Chapter 7: Council of War

It was rapidly approaching nighttime at Hazy Mountain Lodge. I had declared, after the afternoon meal, that I wanted to go back up and break our camp, rather than wait until the morrow. We had enough planned for that day, anyway, since we had to go back down to the valley farm to feed the chickens and check security. Sofia and Sadie joined me, while Wanda, Doriana and Hannah decided to make preparations for the evening at the farm end of the property.We left the dog in the lodge, and all of us walked back to the barn together. Then, while I took the truck back down the mountain with S&S, the other three tackled the feeding chores and getting the farm animals ready for the night.

It was almost six when the tent and sleeping bags, along with the drones and other equipment, were all strapped down in the bed of the pickup. I was pleased that we were leaving the campsite cleaner than we’d found it, and I told the girls so. I’m not sure how we happened to split up for the different jobs this way, but I was very happy I was with the two petite beauties. Again, I marveled that they looked so much alike; and they even dressed alike: in shorts, tee shirts and tennis shoes. Neither wore, nor really needed bras beneath the tops; and I found myself staring at their small breasts and firm nipples through the thin material more than once, while hoping that I wouldn’t get caught in the act.

Driving in the mountains at dusk is tricky, transitioning from bright sunlight to near darkness as you navigate hills, valleys and steep curves. But in seemingly no time, we were back; and I was impressed to notice the big steel fence gate slowly close after we’d passed it. It meant, of course, that Hannah was monitoring security cameras from the lodge and activating remote controls to protect the place. I wondered if there were motion sensors planted in the cleared areas around the compound; and if so, how many.

I took the truck up the gravel driveway through the garden area and right up to the lodge. It looked like another rainless night, but I had a tarp in the back seat; and we spread it over the back of the pickup, anyway. Sadie pointed toward the front door and laughed, and it took me a moment to see what she thought was so funny. Someone had taken a piece of paper, written a single word with a marker; and the expression “Private” on that brass sign had been replaced with the word “Welcome.”

“Wanda,” both Sadie and Sofia said together; and I had to nod my agreement.

It was really too warm for a fire in the fireplace, but we joined the others on the couches in the great room, anyway. Someone had found several candles and put them on the hearth, and the flames lent a warm glow to the place; though, after another half hour, the flickering illumination barely reached the ceiling or walls around us. I suddenly had a brandy snifter in my hand. I’d never had brandy, but this tasted great; and when I asked, I was told it was Cognac. I never really did understand the difference.

I had plopped down in the center of the couch facing the gaping fireplace, and was a little surprised when Sadie and Sofia had taken places on either side of me. After finishing our drinks, they each sort of squirmed against my shoulders until I finally got the clue and put an arm around each of them so that they could cuddle into my sides and chest. They normally chose to sit next to each other. In point of fact, they usually chose to do everything together.

Wanda sat at one end of the couch to my left, and Hannah, still dressed in her shorty-overall getup, was sprawled across the rest of it, with her head in Wanda’s lap. I had trouble deciphering the expression on our newest acquaintance’s face. Her hair, face and scalp were being gently stroked by her sitting companion, and she seemed to veritably hum with satisfaction; but she also seemed as if she thought she should be uncomfortable in that situation. Guilty pleasure, I guess.

Doriana sat to our right, sipping a diet soda and she had her feet covered by a thin blanket. “Why is Hannah still here?” she asked.

It was a question easily misconstrued, but Sadie understood and answered immediately. “It was part of the algorithm Doctor Hyphen quoted me that night on our ... um ... date. You see, the REAL problem that faced him was one of data collection and interpretation. There have been great advancements in bio-scanning techniques in recent decades. When a fire department pulls up to a structure fire, they always have the same questions: Are there any people still in there? How many? Where are they? And bio-scanning has helped answer those questions; but it goes far beyond just helping mankind. It can be used to manipulate. Knowing everyone’s exact location gives corporations and politicians an idea about what they’re doing, where they’re going, what their intentions are. Plug that data into AI-driven models, and you can begin to predict the future with uncanny accuracy.

“So, Hyphen developed, purchased and constructed a satellite-driven bio-scanning system that pretty well pinpointed all eight-point-seven billion people on this planet. Then, he had to either accept certain definitions, or make his own. For example, how would you define the town of Acton, where we were a few days ago? I’m willing to bet he simply accepted the definition as given by cartographers. If an individual was on one side of the demarcated city limit, he or she was chosen to be in our new world. If that person was on the other side, he or she was not.”

For some odd reason, before continuing, she reached up and interlaced the fingers on my left hand with her own. I wasn’t really sure what to make of that, but I can remember thinking that she had a very small hand when compared to the mind her body possessed.

“The ultimate success in Quantum Manipulation would include specific details designed to confuse and misdirect others from drawing accurate conclusions. And some of the things he did were relatively simple when compared to the overall scope of the shifted timeline. For example, when he set his AI-driven parameters that eliminated most human beings, he obviously included an algorithm that encompassed human tissue, but not fabric, leather or synthetic clothing. Pretty simple, actually. I bet I could write the coding necessary to build such a quantum sequence. And, if you examine those piles of clothing carefully, I’m certain you’re going to find things like dental fillings, pacemakers and hearing aids. Same for all of those digital monitors that were actively recording when The Event happened. He simply included them in his new universe, but he reset them to time zero.” She paused and took a breath while stroking my fingers with her own.

“Hyphen was enthralled by people who lived apart; who lived alone,” she continued. “He’d obviously decided that in this new world, he would accept only those people within a very small percentage of towns and cities, and he eliminated everyone else. But if a person was ALONE within a given space, then he or she was included in this new universe. I don’t know what that distance was, but I’m assuming it’s something very simple, like a hundred square kilometers. Imagine for a moment that number is correct; then Hannah was the only human lifeform within a ten-by-ten-kilometer square. Hyphen liked hermits. THAT’S why Hannah is still here.”

That made me think. “How about a person who was alone in a car on a deserted road? Or in a boat on the ocean?”

She shrugged. “I don’t know. It all depends on what he fed into the quantum computer that did this. Also, one of the things that alerted both Dr. Gonzales and myself to the possibility that Hyphen was our man is that he’s always been an outspoken member of PETA. He probably cares much more about pets and farm animals than he does about people. Looking out for THEIR interests was obviously a big part of his overall algorithm.”

“Is there any chance that we’re all just part of some computer simulation?” I wondered.

But this time, she laughed. “I don’t think so. Why worry about the animals if they’re just computer generations? Also, all of us are being bombarded by a myriad of emotions; and computers have never been very good at duplicating those.” She let that sink in for a moment. “But if that WAS the case, what difference would it make to us? What would we do differently? How would it change what we do ... or alter what we SHOULD do? That’s all in the realm of philosophy, not science.”

Sofia snuggled further into the right side of my chest. “I need a shower,” she said softly. “That was hard work, taking down the campsite.”

Silence stretched on for several long moments, then Hannah suddenly said: “Ouch!”

I looked inquiringly in her direction, and saw that she was rubbing her shoulder, while looking questioningly up at Wanda, who bore an innocent expression. Another several seconds went by. “Oh!” Hannah exclaimed. “Shower! Right! We ... uh ... need to ... um ... conserve water in the evenings! We should shower together! In ... um ... pairs. Or maybe threesomes! The first bedroom upstairs; it has a huge shower! You guys should use that!”

Sofia stood and reached for my right hand. “Oh. Okay then. Good suggestion. We’ll do that.”

To my left, Sadie was standing, as well, while taking my other hand. “Conserve water. That makes sense.”

I struggled to my feet. “But we were talking about...”

“Showers,” Doriana interrupted. “Have a nice one! I think maybe we other three gals might have to conserve some water of our own.”

Hannah gave a soft gasp. “I’ve never...”

“Conserved water?” Wanda finished for her. “We’ll show you how. There’s a nice big bathroom in the room next to that, isn’t there? And a king-size bed, too. Just think of all the conservation we can achieve!”

Sofia and Sadie were pulling me toward one of the staircases leading to the floor above. Chuckling, I followed meekly. “When did all you ladies practice that?” I asked them. “That little act had everything except choreography.”

“We’ll try to add dancing for tomorrow’s performance,” Sadie said quietly. “Thank you for not objecting. I hope we’re not coming on too strong.”

“I think both of you are way out of my league,” I told them seriously. “I’ve been sleeping with you for a couple nights now, and I considered myself especially lucky just to be around you. I’ve wanted to touch each of you so much, but I didn’t want you to think I was pressing either of you for ... um ... sexual favors. Especially after all the horrors you’ve been through. I’m terrified that I might do something that would remind you of the other men that...”

Sofia tugged me to a stop a couple steps shy of the top of the stairs; then, she took another step to bring her face more closely to the level of my own. When she saw that, Sadie did the same. They each kissed a cheek. “There could never be any comparison between you and any of those men,” Sofia whispered in my right ear.

“I’ve never met anyone like you anywhere,” Sadie whispered in my left ear. “And I’m dying to find out what it feels like to be with you.”

Taking a deep breath, I filled each of my palms with their butts and hoisted both of them a foot off the ground. They squealed simultaneously as I continued mounting the stairs, and they both wrapped their legs around my waist, getting them tangled up with each other’s. But after only a few paces on this new floor, I came to a halt. “Wow. It’s really dark up here!” I commented.

“Please don’t go careening over a banister,” Sadie said, giggling.

“Two small splats and one big one,” I commented. “They’d probably never figure out which smaller splat was which.”

“They’d have to scrape us up and bury both splats in a single coffin,” Sofia laughed.

“Together for eternity,” Sadie added with a fake sigh.

“I see a light!” Sofia suddenly exclaimed. “Go that way!”

“I can’t see you. Which way?”

“Put me down!”

So, I put them down and allowed Sofia to pull me by the right hand, while Sadie took my left and followed along behind. There was a nightlight plugged into a socket in the first large bedroom to our left.

“Look! A candle in a holder!” Sofia husked. “Don’t turn on the lights! Let’s find something to light this with. How romantic!” There was a matchbox sitting next to it, and I did the honors, while Sadie unplugged the nightlight to better set the mood.

“The girls took all the pictures away,” Sadie commented, looking around. “All the cosmetics and other personal items from the previous owners are gone, too.”

“The old masters of the house have gone,” Sofia said quietly. “The new master is taking possession.”

“Well, THAT’S melodramatic,” I said, sitting on the side of the bed and untying my shoes. “And anyway, how do you know I wouldn’t like his choice of pictures?”

“They were all of HIM, holding a gun and standing beside dead animals,” Sadie commented.

“Hmm. Okay, you’ve convinced me. Hey! Where are you going with the light? I can’t see what I’m doing!”

“We’re taking a shower, remember? Get your butt in here!” Sofia groused, taking the light source with her.

Tossing my shoes toward a dark corner, I took off my socks, gave them a quick sniff test to make sure they wouldn’t become an annoying distraction, and I nodded and pitched them in the same general direction. Then, I got up and tried to follow the girls slowly without banging a bare toe into something. But all worries, along with most other emotions, were forgotten when I finally made it into the bathroom. Most other emotions. There were still a few left.

The candle was on a double-sink countertop to my left. Beyond that was a partitioned toilet, followed by a deep tub. The massive walk-in shower was in the far-right corner, and it was probably six feet square, with multiple showerheads. In front of the clear shower doors stood my two lovely girls for the evening in full naked splendor; and they took my breath away as they held hands and blushed.

Nobody said anything for a long minute. “Do you think they’re too small?” Sadie asked softly. “Lots of men have told me my breasts were too small. I didn’t really care what they thought. But suddenly, I care what YOU think.”

“He’s been staring at them all afternoon, you ninny,” Sofia chided.

“Hey, come on!” I groused. “I really tried! It’s just that ... well ... I think they’re perfect! They just made me wonder...”

They both came to me together. “Take your shirt off, Jacob,” Sofia ordered gently. “Made you wonder what? What they look like? Go ahead and look.”

I stripped my shirt over my head. “What they feel like?” Sadie asked, pressing her chest into my left forearm.

“Um ... I know what they look like, and what they feel like. You’ve both slept with me for two nights now. I was just sort of wondering ... um ... what it would be like to suck on them.”

They started running their hands across my upper arms and chest. I was glad they didn’t berate me for that last comment, but they didn’t seem to want to address it, either. “Take your pants off, Big Guy. Sadie, could you please turn the shower on and get it hot?”

Sadie didn’t move, other than her roaming hands. “YOU go turn on the shower!”

“Rock paper scissors?” Sofia countered.

“I’ll go turn on the shower,” I told them, and walked over to the corner shower stall. They and their stroking hands were quick to follow, giggling as they went. They giggled, that is. Not their hands.

It took about thirty seconds to get hot water, but when it came, it was plentiful. I stripped off my pants and underwear and strode in, and there were soapy hands seemingly everywhere at once. Slick, slim, athletic bodies were suddenly mine to touch wherever I wanted, and they didn’t object when I lathered up all the parts I was most interested in. That obviously included four near identical perky breasts with their straining nipples, as well as between firm ass cheeks and between their legs in the front.

“When did you two shave?” I asked. Every place I stroked was smooth, silky bare skin; their legs, their underarms, around their sex.

“Two nights ago, while we were still in the other farm house,” Sofia answered. She used a palm to stroke my face. “When was the last time YOU shaved?”

“I ... um...”

Sadie was suddenly gone. The illumination changed as she moved the candle closer to the shower; and then, she was back. “Here’s a razor.”

And so, they shaved me while I stood there, using bar soap to lather my face; and I held Sofia in my arms while she scraped the razor here and there along my cheeks and chin and neck. It was one of those things with five or six blades, I couldn’t really count them in the dim light, but she didn’t nick me; not even once. Sadie, pressed up against my back, reached around and felt my throat, my upper lip; and she gave advice, telling Sofia to shave a little more here, or that it was just fine there. When it was deemed complete, they rinsed my face under the streaming water and declared that it was time for the real test; and Sofia arched up on her toes, put her arms around my neck, and she kissed me, long and sensuously, with caressing tongues and smooth, clean, pressing naked bodies. After a minute of that, I pulled away from her a few inches and studied her; but she still had her eyes closed and lips pursed, though she seemed to be breathing very deeply. Almost as deeply as I was.

Finally, her eyes opened. “I think I’m about ready to let you suck on my breasts,” she said breathlessly. “But first, you need to turn around and do that to Sadie.”

So, I did.

There were big, thick bath towels, but the girls had to put a little extra time into rubbing their hair, since the multiple shower heads had thoroughly drenched everything. And then, suddenly, we were in the big bed together; and the kisses just naturally took up where they’d left off in the shower. I fondled breasts and nipples, while they fondled my cock, my shoulders, my balls, my back, my entire body. When I started worrying about making it to the main event, I pulled away and went to work in earnest on the nearest body, which happened to be Sofia’s, with my sucking lips; and at long last, I realized the fantasy I’d been having all afternoon about the feel of those pert, rubbery nipples in my mouth.

Keep in mind that I’d only been sexually active for about a week and a half; but I still hadn’t tasted a woman’s sex, which was something I’d heard and read about for an awfully long time. And so, I got my first taste of a woman with Sofia. They hadn’t complained as I’d gotten more and more physical, and when I picked her up and positioned her the way I wanted, she just seemed to accept it. She asked me what I was doing as I kissed my way down there, and I responded that I thought this was a capital way to check if we were both shaved properly. But her comments ended abruptly as my tongue claimed its prize; and I took my cues from the way her body strained into me, the way she clutched and pulled my hair, the way her body jerked and shivered and the way she cried out shrilly into the night as she came.

I was only mildly surprised when the first words out of her mouth were not directed toward me, but to our companion. I was looking up at her from between her spread legs, and she was still gasping and shaking from the orgasm, but she clutched Sadie’s head, pulled her close, eye-to-eye, and spoke in shuddering gasps. “Y-y-you ha-have to t-t-try th-that!”

Laughing and feeling good, I simply slid over, grasped her friend by the calves, and jerked her body downward toward me and then up, so that she was resting helplessly on her back and shoulders, while spreading her knees wide; and I burrowed my face into her sexual cleft. She shrieked, then laughed, then paused, then issued a long, throaty moan as I let my tongue delve deep into her, then licked her clit for ten long seconds, then nibbled her puffy, dripping lower lips, then started everything all over again. She didn’t even last a full minute before she issued a sort of shouted grunt, and she threw back her head and howled. I continued my ministrations until she grabbed my hair and tried to pull me away, crying “Too much, too much!”

I climbed back up until I was even with them, settling myself between them on my back, and they both started petting my cock and balls. “Easy there, ladies,” I warned. “I’m getting pretty close after all of that.” But they kept stroking with light fingertips. “I admit I’m not too experienced with sex,” I told them quietly, “but I’ve already developed a hypothesis about it. It seems to me that no two women cum the same way.”

They both shrugged simultaneously. “Don’t know,” Sadie said quietly. “Don’t care,” Sofia commented in exactly the same tone.

We watched the flickering shadows on the ceiling. “I think I’m going to go stark raving mad if I don’t find out what he feels like,” Sofia said into the night. “Would you mind if I called dibs?”

“Knock yourself out,” Sadie answered quietly. “I’m still floating.”

“Will you get on top of me, Jacob?” Sofia urged.”I’ve been wanting to know what it’s like underneath you ... well, if I’m going to be absolutely honest, ever since I first met you.”

I rolled over in her direction, but I put my weight on my hands and my knees between her spread legs. “I am at milady’s service,” I told her. “You have to promise to stop me if I hurt you, or if I’m doing something wrong.”

She reached up and stroked my face. “God, you’re so sweet. So gentle.” She sighed. “Kiss me, please.”

I was more than happy to oblige. I was drunk on their kisses already, and my cock felt much larger than it probably was. It lay on her thighs, and I tried to maintain the kiss as I maneuvered my hips upward in search of its target. She threw one arm around my neck and reached down between us with her other hand. “Please. Let me do it.” And she resumed the kiss. The tip of my dick was nowhere near where I thought it was, and I now felt the stiff marauder being pulled almost savagely upward. That meant I had to break the kiss as I arched my hips up, but then I felt it surrounded by liquid heat, and I couldn’t help thrusting into her.

She was below me now, my lips level with her forehead, accentuating the difference in our heights. I paused when she issued a loud, long moan, but she pressed her face into the side of my neck and almost screamed: “Don’t stop! Please don’t stop! I need to feel it all inside me! Please!” And so, I thrust, then thrust again. And again.

All that time they were playing with me down there it had felt wonderful; but now, I wished I hadn’t gotten so worked up. I wasn’t going to last very long at all. Before I could even get a good rhythm going, I felt myself starting to peak, and nothing I could do was going to delay it. “Sofia, I’m sorry, but I ... I can’t ... I can’t...”

She gasped. “Oh my gosh! You’re getting even bigger! OOoohh! Yes, Jacob! Let go! Let it go!”

“Unh!” I huffed, and thrust into her as far as I could, paused, and felt myself gush into her depths in jerking, straining spurts.

For a long thirty seconds or so, I couldn’t think at all. When consciousness did return, I realized that I was probably crushing her; so, I rolled back to my right, pulling out of her. We lay on our backs, breathing hard; but soon, she rolled toward me and threw her right leg over my thigh and snuggled into my chest after I put my arm around her.

“Hey, Sadie?” Sofia called softly. But there was no answer; and when I looked that way, she had sort of curled into a fetal position facing away from the action and fallen asleep.

“You okay?” I asked Sofia.

Nodding gently against my chest she said: “I guess so.” She sighed heavily. “I’m falling in love with you.”

I stared at the flickering ceiling above us. “Me, too.” I thought about it for a while. “What am I going to do? How am I going to protect you all?”

The quiet of the night was filled with a strange sound. “HUH! HUH! HUH! HUH! HUH!”

That made us both laugh. “I hope they took a towel to bed with them,” I commented.

“Don’t worry about that. She just probably had to pee today before we forced her to have the biggest orgasm of her whole life. Never tickle a girl who has to pee for the same reason. But with her, I bet it doesn’t happen again. And she deserves some joy. I was feeling so sorry for myself because I’ve lost my folks and my brother. But never seeing your little girl again; I can’t imagine!”

“Shh! Go to sleep now.”

“I feel safe in your arms. I love you, Jacob.”

“I love you, too.”

I was hard again, and fully imbedded inside the slippery canal of a tight, slender girl, when I awoke to an almost psychedelic image of the beauty on top of me. I reached down with both hands and grasped her by the waist, causing her to freeze in place. It took me a few long seconds to realize exactly where that place was. This was the first night I’d spent in this room, and in this lodge; and my mind tried to make sense of it all. The wildly flickering light must be because the candle was guttering. I was on my back, and I had been mounted by a slender, impaled woman.

“Sofia,” I said through a sleep-addled haze. I was about to suggest she wait until morning, but the escalating feelings inside me stayed my tongue.

“It’s me, Jacob.” She groaned softly and bent forward onto my chest.

“Sadie!” I put my arms around her slim body. “Are you okay?”

“I woke up, and I felt alone.”

“You’re not alone. And you don’t have to do this if you don’t...”

She interrupted me as if I hadn’t spoken at all. “I’ve never trusted a man. Any man. I’ve never challenged one, either. Never questioned. Constantly obeyed. I always thought that eventually, one of them would kill me. Oddly, that didn’t make me angry or afraid or resentful. It didn’t make me feel anything at all. I’ve never felt the least bit of emotion toward any man. Until you. And I’ve never actually wanted to BE with a man. Until you.”

“Sadie, I...”

“Is this love, Jacob?”

I pushed her upright, still pierced by my cock, and I strained my neck forward and kissed her tenderly. I couldn’t maintain that posture for too long, though, and I fell back onto my pillow and answered immediately.

“Yes.”

She responded by rising and falling on my hardness at a pace that surprised me. I had no idea how long it had been since I had emptied myself into Sofia; but I felt as if I should be able to hold out quite a while for this round of lovemaking. I was mistaken. Sadie kept clutching me with her inner muscles, stroking me and gripping me simultaneously; and she was so wet that we made a squelching sound as she worked. I tightened my grip on her waist and forced her body all the way against me, and she threw back her head and cried out as I came hard inside her.

I sagged back, rubbery and exhausted, though she had done all the work, and she issued a low “Oooo,” and again pressed her pert breasts into my chest as she collapsed atop me.

“Welcome to the club, Sister Sadie,” Sofia mumbled beside me.

“I want to have my birth control implant removed,” Sadie said. I wasn’t sure who she was addressing. “I want to be bred like this.”

“There’s still a fully-functional medical center in Acton,” Sofia said, in the same sleepy voice. “We’ll talk to the other girls and make an appointment.”

“Um...” I protested.

“Goodnight, Sadie. Goodnight, Jacob. I love you.”

“Goodnight, Sofia. Goodnight, Jacob. I love you.”

“Um ... I love you, too.”

The candle flared one last time and went out. When I awoke sometime later, my cock was soft, but still inside the girl on top of me. I half-rolled to my left, and slipped out of her as she tumbled away from me. Then, I curled my body around hers and held her gently as I felt Sofia’s soft form spoon against my back and butt.

“I smell bacon,” Sofia said from the protection of my arms. When had we switched positions?

“I smell it, too,” Sadie said, somewhere behind me as she burrowed even closer to my backside.

“We need to investigate this,” I told them with conviction.

Someone had laid out our clothes for us from the stuff we’d packed for the camping trip, and we dressed and hustled downstairs. A grandfather clock, playing Westminster chimes, announced the hour of eight, and as we walked through the dining room and into the kitchen, we saw Hannah coming in from outside.

“Breakfast is ready!” Doriana announced. “Scrambled eggs with cheese, biscuits and bacon. Hope you’re hungry!

Somebody handed me a cup of real coffee, and the meal was soon on the table. “What were you doing?” I asked Hannah.

“Fed all the animals and milked the cow,” she said. “I’ve been up since six.”

“Can we drink milk straight from the cow?” Wanda asked, excited.

“Only if you want to catch just about every disease there is,” Hannah laughed. “We have a pasteurizing unit in the barn, and I run it every few days, refrigerating it between uses. I refine it to two percent milkfat, and I use the fat to produce butter in a machine we have. There’s a cheesemaking setup out there, too; but I haven’t figured out how to do it yet. The cow produces about six gallons a day, but the calf has been taking most of that up until just recently.”