s all we can do to feed everyone now,” argued Andy.
“The children don’t work in this hour between dinner and darkness falling. I could teach them at this time every night,” Luke replied, having expected this argument.
“Reading is of no use to us. Those moldering old books in the storeroom can’t help us feed our people. They won’t bring the deer or the fish back here, or make the grain more fruitful,” scorned Arthur, a young man who was barely literate.
“But if someone read those books, they may tell us how to make the grain grow better or give us new ideas of things we can try to increase yields,” answered Luke.
The argument raged for a long time, with most of the village siding with either Luke or Andy. Then Udo spoke. “I agree the children should learn to read. I also think we should build a big wagon and go to the city to find out what is there that could help us. Maybe they have other crops that will grow better here. At the very least, we could bring back a lot of fuel, and be warm this coming winter. While we’re there, we could find books specifically on agriculture and bring them back, too.”
“Clothing and blankets, too, as well as books and wood. If we built a big enough wagon, it would hold a lot of things that would make our lives better,” added Tau.
“Our ancestors fled from the city because people there die. If we go back, we’ll die,” said Andy.
“Why should we? There haven’t been winds bringing illnesses in ten years or more. Even when the winds come, they don’t blow down many trees now. They’re much less fierce than when our ancestors fled from the city. That was two generations ago, and the world has changed,” said a young woman.
Again the argument raged back and forth, but this time there was definite leaning toward the idea of a trip to the city. The women wanted clothing, blankets, and metal cooking utensils. The men liked the idea of plenty of fuel and some new tools. A few were even interested in books and finding other things that might make farming easier.
Finally Andy called a halt to the discussion. “Very well, you may build a big wagon. Even if no one goes to the city, such a thing would be useful here in the valley. But it’s only to be constructed after all the usual chores are done. And I haven’t agreed to a journey to the city. We’ll talk about that again after the wagon is built.”
“Can we learn to read?” a little boy asked.
There was a long moment’s silence before Andy replied, “Only after your work is done each day.”
Luke couldn’t resist smiling. Tomorrow he’d go into the storeroom and find some simple books. And while he was there, he’d look for books about farming, too.
* * * *
When Luke found a box of books for young children in the storeroom, he was excited. But his excitement soon turned to dismay. The children in these stories all traveled with their families in boats, airplanes, and cars, played with electronic games, watched television and movies, went shopping, or played in the park with a dog. None of the children in the village would understand any of these things. Finally he chose a child’s picture dictionary and decided he would write his own textbook, with stories that had meaning for these children, using the kids’ own names and lives as the basics of his teaching.
He found no agricultural handbooks, but there was a thick encyclopedia which he thought might have some useful information in it, if people could guide him as to what exactly to research.
After dinner that night, the children gathered around him as they did when he told stories, but this time he had had a bucket of soft dirt and a dozen thin, straight sticks. He tipped the dirt onto the ground, smoothed it, and wrote his own name. “My name is Luke. L-U-K-E,” he began, drawing the letters carefully. “There are only twenty-six letters. With those twenty-six letters, we can make every word there is.”
The children were enthralled, and by the time darkness fell, each child could write the first letter of their own name. Luke was satisfied with the beginning of his lessons. He wasn’t stupid. He knew not every child would continue to be interested. But as long as enough of them gained the desire to learn more, perhaps the village could be saved. Or perhaps this venture to build a wagon and go to the city might save them. How he wished to travel to the city. But he’d only be a burden. Such a long walk was beyond him. And although he could sit on the wagon on the way there, he’d have to walk home, and that wasn’t possible. Dammit!
* * * *
Zuri craved the men’s touch. She only felt truly alive in their arms. Walking and talking with them in the fields and around the village was enjoyable, but her body thrummed with life and joy when they stripped her and touched her. Only when their cocks were inside her did she feel there was hope for the future and a reason to live.
The more they fucked her, the more she wanted them, needed, them. Yet every time their seed filled her, she worried she’d become pregnant, which was forbidden. Well, fuck the rules. I’m not giving them up.
They’d known each other all their lives there in the valley. Although, since she was five years younger than them, they’d never played together as children. But over the past year, the attraction between them had become intense, developed into need, desire, lust. Zuri knew the two men had enjoyed sex with each other before she’d joined them. But now they were a triad, and that’s all that was important to her.
Right then Udo was supposed to be helping the men design the wagon, but Zuri lured both men into the forest. It was almost dark, so they couldn’t go too far, just far enough to be alone. As soon as she could, she pulled Tau’s pants down, dropped to her knees, and sucked his cock deep into her mouth. Ah gods, he tasted good. A little salty, a little musky, all man. The more she sucked, the larger he grew, filling her mouth, his cockhead pressing against the back of her throat, encouraging her to swallow him down.
She smiled around his shaft as he groaned when she did. She let him slide out, and turned to Udo. Udo was already naked, his cock in his hand. As he tugged on it, a drop of pre-cum moistened the head. Yum!
Udo pushed her back against a tree and lifted her skirt, sliding his fingers deep into her cunt. Eagerly she clenched on them, loving his touch but wanting so much more. Meanwhile, Tau had unbuttoned her shirt, and his mouth was working on her breast. She’d lost weight in the past six months—everyone in the village had—and h
er breasts were smaller now. Tau could take almost her entire breast into his mouth, and he pushed her nipple up to the roof of his mouth. That was wonderful. Cream flooded from her pussy onto Udo’s fingers.
“That feels so good,” she murmured.
“It’s gonna feel even better soon,” said Udo, twisting and turning his fingers inside her, until he scraped them over that special spot that always drove her wild.
Zuri pushed her breast deeper into Tau’s mouth, holding his head tight against her chest. “I want you in me when I come,” she pleaded.
Tau stepped to the side, still with his mouth on her nipple, and Udo drove his cock into her pussy. The few moments between when he took his fingers out, and when he thrust his cock in, almost made her cry with loneliness, but then he was pumping into her, hard and deep, and she was coming, coming. “Ahh,” she sighed as the wave of release rolled over her.
“Again,” he ordered, driving into her harder, deeper.
Tau slid his hand under her skirt to her ass, fingering her anus, then sliding inside it. Oh gods, she loved it when they did that. Being possessed fore and aft was such intense pleasure. She didn’t know whether to lean back onto Tau’s fingers or forward onto Udo’s cock, but the men held her tight, working her between them, and a second orgasm was rising, rising, exploding through her.
Tau bit her nipple and shoved a third finger in her ass as Udo tilted his cock and slammed deep in her, and the orgasm roared through her, harder this time, driving her higher and shaking her bones.
Suddenly Udo stepped out of her grasp and turned to the side, pulling on his cock, shooting his seed on the ground.
“What?”
“Gotta try to protect you. If we’re gonna fuck as often as we want, we have to lessen the amount of cum that gets inside your cunt,” he gasped, as jets of seed watered the ground.
“Sucking you off won’t make me pregnant,” she said, looking at Tau’s engorged cock.
“No, thank the gods,” he replied, pushing on her shoulders.
She dropped to her knees and took him in her mouth again, licking up his shaft, flicking her tongue in the little slit on top to taste him once more. His cock as was as long as she’d ever seen it, so she knew it wouldn’t take much to set him off. She sucked the head deep in her mouth, right to the back of her throat, then licked up and down the shaft, pressing her tongue into the long vein, loving how he throbbed against her tongue. Then she took each of his balls into her mouth, one after the other, reveling in their rougher feel, their hairier aspect. Tau’s hair was reddish-blond, both on his head and his body, whereas Udo’s was a light-brown.
Tau’s cock was standing straight up from his body, and she knew he was more than ready to come, so she sucked him deep into her mouth another time, scraping her teeth lightly over the spongy head of his cock, before hollowing her cheeks and exerting some force on him. Enough, she hoped, to entice him, but not too much that it would hurt.
She must have guessed right because a blast of hot cum filled her mouth, and she had to swallow quickly before letting him out a little way and sucking him again to draw more seed from him. He gave her two more bursts of cum then leaned heavily on her shoulders. “Gods, you’re good at that,” he said.
“Lots of practice,” she said, grinning back at them both.
“Yeah, and if these stupid rules continue, you’ll be getting even more,” sighed Udo.
“And ass fucking. Everyone in the village is gonna be humping doggy style,” said Tau.
Udo got dressed, and Tau pulled up his pants, while Zuri buttoned her blouse. It was too big on her now. Maybe they’d get some new clothes when they went to the city. Fabric didn’t seem to perish the way some other things did. Most of the people in the village were still wearing clothes brought to the valley by the original settlers, but the fabric supplies were almost at an end. There were no new blankets or small children’s clothes left, and many common items like socks and underwear had been all used up years ago. The ancestors must have brought wagon after wagon of supplies because the storeroom was full of stuff, yet they’d been using and wearing out equipment for over fifty years.
“How did our ancestors get all the supplies and equipment they brought to the valley here? Did they bring many wagons? If so, why do we need to build a new wagon? Why can’t we just fix up one of theirs?” she asked.
Both men stared at her. “Gods, I never thought of that,” gasped Tau.
“Me either. But it’s a question we need to ask the village leaders. If there are wagons hidden, it’s time to get them out.”
* * * *
When everyone finished eating the next evening and was still sitting outside around the campfire, as they did each night except in the depths of winter, Tau and Udo stood up and directly faced Andy where he sat with the other leaders of their village.
“When our ancestors came here, they brought a huge amount of items with them. Even now, more than fifty years later, the storeroom holds boxes and cases of goods we’ve never used,” began Udo.
“So how did they transport all these things here? We know they didn’t make several journeys. We know they fled fast from the evil winds. That means they must have come in one of the huge trucks Luke and Molly have spoken of or else with many wagons. It would be much easier for us to mend one of those wagons than to build a whole new wagon ourselves,” continued Tau.
“The people came on a bus, and the luggage came in a huge truck,” said Luke slowly, as if remembering.
“Yes, that’s right. My grandfather helped load the truck,” added Molly.
Molly was one of the oldest villagers, likely in her mid-forties, but unlike, Luke, she hadn’t been born when they’d come. As a teenager, she’d cared for her dying grandmother, and she knew all the stories of the village’s beginnings and their previous life in the city.
Tau nodded at both Luke and Molly. “Where is that bus and truck now?” He watched Luke, thinking he’d be the more likely of the two to know, but it was one of the teenage girls, Adena, who answered. “I don’t know whether it’s a bus or a truck, but it’s a big machine, and it’s in the cave where my father found the bear cub long ago. He took me there as a child to show me the cave, and when we looked deeper in the cave, we found the…thing.”
“Why didn’t you tell anyone?” asked Andy crossly.
“What for? At the time there was no use for it, and no one knows how to make it go anyway. But if someone now could make it go, it’d be a lot better than walking, and we could fill it with fuel and food to bring home,” said the girl.
“Where, exactly, is the cave?” asked Andy.
Adena explained, but most people weren’t listening. They were arguing about whether or not it would be possible to make an old machine, a huge machine from fifty years ago, work again.
Luke hauled himself to his feet, leaning heavily on his cane, and raised his hand in the air for silence. “The person in charge of a vehicle like a bus or car or truck used to have to keep the papers to do with the vehicle in the glove compartment—a kind of little box—in the car. It’s likely the papers will be in the vehicle, and people who are good with machines may soon know how to work it. At least enough to know if we can make it go. Tomorrow I will look through the books in the storeroom to see if there is one about cars.”
“See if there is fuel for the vehicle, too,” suggested Udo.
“First thing tomorrow we’ll go and look at this bus. Or truck,” added Tau. He half expected Andy to say they couldn’t go until after all their chores were done, but when he looked at the village headman, he could see Andy was as eager to see this new wonder as everyone else. Good!
How wonderful of Zuri to have made the connection that there had to be a vehicle. If they could get it to work, it would be excellent. Even if they couldn’t, maybe the village’s four cows could pull it. That would save them building a new wagon, and surely all they’d have to mend would be the wheels, which wouldn’t take so long. But hopefully, with luck
, they’d get it to work.
* * * *
The children surrounded Luke, wanting to know what a bus and a truck was. He pulled out the picture dictionary and showed them. Instead of wanting to learn to write their names, tonight they all wanted to write “bus” and “truck.” He was grateful for their enthusiasm and used it to teach them much more than a few letters. He told them how, once they could read, they’d be able to learn how to drive the vehicles and how to make them work if they were broken. He explained that, just like the pictures in the dictionary, there’d be pictures explaining how to work the bus, but they had to be able to read to understand the instructions. He taught them the words of the few parts of a car he could remember, steering wheel, brake, tires. The villagers had wheels on their wagons, but only iron rims, no tires, so that was a new concept to the children.
“The tires may have perished. I don’t think such things would last for fifty years. But the wheels themselves, and the body of the vehicle, should still be fine, having been sheltered in a cave all this time. The question will be whether the moving parts are broken or not. Tomorrow when I look in the storeroom, I’ll check to see if there are machinery parts as well as fuel for it. I just hope I can recognize what they are,” he said.
“Don’t you want to go and see the bus itself?” asked a little girl, Ayan.
“It’s too far for an old man to walk. But if we can get the bus, or truck, to work, I would like to go to the city with the people who go,” he said softly.
Forbidden Future [Embrace the Future 1] (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour) Page 2