As a response I caressed her back, from her shoulders down to her butt, back and forth with both hands. After a few minutes we got up and straightened out the bed. Shelly, nude as usual, started to walk out the door to help in the kitchen.
“Shelly, do you really want to go out like that”?
“Why not, it’s hot”.
“Megan might have left one thing out when she told you about ‘this and that’. Shelly, with the open door in her hand looked back at me with a frown. “You are kind of filled with sperm right now. A lot of it is going to leak out when you go out there”.
Shelly looked down, and sure enough, she saw something wet slowly running down the inside of her thigh. “What am I going to do”?
“Well you need to wear some shorts or something”.
Her face turned bright red. “But they will know what we were doing”.
“Well it is either that or a big wet spot on the chair. I’ll let you pick”.
She scowled at me, “This is not fair. You get to just wipe off and go on like nothing happened”.
I just smiled back. She scooted out the door. When I saw her next she was in the kitchen wearing a t-shirt and shorts. It was obvious from the looks of everyone they knew what had happened earlier and had been teasing her over it.
When dinner was finished mom walked out of the kitchen with me while the rest of the girls began cleaning up. “You need to do a few hunting trips soon. According to the almanac this looks to be a rough winter. I want us to set for a long hard winter soon”.
I nodded. “How about I take one in three days? That will give me some time to finish a project”.
Mom smiled, “Yes, a project. I think I saw the results of your project earlier”.
Now it was my turn to blush. I stammered, “That wasn’t what I meant. Well, not all of it anyway”.
Mom continued, “I want you to take Terri with you. You have taught her to be a pretty good shot with that rifle. She needs to take the next step using it. Just shooting at targets is not real life. If it is ever necessary to use it I want to know she will not freeze”.
I looked up sharply, “Do you think….”?
“No, I don’t think there is any one out there. I truly think we are alone. It just pays to be prepared”.
Three days later Terri and I were up at dawn preparing to set out. Shelly had woken me an hour earlier to show me what I was going to be missing over the next few days. She had been very enthusiastic and now after my good night’s sleep I was tired again and she had promptly gone back to sleep.
Mom had risen also and fixed us a good breakfast. As we readied to go out the front door I gave mom a hug and a kiss. I rubbed her swollen tummy and gave it a kiss for good luck. As Terri was giving mom a hug I saw Megan walking towards me. She hugged me and kissed me goodbye. I gave her tummy a rub and a kiss also. She looked like she was going to cry so I gave her another hug. Through some tears she said, “Damn hormones. You come back safe or I’ll kick your butt all over the place”.
Terri and I put our packs on and started our walk. It was going to take most of the day to get there so we needed to get going. We would have looked pretty funny to anyone that could have seen us. We both wore shirts because of the packs and we wore shoes for the walking and that was all. We had been pretty lucky all this time. None of the clothes us kids had brought here fit us but mom and dad had brought plenty. Dad’s clothes fit me perfectly and the girls could wear moms.
We did not say a lot as we walked. I pointed out some places and told some stories about previous hunts. I took one detour and we walked down a ridge until we could see the nearby town. It was miles in the distance but you could see the entire length of the town and many farms around it. I had not watched it yet this summer and thought we could take the time now. Nothing. No sign of any life. Trees had broken up some of the streets. Everything was overgrown. When I saw something move I grabbed the binoculars out of the pack and zeroed in on it, a deer. Then behind it I saw a few more deer feeding. That further confirmed my observation. Deer would not be walking around where there were people.
Our detour had delayed us a bit so it was early evening before we reached where I wanted to camp. It looked like a summer storm was fast coming in so we quickly pitched our tent and fixed dinner. There were dark clouds coming over and I could feel the temperature dropping rapidly. I now wished we had worn more clothing, or at least had brought some with us. Because I knew we would be carrying a full load back I had deliberately packed light.
Just as we finished eating the first drops began to fall. Terri took our sleeping bags into the tent while I gathered our gear. It was not a big tent so we were going to be packed. Usually I was alone and the gear could stay outside. When I crawled in I was surprised to see how the sleeping bags set out. Each was fully open, one on the top of the other. I caught Terri’s eye with a questioning look on my face. She just gave me that “Well think it through stupid”, look. “We don’t have enough room in here with all our stuff to lay out two sleeping bags. We will fit in better this way. Besides I’m cold. It will be warmer sleeping next to you”.
Well, she was right about that. But I was uncomfortable. For the last six months or so I had been sleeping with three different women and having sex with them day and night. I had not really paid much attention to Terri in that time. She was my little sister but she was developing into a beautiful girl. She was still a bit on the small side compared to her sisters. She was only around 5’ 4” and could not have weighed over 100 lbs. But those 100 lbs had been put in all the best places. Her breasts were best described as “perky”. She was going to be fourteen in another month. That meant it was her turn after Susan.
Just thinking about this was starting to get me hard. I was still on my hands and knees on top of the sleeping bag. I looked over at Terri. She was sitting cross-legged on the edge of the bag. She started pulling her t-shirt over her head but was having some difficulty with it because the top of the tent was so low. I took the opportunity provided by her t-shirt difficulties to take a good look at my littlest sister. I was wrong, her breasts weren’t just perky, they were perfect. I looked farther down and saw that I could see the lips of her pussy. I’m so hard. I have to stop this. As I lifted my eyes back to her breasts I realized that she had her t-shirt off now and was looking at me. She caught me. I could feel the heat building in my face. I mumbled something about it being time to go to sleep, pulled the top bag up so I could get in, and quickly turned over away from her.
She did not say anything. In a minute or so I felt the bag move as she got in. She moved up behind me and put an arm around me. Her hand ended up on my stomach. I was afraid she might move it an inch or so and bump into my erection. I took her hand in one of mine and moved it up a bit and held it.
We laid there for a minute before she finally spoke, “Danny? Am I ugly”?
“No Terri, whatever gave you that idea? You are really pretty”.
“You looked at me and then just turned away with a funny look on your face. I thought maybe I was ugly”.
“No, like I said, you are really pretty”.
She was quite for a while. “It is still early and I am not sleepy. Can we talk for a while”?
I nodded my head but stayed where I was. I still had a massive hard-on and did not want to turn over. “Could you turn around so I can talk to you”?
Oh, great. Maybe she won’t notice. I turned over on my back. I glanced down and saw the bag sticking up.
“What is sex like? I have talked to Megan and Shelly but they say I’m too young and to go away. But I’m almost fourteen and in a few months we will be sleeping together and I don’t know much. I don’t want to be bad at it”.
I was speechless. She was talking about sleeping with me as if it was playing tag. No embarrassment, no nervousness. I’m the nervous one.
She pulled the bag down and scooted up a bit. Her left breast was now lying right on my arm. “My breasts are too small. I wish I had bigger ones like Shelly and Megan. You probably will not even want to have sex with me because I’m too little”.
Dead if I do and dead if I don’t. “You are not too small. You are a perfect size. Bigger is not better. It is just bigger. Your breasts are perfect for you”.
She had a disbelieving look on her face, “You are just saying that. You have to because I’m your sister. You would not even want to touch mine because they are so small”.
Before I could even think about the consequences I reached out to her, “See that is not true”. I cupped her breast in my hand. Her skin felt so smooth. I could feel her nipple get hard in the middle of my palm. I moved my hand caressing her breast.
She rose up a bit so the other appeared. “What about the other one? Isn’t it too small”?
I reached to it and gave it the same attention. I knew I had to stop but just couldn’t. If I got any harder I was going to break through the bag.
Earlier when I turned over on my back my right arm was along my side. When Terri moved closer to me I had left it there. When she rose for me to touch her breasts she had moved her body so that her mound was pushed against the back of my hand. As she pushed it slightly against me I could not help myself and pushed back gently against her.
I don’t know if she even realized she was grinding it against my hand ever so slowly.
She pulled the bag covering me down to my waist and traced a finger around my nipples. When I did not say anything she said, “That does not do the same thing for you that it does to me”?
“No. I guess guy’s nipples are not as sensitive as girls”.
Her fingers moved down to my belly button. She looked lower and saw the bag sticking up. “Am I doing that to you”? Without waiting for me to say anything she grabbed the bag and pulled it off me. The sudden movement of the bag made my cock wave around.
She laughed and grabbed it to make it stop. “I have not seen it this big in a long time”.
I felt like that time I had a cold and a high temperature and I could not think right. My head was all foggy. She had a hold of my cock and I just wanted to turn over and fuck her. But what would mom say? This is not what she planned. Here I was with a beautiful girl who wanted to know more about sex and had a vise grip on my cock. I did the only thing I could think of, I closed my eyes and let out a long groan.
Then I wondered, “What do you mean, ‘this big in a long time’”?
“I saw you and mommy one time. That time before you went on a hunting trip and she talked to us while you were gone. I went to your bedroom to ask mom a question. I guess you did not hear me knock. When I opened the door mommy had her mouth on your penis and was sucking it. Does that feel good”? Without even waiting for me to answer she continued, “What am I saying, of course it feels good. I saw the look on your face. It seems like a funny thing to do but I know you liked it”.
Then with no warning at all she leaned over and put my cock in her mouth. I almost levitated off the bed. She must have watched mom pretty closely. She began to move her head up and down sucking on my cock with slurping sounds. I was finally able to get out, “Like a lollipop”.
She pulled my cock out of her mouth, “Huh”?
“Remember the tootsie rolls we used to have”?
“Oh yeh”. She closed her mouth back over my cock and I could feel her tongue begin to swirl around the head. I turned my hand around and found I could now reach between her legs. I started moving my hand up and down the inside of her thigh. I moved down near her knee and then slowly back up until the top of my thumb was pushed against her pussy. I rubbed in small circles and then went down the other thigh. I kept repeating this until her pussy was very wet. I positioned my hand so that part of it was pushed against her clitoris and then slid one finger in her pussy. I began rubbing my hand against her clitoris while moving the finger around in small circles in her pussy. It was so small and tight I briefly wondered if I would even fit. She pulled my cock out of her mouth and laid her head down on my stomach. “That feels so good. It’s much better when someone else does it”.
She started to put my cock back in her mouth but I put my hand out to stop her. “Any more and I’ll be squirting all over the place”.
She immediately jumped up and lay on top of me. “That would be a waste. The only place you are going to squirt is in me”.
“I don’t think that would be such a good idea”. But I made no effort at all to move her away. She was holding herself up on her arms above me and her breasts were right in front of my face. Her sisters must have told her a bit more because she lowered herself just enough that one of her nipples brushed against my lips, back and forth. Then she moved farther to the side so that the other nipple took its place. I parted my lips and her nipple slipped between them. I ran my tongue around and over it and then sucked more of her breast into my mouth. “Oh Danny, that feels so good”.
She rocked back on me and her pelvic bone slid right over the top of my cock. I reached up to caress her breasts. When my hands touched her she leaned into my hands letting me hold her up. She lifted up off me a bit, reached down for my cock, positioned it where she wanted it and then began moving back until the swollen head was pushed against her pussy. We were both so wet that the head slid right in but that is where it stopped. It was so tight in her. It felt tight when I put a finger in her and this was no finger. “Danny, what do I do? I want you in me so bad but it is so big. I don’t know if it will fit. You fucked everyone else, why doesn’t it fit in me”? She sounded just a bit scared but very determined.
I was no longer thinking about anything but how to bury myself deeper in her. “Just go very slow and let your body get used to it. You will gradually stretch and I will fit”.
I pulled back just an inch and then pushed back in. After doing this several times I felt like I was sliding in just a bit further. Terri was hugging me so tight and really breathing hard. “Yes Danny. That feels much better. Don’t stop”. Now every time I pushed into her she was pushing back. After a few strokes she began pushing harder. I stopped my thrusting and she continued. Looking down I could see her sliding up and down on my shaft. After a few minutes of this I was only halfway into her. She began moaning while dropping harder on me, driving me deeper into her. Finally I could no longer see my cock. When I was completely buried in her she stopped moving. “What do I do now? Do I keep moving up and down”?
“Do what feels good. You can keep moving up and down or you could do this”. I pushed her up higher so she was sitting on me and I could move my hands. I reached down to her hips and rocked them back and forth. “Or you might like this”. Holding her hips, I then moved her in a circling motion on me, letting her grind her pelvis against mine. I reached up to cup her breasts again with the intention of rubbing her nipples, but she leaned forward again, resting her weight on my hands. She closed her eyes, let her arms dangle down and began experimenting with the three methods I had shown her. She first began bouncing up and down again really fast. She was so tight on me it was like I was jerking off. I was ready to cum now. After a while she stopped and began grinding her pelvis in a circle against mine. Her breath became a bit ragged. When she finally began thrusting back and forth against me really hard I knew she was getting close. Her eyes were closed, her mouth was hanging open and she had this dreamy look on her face. Finally she reached the breaking point, “Danny, it’s too tight”. I had no idea what she meant by that but I began to make my own sharp, hard thrusts into her. I had been holding back as long as I could. When her pussy began clenching me I finally let go, shooting long streams of cum into her. As the intensity of the orgasm slowly passed for both of us we continued very slowly pushing at each other. I was deep in her and wanted to stay that way for a while. Just the sensation of sliding back and forth in her felt so good. She had collapsed on me earlier and as I pushed very slowly up into her she would respond by pushing back to meet me. Every few strokes she would let out an “mmmmm”.
When we finally stopped moving and had caught our breath, we just laid there. I could hear a heavy rain falling outside. I wondered when that had started. The last sound I remember was just a few drops falling on the tent. The wind was also really picking up. It was a good thing we had staked the tent down really well. I had been unconsciously rubbing my hands on Terri’s back and I finally noticed her making kind of a purring sound. “You like that”?
“Yes, don’t stop”. She turned her head and kissed me on the neck and then laid her head back on my chest. “That was so much better than I expected. Thank you”.
I was curious. “What did you expect”?
“I don’t know. The girls said I would like it but how do you know. I’ve seen our animals do it but the male just jumps on the female and then it is over. It never looks like either of them really enjoys it”. She stopped for a minute and then added, “Will I be pregnant now”?
“Well first, I’m glad you enjoyed it. Second, I don’t know. Sometimes I guess it takes just once, sometimes more. From what mom said I think it also has a lot to do with when your period is”.
Terri turned her head again and nuzzled my neck. “If it takes more than once, maybe we should do it again”.
I would have loved to but I was beat, literally, “Your brother is getting old. I need my rest. We have a lot of work tomorrow. You should be going to sleep also”.
“Okay, but I bet you will be rested in the morning”.
“We’ll see”. But I was sure I would be.
Terri, slid off me, turned on her side, pulled my arm out so she could us it as a pillow and moved back against me. “Put your arm around me. I’m getting cold”. I did as I was told and we both quickly fell asleep.
When we woke the next morning Terri won her bet, I was completely rested. Though as it turned out, I was pretty exhausted by the time we had breakfast. The hunt went really well. Terri spotted and shot two very nice sized deer within just hours of our starting. Mom should have no worries about her shooting skill or her willingness.
The next morning as we lay naked against each other, I was thinking about our reception at home. Mom was going to be upset and Shelly would probably be hurt. It was supposed to be her time and her I am out in the woods fucking Terri instead of her.
Terri did not seem concerned at all. “Don’t worry about mom. I know what to say to her. When you see Shelly, tell her that you love her, pick her up and carry her off to the bedroom and show her”.
When we got home that night everything turned out exactly as Terri had predicted. As soon as I saw Shelly, I picked her up, told her I loved her and missed her and took her to our bedroom to prove it.
Later that night I went into the kitchen to get something to eat. I found Terri and mom there talking in candle light. “Why the candles”?
Mom looked up, “I was just telling Terri. While the two of you were gone we had a storm”.
“We had a good taste of it out there. Some really good wind and a lot of rain. It got really cold”.
“We did not see a lot of rain but the wind blew a branch into our solar panels. Several of them are damaged. We have enough power for the refrigerator but too much of anything else drains the batteries too fast. Movies are going to be a luxury now”.
“Can we repair them”?
“We have the manuals but I don’t think we have the skills or the technical knowledge to do much”.
Everyone was quiet for a while and I dug into a sandwich.
Terri broke the silence, “Mom, I’m pregnant”.
I choked on my food.
Mom’s face clouded over. She looked at me and I was thankful the guns were all locked away. But I was also puzzled, why is she so upset when we would be sleeping together in just a few months anyway?
“What makes you think you are pregnant? When did….Where….Why…” She was having a problem finishing her sentence. She stopped for a moment, collected her thoughts and then calmly asked, “I’m sorry. To me you are still my baby. When did this happen”?
Terri, equally calm, replied, “On our hunting trip”.
“You have only been gone a couple of days. What makes you think you are pregnant? Having sex one time does not always get you pregnant”?
“I just know I’m pregnant". And with a big smile she added, “And it wasn’t just once. It is just a feeling I have. I know I’m pregnant. And before you say anything, I know it was not my turn yet. But I have been thinking about that. I don’t think we should have these long, three month turns. If we do that a couple of us will be pregnant every year during the summer. That is right when we are needed most for work. Plus it means we are pregnant during the heat of the summer. Of course I’ve never been pregnant before, but looking at you, that does not seem like a great idea”.
Mom just looked back at Terri. I could see she was impressed with what Terri had said and was thinking about it. I was pretty much forgotten. “I see you have given this some pretty good thought”. After a pause she added, “And after listening to you I think you are right”.
I thought this would be a good time to forget about eating and just go back to bed. As I moved to get up mom turned to me. “I have not forgotten about you. You know you were not supposed to sleep with Terri until her birthday. I hope you have not hurt Shelly’s feelings with this”.
Terri then surprised me, “Mom. It’s not his fault. It’s mine. I seduced him. He really did not have a chance”.
What?
Mom looked back at her, “You have always been pretty good at getting what you want. I bet it was not too hard either”.
Terri smiled, “No, he was pretty easy”.
Hey, I’m right here. I can hear you. I knew there was no way I was going to win any points so I made the best of the situation. I said my goodnights and went back to bed with Shelly.
As it turned out Terri was right. She was pregnant. A few months later mom had a baby girl. It was a big occasion. We had all seen births in the barn but there is a big difference when it is your mom. A few months later Megan had her baby, another baby girl. Another few months and Terri, followed by Shelly just a couple of weeks later, both had baby girls. When Susan completed the picture with her baby girl it seemed like our entire plan was doomed to failure. No one spoke much about it but I know mom worried about it. She said that my sperm determines the sex and that some men do not produce sperm that makes boys. It looks like I’m one.
The second year we changed our sleeping pattern. The girls would decide when they wanted to give birth and time sex with me accordingly. Sometimes it would be a different person each night. Other times one of my sisters, or my mother, would stay with me several days. But our luck with the births did not change. Everyone had girls the second year also.
It was not until the third year that we three boys and two girls. Finally, this might work. There was hope down the line. In the sixth year mom finally said “no more baby factory”. She continued having sex with me on a somewhat infrequent basis, but she had decided she was too old to keep having children and that was it for her.
After five years we had really grown as a family. There were now twenty three kids running around creating havoc; sixteen girls and seven boys. The house had changed a lot in that time also. It had to. We needed the space for all the kids. I could see that in the next couple of years we were going to have to spread out. We needed more space for living and for growing food.
I was thinking about this one morning before breakfast. I had gone outside and was standing by a fence watching one of our bulls mate with a cow. After he was done he moved on to a second and then a third before the mood must have left him. He was standing there eating some grass when another female came up and presented herself. He ignored her and continued eating. After a minute the female turned around and butted him with her head. With less than his earlier enthusiasm he finally acquiesced, mounted her, and when he was finished, resumed eating. I smiled at the sight, “I feel your pain”.
“Daddy, breakfast is ready”.
I had not heard Mary come up. She was Megan’s oldest. She took my hand and we walked back to the house.
I had just finished eating and had pushed my chair back from the table. I was just sitting there watching everyone, listening to the conversations, enjoying the company when Janice ran up and jumped in my lap. “Can I go out and talk to the people”?
When Mary, my oldest daughter, ran into the kitchen and asked if she could go out and see the people, I sat there trying to figure out what game she was playing. It never occurred to me that she might be talking about real people. We had been alone here for so many years. I had not even thought about other people in several years.
I just sat there speechless for the longest time. What could she be talking about? What people? Was this just a kid’s game with imaginary players? Just as I was about to ask her about it, another of the children, Janice, run in shouting, “There are people out by the barn”.
I got up and went to the window followed by mom. Everyone else crowded around behind us. Sure enough, there were four people over by the barn. They were just standing there in a group watching the house. There were two kids and a woman standing in front, and a man standing behind them. They were not making any attempt to hide. They just stood there, watching, waiting. The man appeared to be forty or so, around mom’s age. I guessed the woman might be thirty. She definitely looked younger than my mom. The other two were young teenage girls and were probably thirteen or fourteen.
The man was white and very stocky, about the same height as me. The woman was a light skinned black and very slender. She reminded me of someone I had seen on one of our movies but I could not remember the name. I guessed one of the girls might be her daughter. She had the same shade of skin and body type. The other girl was Asian. I thought they were a pretty odd group to be together. They did not seem a very likely family.
They were all wearing clothes; shirts, pants and shoes. Except for winter we pretty much never wore clothes. It was late spring, and already warm, so we were all naked. I could also see that the man had a rifle that he held close to his leg. If I had not looked close I would have missed it. They also had backpacks, and a few yards behind them I spotted a cart that had bags and boxes stacked in it. The man put one hand to his mouth, “Hello the house”.
I started to turn to get out of the pack by the window, “I guess I should go out and see what they want”.
Mom took my arm and pulled me back. “Dan. We need to be careful here. He is armed”, she had seen the rifle. “We don’t know where they came from or what they want. But our biggest problem is what if they carry the virus? One touch from them could wipe us all out”.
I looked back at the man, and then at the rifle. “I’ll go out and see what he wants”.
Mom stopped me again, “Just go on the porch. Don’t let them approach you. They need to stay a good distance away. I just hope that is enough”. She turned to Terri, “Terri. You are the best shot here. I want you to take a rifle, go out the back door and around behind the woodpile. If you can don’t let them see you. I want you to cover Dan. If the man makes a threatening move I want you to shoot him”.
Terri, still looking out the window said, “I don’t like him”.
I almost laughed. “How can you say that? We don’t know anything about them”.
She looked back at me. “Look how they are standing”.
I looked back at the group. “You don’t like him because how he stands”?
She looked at me a bit exasperated, “No, not how he stands, it’s where he is standing. The women are in front. He is behind them, like he is using them as a shield”.
I looked back out. “I see what you mean. But it might not mean anything”. I did not want to make a big point of it in front of the others but she had something there. Terri was pretty sharp.
Terri looked back at me, “Don’t worry Dan. I won’t let him do anything”. Then Terri went over to the gun closet, pulled her rifle out, made sure it was loaded and walked to the backdoor. She stood there waiting for me to go out. “Give me a minute to get in position before you go out”.
When I got to the door I stopped and looked back around the room. All the kids and my sisters were at the windows staring at the strangers. This was huge for the kids. They had never seen another person outside of the family. Hell, we did not know there was another person outside the family.
Just as I was about to open the door mom touched my arm to stop me. “When you are talking to them, we are your wives, not your mother and sisters”. I must have had a hurt look on my face, that was how I felt, because she immediately said, “No, I’m not ashamed. If you think about it, we are your wives. But anyway, I want him to see us as yours. We are an intact family. I don’t know what his intentions are. I don’t want him to think there might be opportunities for him here”.
I opened the door and stepped outside, mom followed me. Before I could stop them, Megan and Shelly stepped outside also. I motioned for them to go back in but they both shook their heads and stayed. Both mom and Shelly were pregnant and almost ready to deliver. I did not think it was the safest place for them but I had to admit, he certainly could not miss the fact that we were a family.
They had not moved. I raised a hand in a greeting and the man waved back but stayed where he was. I remained silent. I wanted him to begin. After a few seconds he began, “Hello. We saw your smoke. At first we thought there was a fire but we should check it out. We have not seen another person in so many years. Can we come in”? As he said that he reached forward and nudged the kids and they took a step forward. I immediately held up my hand and they stopped. “Okay, would you happen to have some extra food you can spare”?
I finally spoke up for the first time, “Yes, we have some food. Where are you from”?
“Thanks. We are from Virginia. We have been slowly walking across country for years now. We explored and looked for people all the way but we never saw a soul. For the first few years all we saw was bodies. Now we don’t even see that. My family lived down there in the valley. We stopped there. I hoped, but they are gone too. How did you all escape the virus”?
It was the crux of the matter, what we both wanted to know. “We were up here before it happened. We stayed here and did not see anyone until everything was over. We have never visited another farm and we’ve never gone down to the town below”. I waited for a moment and then asked, “And you”?
The woman started to answer but the man grabbed her arm and she stopped. Then he replied, “Kind of the same thing as you. We were all in a wilderness retreat. We were the only ones there. We did not even know what was happening until it was all over”.
I was curious about one thing, “You have been walking through towns and have had no problems”?
“You mean the virus? No, it must be over now. I guess that explains the lack of clothes on you people. I mean, you’re staying here and not visiting a town”.
The four of us had been standing there talking with them in the nude.
“Can we come up to the house now”?
Mom spoke up for the first time, “No. We need to talk first”.
We turned around to face each other. “The fact that they are here does not mean the virus is gone. They could be carriers. That is, they could have the virus but do not get sick. They just pass it on to others”. Mom had a good point.
“But how can we tell”?
“One of use needs to spend time with them. It works fast. Two days should be enough time to tell”.
Megan turned to mom, “You mean one of us could die if they have the virus”.
She nodded. “Our choices are limited. Either we send them away or we have to test to see if it is safe. The only way we have of testing is to expose someone”.
I spoke up, “I’ll go”. It did not seem right to have one of the girls go. The man should protect them. It also seemed unreasonable to send away the first people we encounter.
Megan then put up a hand to stop me. “No. It should be me”. Before any of us could say anything she continued, “Mom, you and Shelly are both about to deliver. It would not be fair to the babies if something happened to you. And Dan, don’t be such a guy. You are the only man we have, and you are the father to all those kids back there. It can’t be Susan. She is the one mom has been teaching to be a nurse. And Terri is the one with the gun over there covering us. And we certainly cannot send one of our babies out there. It has to be me”.
I could not think of a single point to refute but I felt bad about not being the one to protect them instead of the other way around. I finally just nodded. Mom told her to go and get several days worth of food packed. We turned around to the group waiting for us. “What are your names”?
“I’m John, this is Sharon and the two kids are Janelle and Myoku. And you are”?
“I’m Dan. This is” and I had to stop and think. I had not heard mom’s name since dad had used it, what, fifteen years ago or so. With the slight pause I added “Meredith, and this is Shelly and that was Megan who went back inside”.
They started to walk towards us and I held up my hand to stop them a second time. “We still have a concern about the virus. You might be carriers. We have talked it over and the plan is to have one of us stay with you for a couple of days to be sure there is no problem, a quarantine of sorts”.
After a few minutes Megan returned. She gave each of us a long hug and then we watched as Megan joined them. They pulled a tent out of their cart, set it up and then sat around on the ground and talked. We gave stern warnings to the kids that they were off limits for a couple of days. After a while the novelty of just watching them wore off. Terri had rejoined us earlier and we sat around in the kitchen and discussed what to do. After some heated discussion it was decided that if they were not carrying the virus they could stay here with us for a while. Take some time to see if they were compatible with our group. If not they would be asked to move on. Terri, who had disliked the man from the start, argued to have them move on now.
After a couple of days Megan was showing no sign of the virus infection. From what we saw on news reports from when we were little, we knew it took about a day after first exposure before you knew you were infected. Blood vessels throughout your body would simple fall apart. You would turn black from all the internal bleeding. You had total organ failure. After three days we decided it was safe and they came up to the house to meet us. While the adults met in the kitchen to talk, all the kids were out on the porch talking with Janelle and Myoku. It took about fifteen minutes for the kids to begin calling Myoku, Mikey. Our kids had never seen anyone with different skin color outside of a book so they were constantly touching the new girl’s skin.
In the kitchen we decided they could use a bunkhouse we had out past the barn. It had several bunk beds in it and a wood stove that could be used for heat and cooking. Future plans could be worked on later. At the worst they could stay through the summer and winter and then move on. I thought it might be a good idea if they stayed with us. It would give us some genetic diversity plus it would be good for mom. There would be two people she could relate to, one her age and the other close to her age.