"It does seem that way, doesn’t it?" I replied as I sat up as well. With that concern out of the way I began thinking about my task list for the day. The solar power. "I need to get up. I have a lot of work to do."
"Damn, Mason," Alexa told me as she slid off the bed to grab some clothes. She was still completely nude. It almost made me readjust my priorities. I still couldn’t believe that I was able to make love to both of the dazzling blondes last night. "You are too hard on yourself. Ha ha, I said hard on. Hey, do you have one this morning?"
Alexa padded the sheet between my legs to find a larger than dormant penis, but not quite an erection. I initially thought to brush her hand away. I had just said that I had a lot to do. But instead, my hand found her smooth and perfect ass, without me willing it to do so. I pinched the bottom of her left cheek using all my digits.
"You feel like some boom boom?" she asked me. It was a term I used way back in the early days and it stuck with her.
"I think I'd like a vagina sandwich for breakfast," I told her with an ornery smile.
Without hesitation Alexa straddled my face in a sixty-nine position with her sexy slender form. I grabbed her by her narrow waist to push her pussy onto my mouth. She quickly went to town on my growing boner, sucking the head until her stroking got it up to full form. A lot of times she would mount me after she got me that hard. But this time I was intent on making her cum on my face. As soon as I felt her body twitching, I let loose what I was holding back for her into that moist and very active mouth. A few seconds later she was groaning out an orgasm while trying to squeeze the life out of my cock.
We both got off at roughly the exact same time. It wasn't the first time that it happened for us either. We were both so committed to satisfying each other that pulling the trigger for the other person’s climax sparked our own.
Riley and Stella were already working on breakfast when I eventually exited my bedroom. Of course, I hadn't provided them with any power source, so their choices were limited. My morning quickie with Alexa was virtually silent, so they had no idea what had happened. It wouldn’t have even mattered if they did.
Jada would be sleeping, and Alexa was still getting herself cleaned up and dressed. That only left Bianka which I continued to think would try to avoid me after our sexual ordeal last night. It shocked the shit out me when she walked right up and wrapped her arms around me.
"Good morning," Bianka said with a kiss on my cheek as she released.
"Husband," Riley added.
"Uh, yeah," Bianka blushed. Then she turned and walked away to continue her rounds. She definitely had some extra pep to her step. She even looked back to make sure I was staring at her sexy backside. We had turned a huge page in our relationship, and it released a giddy side of her that was hilarious to see.
"Should she go on the schedule before or after Alexa?" Riley asked.
Stella and I both looked at each other and thought the same thing. "After!" If we wanted to keep helping Alexa control her jealous streak, we needed her to still feel like the primary princess. In my mind, though, anyone that wanted sex with me merely needed to let me know. The schedule was simply for arranging my sleeping partner. A sexual experience was typical, but not required. There had been a few nights where I was too tired or distraught.
Once we finished our morning meal, I made a list of things that I wanted to snag from other houses. More power cords and extension cords were on the top of the list. I needed to find a way to get the damn solar power system working. I was feeling like an unemployed provider until I did.
Jada requested that we wait for her to wake up before we headed off. That way she could guard the house and be on lookout while Bianka went with me. The question was who else should I take with me, if anybody?
Stella's sure shot ability was awesome in a battle scenario. Since we were trying to keep a low profile and go without being noticed, it was best if we avoided gunfire. Unfortunately, her skill did not carry over to archery. Bianka tested that theory with her weeks ago. Of all of us, she had the most work ahead of her with the garden. Other than venturing out for seeds and plants it was best if we just let her to her work. Oddly, she never requested help.
"Take Riley," Alexa told me. "I'll stay and help Stella in the garden. With Bianka scouting ahead you probably won't need my ability anyway."
So, that is what I did. Three stayed at the house while Bianka, Riley and I went shopping. Looting was more like it, but that implied that these things we were taking belonged to someone else. With so many people dead from the virus, possession became even more than nine tenths of the law. It was a first-come, first-serve world nowadays. And if your group was strong enough you didn't even have to be the first one there. Just take what you want, as long as you were prepared to deal with the enemies that you would be making by doing so.
I didn't want any enemies. If there was some other clan or organization in our area, as the activity on Columbia Pike suggested, I would prefer to get along with them. However, without knowing whether or not that was a possibility I would just as soon avoid detection.
That was why my personal mission statement was a bit altered from the norm. If nobody loses by me taking something, I'll take it. After all, we needed to survive just like everyone else. However, if I broke into a house and found a family of skanks living there. That never happened, but hypothetically let's say that it could. I wouldn't take any of their food or supplies. Even if it looked like they were about to die.
I heard the Coalition estimate that just a fraction of one percent of the world's population survived the few months of heat wave and virus outbreak that occurred after the comet struck Earth. That meant that we should be able to loot at least ninety-nine percent of the houses without a problem. Considering how many neighborhoods we had gone through so far, though, we might actually be getting close to that number. That thought made me feel like we were due for some conflict.
We had already searched the dozen or so houses on the loop that connected Northwest Drive to Southwest Drive. We would need to go beyond Oakwood Street for new territory. That would put us less than two blocks from the main road. It was either that or go back in the direction from whence we came. I wasn't ruling out that option, but this neighborhood was a bit more affluent back in civilized times. We had a better shot at finding the things that we wanted here.
After the first block Northwest Drive would put us right beside the school. I didn't get the impression that the former building for education was the source of all this foot traffic we were seeing on the pike, but there was a much better chance of it being occupied than the houses. That thought was based solely on past experience.
We went from one house to the next on Southwest Drive to avoid the school. Whatever supplies we encountered we sat outside the back door of each home in bags. That was one thing that you could always count on finding in people's houses. A shit ton of plastic bags, or if they were into recycling, at least a dozen reusable bags.
We focused on the north side of the street first, planning to hit the other side on the way back. Up to that point we only came across regular squirrels and birds. The kind that scurried or flew away when they saw us. But a moment later, I spotted a black and white cow walking up the middle of Northwest Drive, the next street over. Its muscles were all bulked up like it had been on a healthy diet laced with steroids. Definitely a mutant.
Patiently I waited to see what it was going to do. The normally docile animal was headed in the direction of our new home. It was entirely possible that it could bust through our fence and get to the girls as they worked on the garden. A few minutes after I lost view of it, I heard a scuffle of animals in that direction. Two minutes later the cow walked back down the middle of the street with a raccoon clenched in its jowls.
I didn't get surprised by much these days. I had seen plenty of messed up shit already. However, things were certainly changing. Mutant animals that we never seen before, bands of zombies, no more skanks anywhere,
and this shopping spree we spotted on the main road had me prepared for a new era of the post apocalypse.
"Mason," Bianka whispered to me. She had just scouted the next house as me and Riley were finishing up with this one. "Two houses down," she said. "It looks like people live there."
"People?" I asked. In the old days that would sound like a stupid redundant question. But people came in a variety of forms these days. Healthy, ill, extremely ill, and people like us. Humans with special abilities. The term people now typically meant healthy humans without superpowers.
"Yes, regular people," she informed me as Riley stepped up beside me to overhear the conversation. "A kid just went out into the backyard with a soccer ball. A man carried a bag of charcoal over to a rusty grill. I think that they are planning to have a barbeque."
"Huh," Riley said. "And we weren't invited."
Bianka and I both looked at her like she was crazy. Until recently she would be the last one to crack a joke in a situation like this. Jada and Alexa must be rubbing off on her.
"Well," I said. "Let's not go any farther that way then."
"Mason," Bianka said to me like I was missing the point. "They aren't scared at all. I didn't see anyone on guard with a gun. The boy is out there right now without adult supervision."
"That is weird," Riley stated. We didn’t glimpse many children these days at all. To see one playing without a care in the world was more than rare. We hadn’t come across a mutant child yet. Finding one unworried about the world around them would make me more than suspicious.
"They have protection somehow," I told them. "If they don't have extra skills like us, they must be part of a large group."
"Given what we saw on the main road yesterday..." Bianka started.
"I think we have finally encountered new civilization," I finished the thought. In the early days we thought that it was bound to happen. As the dystopian world moved sluggishly onward, our hope of seeing such a thing had nearly disintegrated.
"Should we make contact?" Riley asked.
"Maybe," I answered. "But not just yet. Let's get these supplies back to the house, inform the others and do some more recon so we know exactly what we are dealing with."
Bianka nodded and suggested that she go check it out in the middle of the night when her cat-like skills are at their best. I agreed. Without consent my mind focused on that special body of hers and things that we did last night. I nearly groaned out loud at the thought.
I had acquired several cords that might work for repairing the damaged cables on solar panels at our new place, and more batteries than we had expected to find. With all the other supplies it was too much to carry in one trip. We took what we had sat outside the farthest three houses and went back for loot from the closest two. It wasn't enough to need three people for the second trip, so Riley stayed at the house.
As we were passing from one house to the next, bags in our hands, I heard talking. We stopped immediately and looked toward the street to see two men. Not the same two men as before but they were casually strolling up the street unarmed just like the others. They spotted us a moment later before we could dive for cover.
"Hey!" one of the men shouted. He was a big lumberjack type complete with the red plaid shirt, but the sleeves were cut off at the shoulder. The other guy was a bit smaller but appeared to have come from a similar gene pool. Or maybe they just shopped at the same thrift store. When I dropped my bags and reach for my revolver, they stopped in their tracks. Before that it looked like they were prepared to chase us down.
"Don't do that," the big guy said. I was waiting for him to explain why. Did he have reinforcements? Was he some kind of mutant that had a powerful attack he would use if I pulled my weapon? Or did he just not want to be shot?
"We're not going to take your stuff," the man explained. "As long as there isn't any contraband in those bags."
Contraband? What counted as contraband these days?
"I just need to know where you got it from," the guy told me. Despite their disadvantage he spoke with questionable boldness. That had me concerned.
"And he has to register that pistol," the smaller guy added. But the big guy waved him off. He probably wanted to deal with just one issue at a time. Like a negotiator.
They weren't being confrontational enough to encourage me to pull my weapon from its holster. Bianka had the sub-machinegun tucked into the back of her pants, but they couldn't see that from their angle. She opted for pulling a knife instead.
"We got some supplies from these couple houses here," I told him. I couldn't think of a lie fast enough that would make sense. Or a reason to lie at that point. Scavenging was scavenging. Either this group permitted it, or they did not.
"It's a wonder Tommy didn't see them," the smaller guy said. Tommy must be the guy that was about to have a barbeque.
"If there are guns or ammunition in those bags, we need to see it, sir," the lumberjack told me. They started leaning forward. Since I hadn't pulled my revolver out maybe they thought it was okay to approach.
"There isn't," I informed them.
"The gun you have on your hip there. Is it already registered with the office?" I could tell by the way he asked that he already knew that it wasn't. The size of their community was probably small enough that they surely knew everybody that belonged. We did not.
"What office?" I asked.
The big guy took a deep breath and said, "Sir, you are going to need to come with us to register your weapon. They will ask you where you are living and get you to agree to the community rules. Then you'll be free to go about your business."
"They ain't gonna let him keep that gun," the smaller guy said in a low voice, but not low enough that Bianka couldn't hear him. The bigger man noticed and told him to shut the hell up.
"What community rules?" I asked.
"The only civilization that exists for miles around," he told me proudly. It sounded like he was about to transition from policeman to salesman. "We have food and clean water. The rules are easy to get along with, for most people. And we have a lot of things that we share. You'll probably live a better life after you register. Then you'll be one of us."
"What is this organization called?" I asked. I was starting to get a cult vibe and expected their name to confirm it.
"We are the Children of the Phoenix," the big man said with pride.
Then the smaller man added like an apprentice preacher, "We were reborn form the ashes."
CHAPTER ELEVEN:
The second man pulled his two-way radio from his belt without taking his eyes off me. When I drew my revolver, he raised both hands into the air and said, "It's just a walkie-talkie!"
"I know what it is," I replied. "Set it on the ground."
"Sir," the first guy said as he started to look panicked. "We don't want any trouble. It is routine for us to call in anything that we encounter on our patrol. We'll tell them that you are going to register your weapon sometime today, and then we'll go. You don't have to come with us. I apologize for the confusion."
"The walkie-talkie goes on the ground," I insisted. "Or I'll take it from his hand after he is dead. Either way, you won't be calling this in. I don't want to be difficult to deal with, but you two walked up on us and started making demands. We were just minding our own business. Now do I have to shoot your friend before you realize that I mean business?"
"No sir," he answered then gestured for his buddy to place the two-way radio on the ground. "We don't want any trouble."
"Well, then you shouldn't have come looking for it."
The second guy seemed to finally understand the seriousness of the situation. He dropped the radio from about knee high and turned on his heel. When he bolted down the street the main spokesman got worried. When I didn't shoot his friend in the back he slowly backed away until he felt it was safe to turn and run himself.
"How long until they are back with reinforcements?" Bianka asked.
"Depends on if there are more people wi
th walkie-talkies close by, like this Tommy guy they referred to," I answered. "Five, ten minutes maybe. At this point, though, they don't know what house we are living in. We are going to need to hide out for a while, I think. The power problem will have to wait. Let’s go."
We shared the news with the others once we returned home. It was a bummer, of course. No one was excited about laying even lower than we already were. If the two patrol guys reported our trajectory at the moment that they saw us, their people should come searching this way. Of course, we could have went any direction after reaching the street. We didn’t really give away our location.
The search party that I anticipated would likely come up our street cautiously. I threatened to shoot one of their own already. Unless they were well armed like the militia, I would think they would avoid any casualties on their side. That was the advantage of the chased over the chaser. We could run away at good speed as long as there was no threat of being shot. Anyone chasing after us would have to worry about an ambush at every house or piece of sizeable cover. That should slow them down considerably.
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