Days of Future Past - Part 1: Past Tense

by John Van Stry

  Keri was as short as Lisa, but was rather thin, and I noticed she couldn't help but fidget the entire time I was being introduced to them. She was wearing a vest that was absolutely covered in pockets, though I noticed she had a knife and a pistol as well. She smiled brightly, shook my hand, then goosed Geoff and headed off to do something I guess as he scowled at her.

  Dianne was tall, dark, and handsome. She was as tall as I was at six foot, she had long straight black hair, like the Indians around here, and she had the same darker complexion as they did, but her features were much finer. When we shook hands, her hand reminded me of a piano player's, as she had long fingers and a soft grip. She definitely wasn't beautiful, but she did warrant a second look being rather striking. I don't think I'd ever met a woman who I could describe as handsome before, yet she definitely fit that description. I'd have put her age around the same as Jack's, but I honestly couldn't tell.

  "Alright, get your gear together and let's get this expedition on the road!" Sarah called out as the others went off to do just that I guess.

  "Show Paul his gear," Sarah called to Heather, "and try to keep your clothes on in the process!" She teased, and I was surprised to see Heather blush.

  "Come on," Heather said and dragged me off over to one of the horses that was tied to a rail with several others.

  "This is all mine?" I asked looking at it surprised. There was a horse with a saddle, a rifle, two large saddlebags, and a duster.

  "This and the stuff in that pack over there," she said and pointed. "We better go through it all now, so you understand how it all works, and make sure we didn't forget anything.

  I nodded, "Okay, sounds good to me."

  We spent the next hour going over everything. I had the duster, with a heavier liner as well, in case it got cold. It turned out to be bulletproof as well. I had a heavier set of pants, made of something that looked like leather, but apparently wasn't. It was also a form of lightweight armor, and I also had a vest like the others had, that was also a lightweight armor.

  "Where did you get my measurements?" I asked.

  "From the tailor who measured you back when we first got here," Heather said, and ran a finger down my chest.

  "Down, girl," I smiled and took stock of my firearms. I now had a nice carbine that took the same ammunition as the pistol they'd bought me. Both had integral silencers on them as well, which surprised me, but made sense I guess. I also had a sleeping bag, a first aid kit, a mess kit, a hat, mittens, a shaving kit, and a dozen other things that I would never have thought of.

  Most of it fit in the saddlebags on the horse, but some of it would be in the second wagon. The first wagon was primarily food for the trip, for both us and the horses. The second was for our extra supplies and to carry most of what we found back with us. We were also bringing two extra horses, which could either be ridden by Lisa and Tim if something happened to the wagons, or could be used as pack animals, if necessary.

  By the time I had my stuff straightened out, everyone else had theirs taken care of and we all mounted our horses and headed south.

  "So, what's the plan for today?" I asked Sarah as I rode next to her. Heather was riding in front of us, next to Jack; Dianne and Keri were behind us, then the two wagons, with Geoff, Glenn, Dean, and Terry bringing up the rear.

  "It will take us the rest of the day to get to the dam," Sarah said. "We will spend the night there. It is still inside of the city's limits, so it will be safe. In the morning we will cross over the dam to the other side of the river and we will head to Blythe."

  "How long a trip will that be?"

  "About two days," Sarah replied.

  "I thought it was only forty miles?" I asked, curious.

  "More like fifty. But with the wagons we won't be going very fast along the river, while the road is in good condition, it goes up and down quite a bit, as well as twists and turns a lot."

  I nodded and watched Heather in front of us.

  "So, is that where we'll make the decision on which route?" I asked.

  "Pretty much. You know, if you keep staring at her ass like that, you're liable to burn a hole through her pants," Sarah teased.

  I laughed, and lowered my voice, "You have to admit, it is a rather nice one."

  "Oh, definitely," Sarah said and when I turned to look at her, she was smiling.

  "Of course you could go ride with her and give me two nice asses to stare at," I teased back.

  "Miss her that much?"

  "Honestly? I miss you both quite a bit. Getting you two together was not one of my smarter moments," I said and shook my head.

  Sarah looked a little startled at that, "How is that?"

  "I went from two girlfriends to zero," I sighed, "Yeah it was the right thing to do, but a more selfish man would now have a girlfriend on the trip and another back in town."

  "So, why did you do it then?"

  "Like I said, it was the right thing to do. I care about both of you way too much to screw either of you over like that." I shrugged and smiled, "But I have to admit, Heather really is happier than I've seen her since we first met, and you're looking rather cheerful too. So I really shouldn't complain, and with the way Terry was checking me out earlier, well maybe I won't have to be celibate for the whole trip."

  Sarah started for a moment, opened her mouth, then closed it, thought a moment and then asked me, "You like her?"

  I gave a small shrug, "She's attractive, I have no idea what she's like otherwise."

  "But you're interested in sleeping with her," Sarah said, making it more of a statement than a question.

  "Sarah, I haven't been laid in a month, and now I'm hanging out with my two extremely hot ex-girlfriends who are now both off limits to me. Yeah I'm interested in sleeping with her, after a few days of watching the two of you; I'll be interested in sleeping with damn near anybody!" I said and gave her a look like she was mental.

  "Ah! Okay. I thought maybe you were not interested in Heather or me anymore."

  I laughed at that, "Do I look dead? Course I'm still interested in the two of you. But I don't think either one of you would be very happy if I picked up with the other one, right? Last thing I want to do is set you two off fighting again. Then I'd really feel like a heel."

  "You are a good man, Paul."

  "No, I'm just a well meaning idiot, who's in far over his head and just struggling to do the right thing, while not drowning," I sighed.

  Sarah just laughed at that and spurred her horse a little farther ahead, pulling up next to Heather and talking with her for the rest of the trip while I tried to enjoy the scenery. Of course her patting her ass and smiling back at me a couple of times didn't help much, but it didn't really hurt either.

  When we got to the dam, there were a couple of large inns there, with fenced in corrals for the horses and quite a few grain storage bins, as well as storage for other vegetables I guess. There also appeared to be several other caravans, which were larger than our little expedition, though I think these were headed north towards the city.

  "A lot of traders come up this road from the south," Dianne told me as we dismounted and led our mounts into the large barn there. "The road is fairly safe, and as the biggest city in the area, Havsue is the most logical place for them to come and sell or trade their wares."

  I nodded and helped the stable hand put my horse into a stall in the barn we were using. I then took all the gear off of my horse and rubbed him down as I'd been shown. After that I gathered up my stuff and followed the others to the back of the inn.

  "I got all of us rooms for the night," Sarah said. "So enjoy it while you can. Not sure when we will be sleeping anywhere but on the ground after this."

  I stretched while everyone went up to her and got their room assignments. I didn't pay much attention to them, but I saw Sarah say something to Terry, who first pouted, but then smiled and went inside.

  "So, where am I sleeping?" I asked as I walked up to Sarah and Heather, still carrying my gear.
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  "With us, of course," Sarah said in a husky voice while Heather smiled almost painfully wide.

  "Huh?" I said rather shocked.

  "You put us and our happiness before your own, where else are we going to find a man like that?" Sarah said taking my arm.

  "Plus, we really enjoy sharing," Heather purred and took the other arm.

  I suddenly felt a whole lot better about this trip and being here.

  - 16 -

  The next morning was, different. I'd never slept with two women in the same bed before, though of course I'd heard all of the stories, guys like to brag and make things up after all. It wasn't like that, it was actually better. Maybe because we were all lovers beforehand and we all had separate relationships with each other prior to this, or maybe because we all actually cared about each other, we weren't just here for the sex.

  Yeah, it started off fairly intense, but after the initial surprise of it had worn off for me, it settle down into something with a lot more love and affection than just raw lust. I'm not always the most demonstrative of my real feelings, but when the morning came and we all got ready to leave, I found myself being very affectionate for a change.

  "What is up with you?" Sarah asked, a bit surprised.

  I shrugged, and I couldn't help but smile, "I thought I'd lost you, both of you. This just never occurred to me."

  "You're such a goof," Heather chuckled.

  "What, you didn't feel a little giddy when you got back with Sarah?"

  Heather blushed a little and Sarah snickered, "He has got you there, Hon."

  "We thought you weren't interested in us because you didn't like women who were lovers," Heather said coming over to me, "we'd already decided on you, but you didn't seem interested anymore."

  "Then I realized that you were just afraid of hurting one of us," Sarah said coming over to me as well, and they both hugged me and I happily hugged them both back.

  "So we decided to get our claws back into you before anyone else could!" Heather said grinning.

  We had breakfast at the inn, then we got our stuff together and we all hit the road at sunrise. After crossing over the road on top of the dam, we spent the entire day following the river on a road that ran alongside it in the canyon that the river had cut. The road was in good shape, and we probably could have made better time, but I suspect it would have been rough on the horses pulling the wagons. We were passed several times during the day by parties that were solely on horseback and twice during the day one of the city's VTOL craft few overhead. According to Heather they patrolled the trade roads regularly, but they rarely went out more then fifteen miles and never more than twenty, as that was as far as the broadcast power would reach.

  About noon we passed a ruined bridge that had once spanned the river.

  "What's on the other side of the river?" I asked Sarah motioning towards the ruined bridge.

  "Apache lands," she told me. "That is the western end of their lands over there; the bridge was supposedly destroyed during the great tribal wars which took place a hundred years after the big blow-up. According to our history, a lot of tribes were forced to move due to the changing weather patterns, and they either joined up together, were assimilated by larger tribes, or were wiped out. The Navajo spread west and absorbed or forced out several smaller nations.

  "But the Apache were much more war-like, and the Mojave, whose territory we are in now, blew up the bridge to make it harder for the Apache to move across the river. The Salt Sea road bridge that is south of here was also destroyed, but was later replaced when the tribes negotiated a new peace."

  "Why didn't they take over Havsue?" I asked.

  "Because Havsue has some rather serious weapons," Heather said, "And they weren't afraid to use them either."

  "So, what was this blow-up or big smack, or whatever that happened? I hear people talk about it, and I hear a lot of different names for it, but no one has told me what it was."

  Sarah shrugged, "Because none of us are really sure what happened. The story is that for a week, a thousand rocks and weapons fell from the sky. That when it was finished, much of the land was destroyed, including many of the largest cities, military bases, and places of learning and technology. Many more died in the fighting that came after that as the food ran out and everything became scarce.

  "There was fighting for many decades after that, and the only places that weren't touched were the places that threw together a good defense right away, or that no one thought to go attack."

  That sounded like a nuclear war to me, but the idea of it taking a week was probably an exaggeration. Most likely it took a day but it felt like a week. That or as time went by no one could understand how so much destruction could be done in such a short time.

  "So, what about magic? And monsters?"

  "The world was in chaos for a long time, they say now it took a hundred years for things to even begin to settle down, for people to organize, for the weather to return to normal. They say that there was a long winter that lasted for ninety-nine years, and when it ended, the world started to heal. The great forests grew and the people returned to the lands and the old faiths took hold again."

  Heather spoke up then, "And with the return to the old faiths, the elder people came back into the world and brought their gods with them. The gods of the Indians looked down from the heavens and decided they should return as well, and the rest of the gods of humanity soon followed after that."

  "The elder people?" I asked.

  "Yeah, you know, the elves and the dwarves, as well as goblins, giants, and the other evil races."

  "Wait, you're telling me elves and dwarves are real?" I said surprised.

  "Dianne's father was an elf," Sarah said.

  I glanced back at Dianne, who simply smiled and nodded her head. "You're kidding me."

  "Nope, her mother was a Cheyenne Indian. She did not fit in well with either people, so she came down and settled in Havsue about fifty years ago."

  "Fifty?" I said surprised, "She doesn't look that old!"

  "Elves are very long lived," Sarah said. "So are the half-elves."

  "Wow," I said shaking my head.

  "They don't have elves or any of that where you're from?" Heather asked.

  I shook my head. "No, they're all just myths, stories, something from our history that no one believed ever existed."

  "Just where did you come from?" Heather asked looking at me.

  I shook my head, "I'm not really sure anymore. I don't know just where that goddess dragged us from."

  "Yeah, Sarah told me what you told her," Heather said. "I'm not sure I believe it though."

  That stopped me a moment and I turned to look at her from astride my horse as it continued to walk along with the rest of them, "If you don't believe it, then why are you here?"

  "Because you hired me," Heather said with a smile.

  "That's all?" I asked surprised.

  "Well, there's also the fact that Sarah is here," she said, looking over at Sarah and smiling.

  "Also, she did not want me to have you all to myself," Sarah said with a smirk, and Heather looked a little embarrassed, but nodded her agreement.

  "I'm not much for things I can't see," Heather said, "but if Sarah thinks it's worth investigating, then I'm in."

  "And you, Sarah?" I asked.

  Sarah shrugged, "I have never run an expedition to the coast. My father was the last one in the family to do so, and that was thirty years ago. I figure even if we don't find your armory, we will still find enough stuff to make money off the trip. It is not like any of this is costing me anything, you paid in full upfront."

  I thought about that for a moment, for all that Sarah had described Heather as 'mercenary' before, Sarah was sounding fairly mercenary right now as well.

  Sarah must have realized where my thoughts were going, because she smiled at me and added, "Also, I do sort of owe you a rather large favor," and she nodded towards Heather.

  "And you're our
boyfriend!" Heather grinned, "What kind of women would we be if we didn't support our man, right, Sarah?"

  "Exactly, Heather," Sarah said grinning as I smiled back and just shook my head.

  We reached a camping area about an hour before the sunset, which had several fire pits already dug and lined with stones and a crude latrine. Apparently this was a usual stopping place along the road.

  "I'm surprised there isn't a town here, if this is such a popular stop," I said to Sarah and Heather.

  "It's too open," Heather said. "There are enough criminals and outlaws who prey on the caravans that come through here, that if someone tried to settle down, they'd get wiped out in a raid or a robbery."

  "So, why not come here in a big group?"

  "Yeah, that'd work, but first you have to find a big enough group willing to move from where they're already fat, dumb, and happy, to come here."

  "Good point," I said and then just watched as everyone set up camp.

  Lisa set up to cook dinner, her wagon was pretty much just a chuckwagon; it had a stove, as well as all the food, so she got to preparing dinner right away.

  Tim put the other wagon about thirty feet away from it, and parallel to it, as Geoff and the other three guards picketed the horses on a two lines, to either of the open sides between the wagons.

  Sarah and Keri walked the perimeter of the grounds we were camping on however, walking counter-clockwise around it, on opposite sides as they waved their arms, chanted, and tossed something onto the ground.

  "What are they doing?" I asked Heather.

  "Oh, setting wards."

  "Wards?"

  "Keeps anyone from seeing us from a distance using magic or technology. Also it makes it harder for any predators or outlaws to come into camp."

  "Really?" I said turning back to look at Sarah and Keri.

  "You really are a long way from home, aren't you?" Heather sighed.