Finally he had to stop. His knee was aching so badly and was so stiff, he couldn’t put any weight on it. Jenna and Faye dragged a few crates over to him where he sat, so he could look through them, and then Jenna rushed off to check on Cara.
“She worries about her because she doesn’t have much milk anymore,” said Faye, excusingly.
“It’s a valid worry. The baby’s too small to begin eating food yet.”
“If only the cows produced more milk, she could mix some with water and give Cara that. But there’s not enough milk for the older children as it is,” sighed Jenna.
They worked in silence a little longer, and then Jenna came back. “She woke, but Molly sang to her, and she went back to sleep. Molly said she’d come and get me when Cara wakes up.”
They were almost back to where Luke had started, and the first few crates the women pulled down off the pile were empty. Under them was a box with sewing supplies and yarns in it. Jenna pounced on it. “I bet there are things in here we could use. Trust the men not to look under the empty crates and find it.”
The final crate had old newspapers in it. “I wonder why they kept these?” asked Faye.
“We could burn them for fuel,” suggested Jenna.
“I think we should read them. I expect they tell the story of why your ancestors left the city,” said Luke quietly, determining that he, at least, would read them. He dragged the box to the doorway.
“Oh, yes. That’ll be it,” said Faye.
Luke’s knee had never been that sore before, and his whole body ached. “I think I’ll go to bed.”
“I’ll make sure someone brings you food tonight,” said Faye.
“Thank you.” His leg wouldn’t move properly, so he dragged it behind him, pulling himself forward on his cane, the short distance to his hut, a small, wooden hut that had housed him ever since his father had built it just after they’d arrived there. Inside nothing had changed. His child’s bed and outgrown clothing had long ago been given to another family, and the few cooking utensils his mother had owned had also been donated to the communal supply. But the hard-packed dirt floor, the rocking chair, the table, his parents’ bed, all were as they’d originally been. He sank onto the bed, kicked off his shoes, and pulled the blankets up over him. He was exhausted, and his labors hadn’t been very helpful. But he would read those newspapers. He’d longed for years to know the cause of the strife that had brought everyone there.
* * * *
Zuri spent the walk back to the exit, thinking. She didn’t want to sound rude or disrespectful, but it was important she stated plainly what she wanted, and that was permission to live openly with Udo and Tau. So therefore instead of making a public announcement, it would be better to take Andy aside and tell him privately, so she could bargain with him without everyone else arguing and interrupting. Having decided on her plan, she walked faster. Or maybe it was because there was more light the closer they got to the first cave, they automatically moved more quickly. It was funny, when they’d first stepped inside, it’d seemed so dark, but now it seemed positively bright inside.
The people were still all milling around the bus, talking and laughing happily. Zuri, followed by Udo and Tau, waited close to Andy, and when he turned away from the group he’d been speaking to, Zuri spoke very quietly to him. “Andy, there’s something you need to see.”
He gave her a piercing look, but she met his gaze with her face blank, keeping her excitement inside her. He nodded, and she led the way back through the caves. When they passed the cave that had held the bus, and entered the short tunnel to where the truck was, Andy spoke. “Are there dead bodies here? Is that what you wish to show me?”
“No. It’s something good, not bad,” she replied.
Andy grunted, but she was already walking out into the cave.
“The truck!”
“Yes. I went looking for it because I thought surely the ancestors wouldn’t have wanted to find another hiding place when they already had such a good one. So where the bus was hidden, the truck would be nearby.”
“Good thinking, girl. I know you want to go to the city with the men, and I know I still haven’t said we will make such a dangerous journey, but if we go, you may come with us. Finding the truck means you deserve to travel, too.”
“Thank you. I also found something else as well. Not dead bodies,” she joked.
“More? But Luke and Molly only spoke of a bus and a truck.”
“This is different,” she said, walking to the passage.
Andy and the men followed her, although she saw Andy casting longing glances backward at the truck. He can look more at it later. I want to show him everything and tell him what I want in return before anyone comes looking for us.
“Gods above!” swore Andy when they entered the final cave. He walked slowly around looking at everything, peering at the stacked crates. “The bottled water will be good for the journey. That way we won’t have to rely on finding clean water in the city or risk imposing on some other village’s supply. The canned food will mostly be bad. But some things may be edible. Clothing! The women will be ecstatic to see that. Hmm, I wonder if some of this machinery will make the truck go. Excellent. Excellent. Zuri, a good day’s work indeed.”
“Thank you. Andy, may I ask you something in return for finding all these things?”
He stared at her then nodded sharply. “But I may not necessarily agree,” he said.
This time it was Zuri who nodded. “I love both Tau and Udo. I want your permission to live with them both.”
Andy nodded yet again. “I know. I’ve foreseen this coming. Some people won’t be very happy, but everyone knows the three of you have been together for some time now. I’ll tell the village tonight, after they all know about these supplies. Hopefully, they’ll be in a good mood.”
“Thank you, Andy.”
“Yes, thank you. We love her so much, we can’t bear to be away from her,” added Udo.
“Right. I’ll go back and get the people. We’ll load everything into the truck, then push the truck to the first cave beside the bus where there’s good light and the men can work on them together. Meanwhile, find out how to open the doors at the back, and take the brake off and things like that. Zuri can steer it.”
* * * *
By the time the people returned to the village, it was almost dark. The few women who’d remained behind had the meal cooked and ready, sitting on hot stones keeping warm beside the fire, which was already starting to die down a little. The fire was in the center of the village, surrounded by chairs and logs to sit on, and was where they all gathered morning and night, except in the coldest time of winter.
Everyone walking to the village was carrying something, even the children. Most children had several items of clothing in their hands. A group of women was dragging a pile of brush for the fire. Several men held spades, rakes, and hoes, and another group had a large crate on wooden poles they were carrying on their shoulders. Six or eight of them were taking turns to help carry it, so it was obviously very heavy.
The noise and excitement encouraged Luke to crawl out of his bed and join the women at the cooking fire. He still ached all over, but his knee wasn’t as painful as it had been, and he was hungry and looking forward to a meal, too.
Jenna helped him lower himself stiffly onto a seat by the fire, just as Ayan ran up to him. “I told them about the brake,” she said excitedly.
“You remembered what I’d said? Well done. And what have you there?”
“New clothes for winter. Two pairs of woolen socks and a sweater as well.”
“There were clothes in the bus? Or was it the truck?”
“Both! We all found the bus, and then Zuri found the truck and crates and crates and crates of things. Although they say most of the food will be bad, but we brought one crate of cans here to test them out.”
“Canned food. Let me think. Little one, will you bring me the encyclopedia from the table in my hut? We can
look up canned goods in it and see if it lists a shelf life.”
She handed him her socks and sweater to hold, and he rejoiced in the lovely feel of clean, fresh wool, rubbing it on his cheeks and hoping he didn’t look foolish. But something new and unused was so unusual for them all.
Ayan brought the book to him and leaned against his side as he opened it and looked through the pages. He stopped at various words and pointed them out to her, wanting to entice her to continue learning to read. “It says people have eaten food from cans ten or even twenty years later with no ill effects, but that acidic food and food in sugary syrup are the most likely to be safe to eat. You mustn’t eat anything out of a can that has dents or holes in it,” he finished.
“None of the cans was damaged. I thought to look for that,” said a woman firmly.
“Does it say anything about milk powder? I brought a can of milk powder for the children,” asked another.
Luke looked through the book but couldn’t find anything. “I’m willing to be a guinea pig. To taste a small amount of something and wait until tomorrow to see if I get ill. If I’m still well, it should be safe for others to eat.”
Several other people also offered to test the food. It took a long time to find a can opener. The village had a number of them, but there’d been no canned goods for four years or more, maybe even longer, and no one could remember where the can openers were. Finally Molly found one at the very back of a shelf, and the first can was opened with the entire village gathering around to watch. It was the milk powder, and it looked and smelled how those who could remember it from the past thought it should.
The woman who’d requested it made up a glass of milk, and Luke drank half, and Molly drank half. Both said it tasted fine, but everyone agreed it mustn’t be given to the children until at least that time tomorrow.
“If you’re going to get sick, surely it will happen by then,” said Jenna, looking longingly at the can.
“Cara is just a baby. I think you should wait even longer before giving her any,” whispered Luke.
Jenna nodded. “But it offers her hope. Maybe with milk powder, she’ll be more settled, less hungry.”
Luke patted her arm. He hoped all the food was good. It wouldn’t last forever, and he suspected Ayan’s “crates and crates and crates” might be an exaggeration, but even a few good meals would help them weather the time until they could go to the city.
The can of fish they opened smelled funny so was discarded, and a can of peas was slimy and was also discarded, but a can of tomato soup looked good, and when it was mixed up, two of the older men shared a cupful and pronounced it good.
People were keen to open more cans, but Andy said no. “That’s enough experimenting for one day. Tomorrow four of our number may be ill. We don’t want to risk anything more.”
That made sense, thought Luke.
Six men were chosen to work on the vehicles, and they were to take the few helpful books Luke had sorted out and the box of machinery with them. Most of the men not chosen wanted to argue, but Andy was firm. “No work was done in the fields today. It may take months to make the vehicles work, if they ever do work. Meanwhile, the weeds are growing, the slugs are attacking our crops, and there’s no guarantee the canned food will be of much use to us. We must concentrate on the crops.”
Andy waited until the muttering died down before speaking again. Luke watched the people and knew they understood what Andy said was right. But everyone was hoping the cans, or at least many of them, would be good to eat.
When the people were quiet, Andy said, “We owe Zuri a debt of gratitude. If she hadn’t looked to see if the truck was hidden, too, we never would have found it or the crates of goods. She’s asked to form a partnership with both Udo and Tau. She’s brought us so many good things we can’t reasonably deny her request. From today, Zuri is married to both Udo and Tau. This is my decision.”
Luke grinned. He hadn’t seen that coming, but he had seen Zuri sneaking off into the forest at dusk with Tau and Udo, and guessed they weren’t going berry picking. Well, good luck to her. He wished her well. Luke clapped loudly. Soon others were clapping, too, and offering their congratulations to Zuri. A few people looked offended or just astonished, but Luke thought they’d come around to the idea. Especially if enough of the canned food was usable.
Chapter Five
Tau and Udo helped Zuri carry her possessions from the hut she shared with two other unmarried women to the hut the two men shared. When her mother had died three years ago, she’d inherited her clothing, but her mother had only owned three skirts and four blouses, which, added to Zuri’s three of each, wasn’t a lot to carry. Zuri also had a very old, thin dress she slept in, the hairbrush she and her mother had shared, and a thick coat that had once belonged to her father. He’d died so long ago she could scarcely remember him, but sometimes she thought she could recognize his scent, still on the coat.
She left the mattress on the bed for someone else to use but kept her two blankets. In the middle of winter, she often needed to wrap them around herself when she went outside, even with the coat, and wearing two skirts, one on top of the other. She also brought her own pillow, knowing the men didn’t have an extra one.
“My mother had sheets and pillowcases when I was small. She’d gotten them from her mother. But they shredded into rags a long time ago. I wonder if there are sheets in any of those crates.”
“I thought you wanted socks?” joked Udo.
Zuri pretended to think. “Yes, you’re right. Socks would be much more practical.”
Inside her was a big bubble of happiness that kept bouncing up and down in her stomach, then sliding up to almost choke her. At last she could spend a night in a bed with the men. They’d had sex many times, in many different ways, so it wasn’t a real wedding night, but being in a bed, not having to go back home straight after fucking, that was a special joy she was looking forward to.
In Udo and Tau’s hut, the men bustled around making room on the shelf for her clothing, hanging her coat on the hook behind the door, adding her two blankets to the pile on the bed. She put her hairbrush down on the table with the washbowl, where the men had a cake of soap and the very sharp knife they used as a razor.
She’d never really thought about that before. Many of the men in the village grew a beard as shaving was a struggle, but Tau and Udo were always clean shaven, their cheeks never even a little bit prickly. Suddenly she understood and appreciated how much effort that must be for them and was grateful.
Then the men were surrounding her, and hands were pulling her skirt down, while other hands unbuttoned her shirt. Joining in, she unfastened Tau’s pants and pulled his cock free, pushing at his pants to make them slide down his hips, before turning her attention to Udo and freeing his cock as well.
Udo kicked his feet out of his pants, his hands resting on her ass, cupping the cheeks, massaging them, a finger sliding into her anus just the way that always turned her on in an instant.
Zuri shivered in anticipation as Tau teased her nipples, while Udo worked her ass until cream was dripping from her cunt onto her inner thighs.
“Since we have all night, shall we start with doggy style? I’ll fuck Zuri’s ass, and you can fuck mine,” suggested Udo.
“Sounds like a plan. Then later we can both fuck her together.”
“What are you waiting for?” Zuri asked hoarsely, pushing at Tau to walk toward the bed.
“Absolutely nothing.”
In a moment they were on the bed, Zuri on her hands as knees as Udo kept working on her ass, and Tau behind him, stretching and preparing Udo’s ass.
Zuri wished she could touch them, but they’d said they planned to fuck several times that night, so next time she’d make sure she could have a more active role in their lovemaking. Meanwhile, she pushed back on Udo’s fingers, letting him know she was ready and aroused.
“All right,” Udo groaned, and Zuri knew then that it was doubly arousing for him, touch
ing and being touched simultaneously.
Udo pressed his cock at her rear entry, and she slammed back hard onto him, forcing him deep inside her in one thrust. It hurt a little, it always did, but it was well worth it, as she was assured of a huge orgasm later.
Udo bent over her, covering her back with his chest, wrapping his arms around her with one hand firmly on her breast, the other at her lower belly where he slipped a finger deep into her cunt. “Ahh so good,” she murmured softly.
“Going to be even better,” he replied, as he often did.
Zuri waited, her body tight against Udo’s, and she knew when Tau’s cock penetrated Udo’s ass. Not just from the tiny noises both men made, but she could feel the thrust through Udo’s body.
Finally, both men began pumping. They always moved in time with each other, and Zuri loved that, as it truly united them as a threesome. Tau’s hand was on her hip, and she lifted one arm from the bed to rest her hand over his, but the men were stroking into her so hard she couldn’t support herself on one arm, so she lowered her body until her forehead was resting on the mattress, giving her the stability she needed to hold Tau’s hand.
She clenched her inner muscles, gripping Udo’s cock in her ass and his fingers, three of them now, in her cunt. Then she released him and pressed back onto him as both men sped up, thrusting deeper and harder now, the bed rocking with the force of their efforts.
Sweat sheened her back where Udo leaned against her, and she could feel sweat on Tau’s arm against her side. Deep inside her the orgasm was building, and Udo’s wicked fingers in her cunt were making it grow fast and furious.
Desperately she pushed back onto Udo’s cock, then forward onto his fingers, gripping his cock with her inner muscles and holding tight to Tau’s hand, noticing his strokes seemed a little ragged and uneven now. Then the orgasm burst over her, a huge one as she’d predicted, shaking her until she had to let go of Tau and put her arm on the mattress as her body had no more strength to support herself. She felt the burst of hot cum in her ass and knew Udo had climaxed, followed by a sudden heavy weight, which told her that Tau had come, too, and was resting on them all.
Brown, Berengaria - Forbidden Future [Embrace the Future 1] (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour) Page 4