Chapter 3: Sweet Sofia

Barns are not comfortable. I’ve always heard that hobos and vagrants seek them out, but after experiencing a night in one, I have my doubts whether that was ever true.

The camping paraphernalia was all heaped in the living room, and I easily found a few flashlights. Then I killed the generator before any other goonies happened to drive past. I stood studying the headlights shining in the night, out in that field. Weary as I was, I knew that wouldn’t do, so I fetched that trusty little hand axe I’d gotten in the camping store, and trudged out there once more and broke the head and tail lights. The walk back seemed even longer.

Next: a shower. I had substances clinging to my body and in my hair that I didn’t even want to think about. The water sluicing off my body carried away more colors than any rainbow, though they were muted and dark, and I wished the drain could sweep away some of my memories of that deadly evening along with the physical detritus. Wanda kept trying to get into the shower with me, but I didn’t feel very amorous; and I begged Doriana to do something to keep her occupied while I cleaned up.

When I emerged from the bathroom, they were in bed, making out. I don’t know why that shocked me. For a long minute, I stood silently looking down at them, and at feminine fingers exploring smooth feminine flesh. Each of them moaned wantonly into the other’s mouth, and I discovered that I was stiffening considerably, despite the gorefest that was still fresh in my memory. I found a pair of shorts and some sandals from the camping store that fit fairly well. Then I went back to the women, rousted them out of bed, and we finally started the process of moving to the barn for the night.

We stacked several blankets on top of some hay, but it was still lumpy and uncomfortable; and pieces of straw kept working their way to the places that irritated us. Well, that irritated me, anyway. There were several horse blankets out there, but they were coarse and scratchy and felt like sandpaper. Eventually, I went back to the house for more blankets, but when I returned, the girls were sound asleep, holding each other tenderly, the puppy curled up at their feet.

Believe it or not, it wasn’t even ten o’clock, but to me, it felt like it should be the middle of the dark morning. I was weary and exhausted, but sleep wouldn’t come, and when I did doze, I was plagued by dreams that terrified me; however, I couldn’t hold onto them after I awoke. I thought the night would never end. But all of a sudden, I was fully conscious with sunlight streaming in through various niches and gaps in the outer walls; and the smell of warm cinnamon and coffee was everywhere.

Wanda sat in front of me with a plate of rolls that dripped icing and butter. The coffee was strong and black and, quite frankly, wonderful. “You didn’t go back into that horrible house to bake these, did you?” I asked her, licking my fingers.

“No ... Doriana did it while I was still asleep. I guess she’s been up for a while.”

I looked around for her, then was startled by what sounded like a diesel engine straining at some task. “What is that?” I asked, genuinely alarmed.

“I’m not sure,” Wanda answered, stroking the puppy. “She told me she was raised on a farm. I think maybe she’s plowing a field or something. She found a tractor in one of the little buildings behind the greenhouses.”

I’d slept in the shorts, so all I really had to do was pull on the sandals I’d found last night. They hadn’t been broken in yet, and I was worried they might rub a blister. I walked out the front of the barn, stretched and looked around; then I followed the sound of the tractor in the direction of that uncultivated field I’d run across the previous night.

She’d found a front-loader, a tractor with a big formed scoop in the front, like some snowplows use. In one corner of the field, she’d started digging a wide trench, about thirty feet long. One end of the excavation was level with the surrounding ground, then it went progressively deeper as it advanced, and it must have been five or six feet deep at the far end.

Carrying my coffee cup, I made my way over to her, Wanda and Rocko at my heels. The pup kept tripping over its own ears. Doriana saw us coming and cut the engine. “What are you planting today?” I asked, curious.

“Assholes,” she responded, and pointed toward the house. I looked that way and saw two rolled-up sheets that announced their grisly contents by their shape and dark red stains. She had dragged the corpses twenty or so feet from the house.

I looked at her in awe. “What have you been doing today?”

She shrugged as she walked over to us. “Cleaning up and cooking breakfast.” Then she pointed in the opposite direction, toward the driveway. “I couldn’t get the last one out of the car. It’s sort of wedged in there. When you feel up to it, could you help me get it into the bucket?” She indicated the front of the tractor. “I’ll dump them all in and cover them up.”

“I decided last night that we’d find someplace else to set up camp,” I said.

But she shook her head. “Wanda told me all your plans. You should stick with them. This place is pretty centrally located. You can do a lot of research here, figure all your strategies, make a few more supply runs, and move when you’re ready. I know it was a big mess in there, but check it out one more time before you decide to abandon this place.”

She suddenly made me feel like a high school student in the presence of an adult. I studied her thoughtfully. “Come here, Doriana,” I said firmly.

She never wavered. She was only a few feet away from me, but she walked right up to me, almost touching me. Almost. And she lowered her gaze and blushed.

I tried not to let my nervousness surface. “Now, kiss me,” I told her firmly.

Without hesitation, she put one of her hands flat against my chest, and she arched slowly onto tiptoes and kissed me. It was tender. And erotic. Rocko started barking, obviously jealous that he wasn’t being included. I brought my hands up, grasped her by both shoulders and pushed her back. She looked slightly shaken by my action. And perhaps a little disappointed. Staring at me quizzically, she nodded. “You’re testing me.”

“How else are we going to learn?” I asked her. “Do you think you have any limits?”

She blushed even darker. “I ... I don’t think so. If you told me to suck your cock right now, I’d do it.” She took a deep breath. “Do you want me to?”

“We could both do it,” Wanda offered. She looked expectant. She obviously didn’t know what we were really talking about.

I continued. “The big question is: If some stranger walked up to you right now and ordered you to suck HIS cock, would you do THAT?”

I could see her consider my question seriously, her thoughts turning inward. She looked over at Wanda, and tears flooded her eyes. “I ... I ... Yes, I probably would.”

“Hey!” Wanda said, startled. Then she threw her arms around the blonde and hugged her tightly. “Hey! What’s the matter?” The puppy ran up and jumped on them, pawing their legs.

“Oh, Wanda, I’m sorry! I’m so sorry!”

Wanda looked at me sternly. Whatever this was, in her mind, it was obviously my fault. “Tell me what’s wrong,” she urged her companion.

“The shit I injected you with last night. We’ve all heard rumors that some of the affects are permanent. Jacob is worried that any Tom, Dick or Harry can grab us, and we’d do anything he told us to. He’s afraid that we’re both so suggestible now, that we’d follow any order from anyone. I’m SO sorry that I did that to you!”

“Stop crying!” Wanda ordered. “That’s not going to be a problem!”

Doriana sniffed. “It’s not?”

“No. Jacob has promised to protect us. He always will.”

The blonde turned her head and looked in my direction. “He has?”

“Well, he’s promised to protect ME. And I’m not going anywhere without YOU. I love you.”

Doriana sniffed. “That’s probably the drug talking.”

“I don’t care. And if it is, I HOPE it’s permanent. Because I’m going to love you forever. Just as much as I love this big oaf!” She didn’t let go of her companion. The dog whined. Turning her full attention to me, she said: “And now, I’m all squishy again. It might still be morning, but it’s time to go to bed!”

We all laughed at that, but when we hadn’t moved in several seconds, she turned toward me. “Use your powers of suggestion and tell us to take you to bed, Jacob. Now!”

In mock seriousness, I stood up straight, raised a forefinger, as if making a public proclamation, and intoned: “I hereby order both of you...”

“Good enough,” Wanda said. “I feel the power flowing through me, don’t you, Doriana?” She gripped the blonde’s hand and started walking toward the house. Her companion burst into a fit of giggles.”

“Hey! I wasn’t finished!” I groused, and I picked up the puppy and trailed after them.

I followed them up the steps, across the porch, into the house. They disappeared back toward the bedroom, but I couldn’t resist, and I walked into the dining room, utterly stunned. No blood. No blood, anywhere. The hardwood floors looked as if they had just been polished. I saw a few damp spots on the wall beside the buffet, but they weren’t red ... or even pink. It was as if Weslie had never been there at all. None of my own blood, either, I thought. My nose was still sore, and I was surprised I hadn’t broken the damn thing.

Holding my breath, I walked into the kitchen. No blood. No brains. No evidence of the carnage at all. There was a hairline crack in one of the tiles on the island counter. That was all. The whole room was spotless, and it still smelled of cinnamon.

I wandered back to the bedroom and was struck into immobility by the sight of the two naked women standing beside the bed. It was like some position out a men’s magazine or a porn site. Their arms were encircling the other’s waist, and they were turned slightly sideways, looking expectantly at the doorway I was occupying. Wanda’s left breast was mashed provocatively into Doriana’s right one, where they flattened together, seeming to merge. Wanda’s smile was just a little more inviting, but they both looked delicious.

“Holy shit!” I muttered.

“He always says that,” Wanda whispered in her companion’s ear, making sure it was loud enough for me to hear.

I walked up to them, but they kept the pose going for my benefit.

“How old are you, Doriana?” I asked quietly.

“Twenty.”

I looked sadly at Wanda. “Not old enough to buy beer,” I commented.

“Or go to a casino,” my girlfriend said, shaking her head.

“Or get a commercial pilot’s license.”

“What else is there left for us to do?” Wanda moaned theatrically.

Doriana looked from one of us to the other several times. “Uh ... what?”

“Private joke,” I told her. Then, instead of touching them (which I REALLY wanted to do), I stepped back a pace and put on a stern face. “I need to make a new rule,” I told them gravely.

Wanda’s shoulders sagged slightly. “Oh, come ON, Jacob! No more rules right now! We NEED you! Please?”

“I’m serious, Wanda. I mean this. It’s really important to me.”

My girlfriend had the wherewithal to sober somewhat, and though she was still obviously impatient, she remained silent.

“What is it, Jacob?” Doriana asked quietly.

“No non-consensual sex. Ever. Period. For as long as we’re together. No ‘giving in’ to the demands of another. No making up excuses about headaches. No pressure. No lies. If you don’t want to, you don’t do it. I mean it. That’s my rule; and I’m insisting on it. Now and forever.”

Both of them dropped their arms simultaneously. Wanda blinked. “Wow,” she said quietly. “I love you, Jacob Jones. I really, really love you.”

Doriana took two steps, and pressed her body into mine. Her hands were up and between us, her palms pressing flat into my bare chest. She rested the side of her face against my neck. “Please, Jacob,” she said softly. “I need to be with a good man again. I need to know that they still exist. I need to be reminded what it’s like to surrender to one. I need you. Please?”

I brought my hands to her shoulders, then slowly slid them around and to her bare back, and I hugged her to me. Finally, I cleared my throat. “Trust me when I tell you that it would be my pleasure.” She wriggled her lower belly against my hard-on and giggled.

I’m not quite sure how it happened, but when I stepped away from her, my shorts were around my ankles. Wanda had her hands on my bare hips, so she had to have had something to do with it. I toed my sandals off, and we all moved onto the big bed.

Doriana was on her back. I was lying on my right side, and her head was resting on my right forearm as she looked up at me. I was stroking her stomach with my left fingertips. Wanda was pressed up against her from the other side, and she was toying with our new partner’s nipples. Doriana, for her part, was breathing deeply, her chest expanding enticingly with each breath.

That was the scene. You should try and picture it in your mind’s eye. It’s an important part of my narrative. It didn’t seem like it at the time. It just seemed like an extremely pleasant introduction to an impassioned round of animalistic sex. I had no inkling that a massive bombshell was about to hit that would change things ... forever.

Wanda’s hand dropped to Doriana’s nether region. I glanced down, fascinated. She was shaved down there; and dripping. Wanda’s fingers stroked her, penetrated her, stroked some more. Doriana had a small, very visible orgasm, and she bent up and kissed her female companion passionately. Then, she turned her attention to me with longing in her eyes.

“Do you have an implant,” Wanda asked her huskily. “Are you protected?”

Doriana looked up at me, her need apparent. “It’s okay. Jacob isn’t going to make me pregnant,” she panted.

And her eyes changed for just a second; but in that second, I saw emotions that went across the whole spectrum: lust, pain, desire, joy and horrible loss. It was just an instant, but in that snapshot moment, I knew. And more to the point, I realized she knew that I knew. We had somehow just connected, mentally and emotionally.

I drew back away from her, putting more weight on my elbow. “Oh, Doriana,” I said solemnly, quietly. “I am so, so sorry.”

Tears sprang to her eyes and she issued a single sob before she could control herself. Wanda recoiled, looked toward me, back to her, back to me. “What?” she asked. “What’s wrong?”

“He didn’t know!” Doriana cried up at me. “I just found out! I was going to tell him yesterday when I got home! And he was GONE! He never knew! I never had the chance! Never had the chance to tell him!” She sobbed again.

“I’m sorry,” I repeated. I didn’t know what else to say.

“WHAT!?” Wanda shouted.

I looked up at her. “It appears that the three of us are going to have a baby.”

Wanda blinked slowly a few times. “Oh. Jacob isn’t going to make you pregnant because you already are.” She looked again between the two of us. For some reason, I felt guilty, though there was obviously no good reason for that. Doriana seemed determined to stop crying; and there was no good reason for THAT, either.

And Wanda said: “Well, no WONDER!”

“What?” the other two of us asked in unison.

“She just bingoed!” she explained to me calmly. “Didn’t you see her?”

“What?” I asked, confused.

“She came. Just a few strokes, and she had an orgasm. Don’t tell me you didn’t notice! Last night, she came three times with me! Or was it four?”

“Wanda!” Doriana breathed, blushing.

“It’s because she’s preggers! Pregnant women are horny! All! The! Time! I kid you not! There was this one poor TA at school, his wife darn near killed him! He was complaining constantly! Sex in the morning. Three times at night. And now I understand. Doriana is insatiable! And she’s going to be like that for the next nine months! I don’t see how just two of us are going to keep up!”

“Wanda! Stop!” Doriana pleaded, laughing.

Instead, she reached down and cupped the blonde’s bare sex. “I’ll get her ready for you, Jacob. You kiss her.” I saw her thumb begin to flick up and down across the engorged clit. I shrugged and lowered my lips to the woman lying under me. She gasped and hissed “Oh, God!” before I could consummate the kiss. Having nothing better to do, I began massaging her right breast with my left hand as our tongues dueled.

I felt a small hand grasp my left ass-cheek, and Wanda’s lips were next to my ear. “Now, you big oaf!”

So, I rolled atop the panting girl, surprised to find that her legs were suddenly spread wide. Doriana’s hands came up to my chest, then they slid up to my shoulders and lingered there. I was propped above her on my hands, and I was surprised to feel my cock being maneuvered forward and down. Wanda was guiding me to my target. My eyes were locked on those below me, so I could see them go wide as I pushed slowly downward. They lost focus for a while, but settled on mine again as she inhaled raggedly. “Oh, God,” she whispered. “It’s just as good as she said it would be.”

I was fully inside now, my pubis grinding against her, so I lowered my weight onto her body while her arms went around my neck, her fingers in my hair. I began rising and falling, plunging into her willing body. There was something uncomfortable between us, but it moved lower and didn’t seem very consequential. To me, that is. It became evident that it was Wanda’s hand, and it had again found Doriana’s swollen clit. Inner muscles gripped me hard, and the body below me began jerking. She was pulling my hair. Wanda laughed. “That’s number two.”

Then, the hand was gone, but not for long. It was behind me now, cupping my balls, rubbing and squeezing. “Oh, you witch!” I groaned. And I came, long and hard.

I rolled to my right and tried to take stock. Doriana was gasping long, deep draughts of air. Her body was glistening with perspiration, and one hand was still up, stroking my face at the hairline. She gazed into my eyes, and I wasn’t sure what she was looking for. “Wow,” she said quietly. “Oh, wow.”

“Was I right?” Wanda asked, smirking.

Doriana looked at her and made a funny back and forth motion with one hand. “Change places with me,” she said.

“Um ... okay.”

There was a bit of shimmying, but eventually, Wanda was between us, facing the breathless blonde, her back to me. Doriana looked over her into my eyes. “Grab her around the arms,” she ordered. I shrugged and wrapped my arms around Wanda, pinning her arms by her sides.

“Hey! What gives?” Wanda squealed, but she was laughing.

“Now,” Doriana ordered, “roll onto your back.”

Effortlessly, I did so. Now, Wanda was atop me, facing the ceiling. In seconds, Doriana had scooted down the bed, and had her head between our helpless companion’s legs.

“Hey!” Wanda shrieked. “That’s no f ... Oh, my fuckin’ God!” She moaned loudly. Her hips bucked, and her body twisted in my arms helplessly. “Oh! Oh, gosh!”

“Remember my rule,” I said gruffly. “Nothing non-consensual. We’d better stop,” but I didn’t relax my grip.

“Please!” Wanda begged. “Please don’t stop! I’ll do anything! Anything! Don’t stop!”

It didn’t take long after that. Wanda spiraled into a soul-crushing orgasm that left her just this side of unconscious. We lazed around in the bed for another hour, holding and petting each other. Then I got up and went outside to start up the generator. The girls thought it was hilarious that I did it stark naked. Why bother? I asked them. The hot water heater was one of those instant on-demand things, and we shared the shower, two-at-a-time, trading off twice to cleanse ourselves.

We decided the next task was to complete what Doriana had started that morning. With a rope, she crawled into the wrecked car by the driveway and looped one end of it over Stan’s head. I heard his neck break as I pulled the body toward me, but good old Stan didn’t seem to mind. He hadn’t weighed all that much, even before he bled out, and I easily picked up the corpse and tossed it into the tractor’s front bucket. An hour later, that corner of the unplowed field was smooth and flat again. We talked it over, and no one wanted to say any words over them. None of us wanted to consign them to God. The grave remains unmarked to this day; and somewhere, down there with those bones, is a medical bag full of Sub-J which once had a street value of half a million dollars.

The rest of that day, and all of the next, we worked on security. Doriana possessed an incredible storehouse of knowledge concerning the farming operation. There was a machine shop, where she actually taught me how to weld, a skill I never would have suspected I would acquire. We constructed long, flat metal plates with wicked spikes protruding at an angle, and which would shred a vehicle’s tires, should one ever be so unlucky to drive across them. We planted them along the driveway and camouflaged them adequately. We also constructed a gate, chained and padlocked, out at the road. Lastly, we towed the crashed car that Stan used with a tractor and chain; and we left it in a corner of the old parking lot where the weeds would eventually overtake it.

At night, we hiked all around the house looking for “light leaks,” and we established rules that would hopefully keep us safe from passers-by. There were two fireplaces, but we swore not to use them and draw attention to the fact that the dwelling was inhabited. There were clotheslines outside, but we moved that operation to the barn where no one could see.

Doriana had grown up on a farm in the valley east of Salem, and she had owned a .22 rifle as a girl, but had never practiced with anything larger. Her father had once let her fire his shotgun. Still, she wanted to see our “stash,” and when we finally showed it to her, out in the barn, she was partially flabbergasted and partially appalled. If Frank and his cronies had gotten their hands on this, she told us, they might have wiped out whole towns in some misguided quest for power. We had to assume that there were others out there just as evil. She thought that we should seriously consider destroying the lot of it.

I countered that she had a valid point, but that when something was gone, it couldn’t be used for anything; and that included protecting somebody that we deemed worthy of such protection. I promised her that we’d work together to make sure the weapons were safe, and she appeared mollified by that.

We began studying the charts and maps in the evenings, after dinner; and I have to say: it was a lot of fun to let our imaginations soar over mountains and lakes, down valleys and canyons, follow rivers that were teaming with Steelhead trout in the summer and Chinook salmon in the winter. We dreamed of seeing deer, perhaps elk; bobcats, cougars. Black bears are common in the Coastal Mountains, though the larger grizzlies are mostly up north in Washington and Canada.

We talked about The Event a lot. Doriana found Wanda’s fascination with my scientific hypotheses more entertaining than practical. She asked me point blank if, supposing my speculations proved to be true, whether there was any chance of ever reuniting with her husband; and I was forced to tell her no. In my personal opinion, it was scientifically impossible.

“Then it simply doesn’t matter,” she announced with a little shrug. “Why waste your time worrying about something when what you really desire is not possible? There are so many things we could be thinking about that are.” I had to agree.

Wanda was the glue that held our little family together, and she did it through raw enthusiasm. It was her constant aim in life to be useful, and she would spend all of her efforts to accomplish that goal. If she had one flaw, it was that she persistently had to know why a task had to be done, or why it had to be accomplished in a particular way. She was like a little girl in that respect. Why? Why? Why? But I had to admit that I loved her, and that keen curiosity was simply a part of what made her Wanda.

On our third day together, Doriana declared that it was time to hit the road for supplies. She argued that most of the small towns that had survived had probably done so already. That is, they had probably organized and started making raids into neighboring cities in order to stockpile supplies. It made sense. After a discussion that was heated at times, I agreed that whatever we decided, it would include all of us, including the dog. If we were detained somewhere, he wouldn’t survive long without us.

It took an hour to assemble and load the proper arms from those cached in the green pickup. I thought it would be a good idea for us each to fire a few rounds in the name of indoctrination. I enjoyed it, but I tried to make them think I simply considered it a chore. They knew, though; and I felt a little like a boy with some new toys.

There was a large farm truck with dual back wheels and removable wooden sides. It looked like it would hold ... a lot. The bed of the truck was made of smooth steel plating, and we had to sweep the dirt out of it. It had obviously been used to haul bushes, shrubs and small trees to retail outlets. We filled up the tank from a huge drum of diesel fuel that used a crank pump.

At nine o’clock the next morning, we set out on our first big, grand road adventure, with me leading the procession of two vehicles in the black EV pickup. Rocko was consigned to the back seat on a bed made out of blankets, which he was more than happy to consider his domain. The girls were both in the big farm truck, bringing up the rear. Our destination was Corvallis and Philomath, about fifty miles due north, but we never made it.

There was a small town, barely fifteen miles north of the farm, called Monroe. It, too, was completely deserted; but right on the main drag heading north, there was a fairly large grocery store sitting right next to huge rural farm store. I stopped in the middle of the road and sat, considering; but Doriana was sticking her arm out the driver’s side window, giving me a big thumbs-up. So, those other places had to wait.

Neither place had been touched by looters. We had our pick of literally everything. After getting the front door of the grocery open with my trusty steel bar, I marched non-stop all the way to the back, and found the large loading dock. The power was off, of course, but I found a way to disable the clutch on the chain-driven door opener, and I raised the rear loading door just as Doriana was backing the truck up to the dock.

We each had a small assault weapon on a sling over our shoulders, and we were fairly familiar with them, having practiced the afternoon before. They were loaded, but had their safeties on; and the slings left both our hands free for maximum looting.

The place was starting to smell a little rank, especially in the fresh seafood section; but we ignored it and set to work. The ladies filled up shopping carts with staples: flour, sugar, cooking oil, cereals, dry soups and bullions. They discussed things briefly, like the fact that some pancake mixes didn’t need eggs ... we didn’t have any idea when we’d be getting more of those. Salt, various ground peppers, along with handfuls of every spice on the shelves went into their carts. Canned goods, of course, were also a priority.

I, on the other hand, started in on the boxed cases in the back. Even the heaviest was easy enough for me to lift; and I began stacking them up in a solid wall of food in the big truck. Every conceivable type of dried pasta went in there, followed by dried beans, rice, ramen, and then the canned goods. I rolled in the entire shopping carts that the girls had loaded up, and then I filled in the spaces around them. One cart contained two huge bags of puppy chow and canned dog food for Rocko. After an hour, I noticed that the truck had settled on its spring shocks in the back. I was a little concerned about the vehicle’s center of gravity. I didn’t want the thing tipping over on the way home.

Finally, I called a halt, and I told the ladies to meet me next door in the farm store. We left the grocery store sitting open for the next batch of looters.

Doriana had a strange request. She wanted to take the pickup and drive up to Corvallis without us. It was only another forty minutes, she said. She told me it was a surprise ... that she wanted to get me a present. I sadly shook my head. No way was I going to let us split up. She insisted that this thing she was after was something that was going to be fabulously important, and to please, please, please let her get it for me. I finally promised that we’d do it tomorrow ... the very next day. We’d all go together. She was a little disappointed, but agreed.

The farm store was a treasure trove. I chose three small portable generators, one gas, one with a wind turbine, and one with a water-driven wheel, which looked like it needed quite a bit of assembly. We found more camping items. I took out more solar panels and storage batteries ... I didn’t think we could ever have too many of those.

And clothes. Enough clothes to last us years. Overalls, coveralls, sweaters, jackets and thick, arctic coats ... all in my XXL size. There must have been some big farmers in this part of Oregon. The girls went crazy; and, for the first time, Wanda started talking about getting larger sizes for Doriana due to the baby. I completely lost track of what they snatched in that store. But soon, the pickup was fully loaded, including the back seat and the passenger seat. Rocko was transferred to the big truck between the girls, a spot he particularly liked.