Chapter 11: Val

Audry and Veronica, the two nurses who spent the night with me, left after breakfast. Both had been responsive, both were affectionate, but neither of them displayed any love for me. I guess it's pretty silly of me to expect that, and I'm probably a lot better off not having every woman I sleep with devoted to me but I'll take Bev over any of them, any day of the week and twice on Sunday.

Dad and Connie spent the night together, which was kind of a surprise. She was young enough to be his daughter and any relationship between them would have caused a lot of problems or at least a lot of talk in the old world. It was another indication that we weren't in the old world any longer. Just in case we had any doubts about that. Connie didn't have her arms wrapped around him but it was obvious she wasn't finished with him, either. She was the only one out of five females we'd been with who acted like that. Dad was unusually quiet this morning, too.

Michael seemed to be in pretty good shape today. The bruise on his cheek was starting to change color, showing some purple and green tinges. He said it didn't hurt too bad. Susan asked me if I'd touch it and I did, not understanding why. I felt a jolt travel down my arm and he jumped a bit like he'd been shocked. He reached up, felt it, smiled at me and said "Thanks."

I said "No problem," totally confused about what just happened.

Oscar was able to sit at the table and eat breakfast with the rest of us. Amanda helped him walk in from the front room. I'm not sure if he really needed the help or she needed the closeness. She stayed real close throughout breakfast.

Dad told Oscar and Amanda what had happened the previous day. Oscar looked disappointed that he hadn't been in on it.

"That's something I've been thinking about," my father told him. "I let everyone join us so they'd all feel they had something to do with getting rid of the criminals. Susan had her chance but you three didn't. You two were here and Michael was chained up until it was all over. The bodies are all out there, piled up in their camp. I don't think it's worth the effort it would take to dig a hole for them. I want the three of you to go out there with me today. You can see for yourselves that they're really dead and won't be able to harm you any more. If you think it will make you feel better to kick or stab someone, chop off a head or even light a match to burn the bodies, that's fine with me. I want you all to go out there with me, though. You won't get another chance and I don't want you wishing you could have done something when it's too late."

Amanda said, "We can be ready to leave in about ten minutes."

"I appreciate that," Dad said. "I need to go over to Garth's place before we leave. Jeff took the wounded over there because it was the closest place that had enough room for them. The two women took some of their aggression out on a couple of the outlaws but I'm going to give them a chance to do more if they want to. Al and Sam were pretty messed up and weren't able to do anything."

Amanda asked, "Who were the two women?"

Dad shook his head. "You know, I was so busy I didn't even ask who they were. Val?"

"No, I was busy helping out but I never did ask their names."

"Susan? Connie? Ricky? Do any of you know them?"

All shook their heads, mumbled No.

"Well, I guess that will be the first thing to do when I get over to Garth's," my father said.

We finished our coffees and Dad and I, Ricky and Connie and of course Alfie took off to see how the wounded were.

There were seven people finishing up their breakfasts when we arrived. Garth was hustling around the kitchen with his wife Gloria. Gloria was a few inches shorter than her husband but looked just as big around as he was. His mass came from beating metal with a hammer, hers looked like it originated in the kitchen. She was one of the friendliest, happiest people I'd seen in a long time.

Jeff and his four patients were also drinking coffee or tea. All of them had been cleaned up and looked 100% better than yesterday. Al had his right arm in a sling and had a few bruises I could see but he was alert and didn't look like he was in pain. Sam looked like a raccoon from having his nose broken but he didn't even have a bandage on it. His ribs must have been wrapped up pretty tight because he looked stiff every time he moved.

The two women were Beth and Mia. Mia was 15 years old and Beth was 16. They had some bruises and were stiff. They were also very sore from the sexual abuse they'd received. They had been captured a couple of miles from the small settlement they lived in when they were out looking for food. That was about a month ago, as near as they could tell. They couldn't shoot over to Savon and pick up a home pregnancy test but Jeff and the two of them thought it would be a miracle if they hadn't caught during the month they'd been used as cum buckets by the gang. They did have a pretty good attitude about it. They were happy the bastards were dead but they weren't going to take it out on their babies. They were each going to raise their child so it would not follow in its father's footsteps. The gene pool was too shallow to abort an outlaw's spawn.

Jeff looked at Dad. "Would you mind helping the girls out so they don't have as much pain?"

"Not at all. Val, you help Mia and I'll take care of Beth."

I figured it was something like Susan asked me to do with Michael but I let Dad lead the way. He took Beth's hand and got her to stand up. "I need to get a bit personal here, please don't take it the wrong way." He put his right hand between her legs and cupped her butt with his left. He just stood there a few seconds, then she jumped like she'd been goosed. By the time this happened, I'd helped Mia out of her chair and was just getting my hands in place. A couple of seconds later, she reacted the same way her friend had.

Both girls looked at each other, started giggling, them stopped suddenly. The amused expressions changed to amazed and they both reached down to where Dad and I had just had our hands. They looked at each other, smiled and then they each grabbed the one who'd helped them and laid a big one on us.

I commented that I had no idea what was happening and Jeff and Dad explained that we seemed to have the ability to heal people, or at least take away some of their pain. Dad said he thought we sent some healing power into the area we touched because Oscar was doing much better than should be expected and so were Sam and Al. We weren't ready to raise the dead but we could help ease people's pain and speed up their healing.

A half hour later, Garth was diving an oversized wagon with the four previous captives in the back, lying on an oversized mattress. There was also an assortment of tools, including a pikes, axes and sledgehammers. We did not have any shovels because we had no plans on using them. There was a tarp up near the front of the compartment, near Garth's seat, but I couldn't see what was under it.

Connie was riding next to Dad and the two of them talked the whole way back to Amanda's. Ricky was taking up the rear. Alfie did his usual wandering guard thing.

Garth stopped the wagon at the end of Amanda's driveway while the four of us turned into it. Connie waited for Ricky to catch up to her. The two of them pulled up, got off their horses and sat down on a boulder next to the drive. Dad and I rode to the house and picked up the family. They were all in their own wagon. Amanda drove with Oscar on the bench next to her and Susan and Michael sat in the back. Michael and Susan were still close to each other but he didn't seem as clingy as he had been earlier.

Ricky was waiting on his horse near the end of the drive when we rode back. Dad stopped to talk to him for a bit. I noticed that Connie was already in front of Garth's wagon. Garth had pulled forward, about 50 feet past the driveway. I rode past the wagon and stopped next to her.

"Is everything alright?"

"Yeah, everything's fine. Rick's a little out of it but he'll be OK."

"Did you two have an argument?"

"No. There have just been some changes. He didn't make them and he's not real happy about them but he'll get over it."

"Alright. If you say so."

Dad and Ricky rode to the end of the drive. Dad leaned over and slapped him on the shoulder, then turned left and headed toward us while Ricky made a right turn and rode the other way. Dad stopped next to me and asked me if I would mind taking up the rear. He had some things he wanted to talk to Connie about.

By now, Amanda had made the turn and was coming up behind Garth. Dad and Connie started moving and everyone followed. I stayed off to the side until they all passed me and then I fell in, accompanied by Alfie.

When we got near the path up the hill, I noticed there was a crew of workers building a shelter of some kind. There were a couple of others with crossbows, watching the path. "What's happening?" I asked one of them.

"We're building something so we can keep a couple of guards out of the weather. Just a bench with a roof over it so we'll stay dry when it rains and won't get too much sun. We've never needed guards before but the elders have decided that we should have a couple of guards at the bottom of each path so we can see if anybody who doesn't belong here tries to get in."

I shook my head. "It's a shame you have to do that."

"Yeah, well, this place has been paradise for a long time. There are people out there who want a piece of paradise but aren't willing to make the effort to earn it. We happen to feel that it's worth the effort to defend it. We took it for granted for too long and we almost got burned."

As I followed the rest of the group, I realized what he said made a lot of sense. It was easy to point out all the people that were doing wrong in the old world. Their greed and desire for power were easy to see and blame for the way things were. But the fact is, if the populace wasn't so apathetic, the greedy power mongers wouldn't have been able to get anywhere near as far as they did. Let's face it. The ones in charge weren't the only ones who were greedy. When the common man discovered he could vote in benefits he didn't have to work for, it was a pretty powerful lure. There were lots of surveys that rated most elected officials in the lower percentile as far as satisfaction was concerned. Each district tended to be much more satisfied with their own reps, though. And the more pork that rep got for them, the higher the rate of satisfaction.