Protection and Preservation, Book 04
Chapter 3

Copyright© 2014 by radio_guy

[Preservation – Janice]

Janice here. We will report by radio but I'm keeping this diary, too. Poppa Jack and Momma Shirley worry too much. Bennie and I will be fine. We like to travel and enjoy being by ourselves. We left in early October with a little harvesting yet to be completed that Poppa could handle easily. We farmed but really aren't farmers. We both want to travel and explore. Poppa knew that in his heart and now he's heard it from us, too.

We left on horseback with a pack horse for radios and other items. We traveled lightly to allow us to cover more ground and give us mobility. We were horsed for the same reason. Roads are limiting, as are vehicles. Besides horses eat grass and trucks need gas or diesel. Power outages were now the rule rather than the exception so pumping fuel could be a problem. There were plenty of empty houses and buildings though we had a small tent if we wanted or needed it. We had dried food and would kill fresh meat and harvest a few volunteer crops as we went along.

We had breakfast at Mom and Dad's, which accomplished two things. It got us on the road and saved us having to cook and clean up. Bennie and I headed north over the hill at a comfortable pace and traveled steadily until around noon when we stopped for a quick lunch. We were in territory that we knew and around people who we knew and who knew us. After lunch, we crossed I-20 out of direct Preservation territory. This outlying area was friendly to us but was neither part of our community nor under our protection. If the stag had attacked them, they would have been on their own by their own choice.

We talked with the farmers there who told us that all was quiet but deer were a problem. Bennie suggested that perhaps a deer hunt with some of our folk participating might help them. They were interested and I said we would broadcast it on the net this evening so they should expect contacts asking about a hunt.

We had offers to stop but went on north further to where the town of Cedartown is or was located. It is pretty country. We found one family that no one was aware existed. We reported them that evening along with their location and the possible deer hunt.

Cedartown was far enough north and a bit higher in elevation that it was a little cooler than home. A cold front must have come through and we were cool the next morning until we had a fire going for coffee and a light breakfast. We headed east toward Rockmart to look at it. It was a pretty little town in which the buildings used lots of rock in their facades. We were making no effort to mask our travel. We are wary by nature but would welcome old friends or new friends if there were any.

We had a quick, light lunch and moved on toward Dallas. Dallas was on the outskirts of Atlanta and considered part of the metro area before the Day. Bennie and I took an early halt to make a nice dinner and to review our maps and determine how we wanted to proceed around Atlanta. Since there were just the two of us, we wanted to avoid the troubles that always seemed to center around Atlanta proper since the Day. The middle of the city seemed to attract people and problems. When they found nothing usable and no power there, then trouble resulted.

After talking about it, we decided to head around on the south side. Experience had shown that there were fewer people on the south side than north or central. We had been into Atlanta a lot and weren't really trying to find out anything about the Atlanta area. We just wanted to safely and quietly traverse the area.

We mapped out a route that would take us close but not too close. We would come to Powder Springs and then go south through Lithia Springs and then to I-285. We would take it south and east hoping for no trouble. We could pick up I-20 on the other side of town and head east. Then, we would ride up and down from I-20 to look over the land.

We did just that and didn't see a soul. It was strange for me to see Atlanta empty. We saw smoke a couple of times but it was distant. Once, we heard a dog bark. It made for a long day but we got through Atlanta and headed out east only slowing for a quick lunch. Bennie and I agreed that we felt watched though probably weren't. It was such a big, empty city that you just felt that someone had to be there. We stopped on a golf course east of Atlanta just off I-20 and made camp with the tent. We didn't want to find an empty house since it was a clear night. We were both happy to see deer after we bedded down because that meant there were no overt signs of men.

In the morning, we left heading east at a more moderate pace. We didn't wander off I-20 much until we were beyond Covington. We had had good weather and were enjoying the trip and our time alone. It gave me a chance to be an exhibitionist to the extent I was willing which was a fair bit.

When Bennie and I became serious, I had a long talk with Momma Shirley about sex. I was more experienced sexually than she but didn't know much about lovemaking. She helped me understand that the relationship between a husband and a wife was special and a wife could be a lady in public and a wanton hussy in private with her husband. I had enjoyed teasing boys before the Day though they got what they wanted most times. With Bennie, I teased him but let him get nowhere until we married. After my talk with Momma Shirley and my marriage to Bennie, our lovemaking when there was no one around to hear or see could be almost violent and quite noisy. He loved the differences that could occur. Some times, we would be quiet and loving. Other times, we would be hard and loud. I bore a few bruises and he some scratches and bruises from those sessions. It wasn't often but was intensely fantastic when we were in that mood.

I was in that zone today and was riding topless. There was no one but us and I enjoyed showing Bennie my body knowing that the excitement would carry over into the evening. It did and I hope we didn't scare the horses too much. The next day found me more ladylike, which turned out to be a good thing.

We had just stopped for lunch and saw smoke in the distance from a cooking fire. We got on our horses and rode north toward the smoke not trying to hide our presence. We entered a clearing with a house that was being kept up and which had a hearth in front of it for cooking. I could see a windmill a few hundred feet away and before us was a farm. There were four grown people standing around the fire as we came up. None of them were armed! This was different, as the world had become more violent just with animals not to mention occasional bad people.

Bennie and I rode up and I said, "Hello, I'm Janice and this is my husband, Bennie."

One of the men looked up and said, "I'm Charlie and she's Teresa, she's Marissa, and he's Harry. We are farming here. Where are you folks from?"

"We're from Preservation, a new community close to Carrollton. Bennie and I are on an exploration trip to look around on its behalf. We're headed eventually for Augusta and then will turn south. I'm surprised you aren't armed. We have had troubles with wild animals on our farms."

"We try not to carry arms. We're peace loving people and just want to farm our little piece of land and be left alone by the world."

"Well, there's not much world left in the way of people any more. We're also farmers though some of us have started some basic iron working and the like. Many of the members of Preservation were engineers before the Day. We have electrical power for most of our community though not from the old power grid. We are trying to live peacefully with all we meet though are prepared to protect ourselves. We recently had to confront an animal with strange mental powers. I don't know what or who else is out in the world but we have found both good and bad people and animals."

The lady identified as Teresa said, "Why don't you join us? We were preparing lunch."

"Thank you." Bennie said, "We saw your smoke as we were stopping to eat." He dismounted. I dismounted and we took the horses over to a shaded spot and gave them food. There was a creek close by. We hobbled them after removing their bridles and saddles. They nickered at us as we went back to the fire.

As we ate together, they told us their stories that were like many others. We reported them in later by radio. I recorded those stories in this diary.

Marissa went first saying, "I lived in Athens with Harry. When the Day occurred, we were students at the University living in a small apartment. Harry's an orphan when his parents died in a house fire two years before we met. I was adopted and my adoptive parents died of the virus. We decided to work together since we liked each other anyway. In that first, chaotic week, we met Teresa who joined us. She was a student, too. Almost a year later, Charlie came into the area and we met. We were tired of the marauders who we had fought off. The four of us decided to leave Athens and wound up here three years ago. We are happy together and don't want to have to fight any more. It's the way we want to live. Your community sounds warlike to me."

I answered, "No, but we are protective of what we have and our freedom. We have a good life for all the members and will not allow others to despoil us of it. We all have voices in the governing of Preservation though we have leadership to coordinate our activities and make some decisions when there is not complete agreement or sufficient time to discuss situations. We are primarily south of you and expanding south and east of old I-20. We don't want to bother other people. I am guessing that you four live as a group. That is acceptable. One of my adoptive dad's best friends has two wives, we have a brother and sister who are married, and one other multi-partner group. The big issue in Preservation is the consensual nature of the relationship, not it's makeup. From that standpoint, you would not have a problem with Preservation. On the guns, we carry them for protection from beasts, animal and human. We have fought off some bad animals and some bad people. It wasn't pleasant but dying or having someone rape me is not something Bennie or I will accept. When we're home, we go unarmed."

Charlie nodded. He said, "We try to give all the benefit of any doubt. That's why we don't carry firearms. It is our hope that it won't be necessary. We haven't had problems since we came here."

I said, "We just finished fighting some strange animals. A stag controlled them mentally and tried to control us after they had made raids on our farms. The stag led a group of animals including bears, lions, and tigers. It gave the meat eaters a deer or cow from the group to feed them. When we couldn't make contact except for it trying to take us over, we had to fight. We have had bad people do the same in the past. We don't want to fight but will if that's necessary. On the other hand, we are not conquerors. We don't go out looking for people to dominate." As Bennie said that, we were finishing our meal. We had added our food in with theirs. He continued, "One thing we offer is radios. Some of our leading members were hams before the Day. We stay in contact on a regular basis using them. We have an extra radio if you would like it. It's nice to hear the people talk in the evening and it's easy to generate enough electricity to run a radio. If you want a radio and would like, we can show you how to set up a simple generator and station to allow you to hear and talk."

Teresa said, "We would have to talk about it."

I said, "That's not a problem. We will move on but will be along the I-20 corridor if you decide you're interested. You should be able to find us easily"

We stayed another hour and then took our leave to head east. We went along following our plan so we had probably not gone more than two miles east though covered more because of our wandering north and south along our main travel line.

We stopped for the evening having ridden just beyond Madison. We went through there but didn't stop though the old homes were still very pretty. The lack of maintenance was slowly making everything of man to have more rounded lines and hiding bits and pieces of different things. Our map showed Rock Eagle 4-H Center below us and we were going there in the morning.

We woke up in the morning smelling smoke. This was not good. The land was not that dry and there was no reason for a fire to have started that was big enough for us to smell. We went to I-20 and began to search the sky. It was more open away from the trees. We saw the smoke on our back trail. Bennie said, "I think the smoke is from where we met the four yesterday."

"I think you are right. Should we ride back?"

"Yes, though it's probably much too late to do anything if they are in trouble. We'll have to be careful. That much smoke isn't natural. Either they have had a bad accident or they had problems with outsiders."

We loaded up and moved out at a fairly rapid pace being watchful of our surroundings. We headed west along I-20 and were close to the farm north of us when we suddenly saw tracks of a party of twenty or more horses heading north. We slowed abruptly and began to watch for signs that these unknown people were still around. The tracks led directly to the farm of the four. The house and barns were burning. Outside, we saw two corpses. Charlie and Teresa were dead. Charlie was mangled like he had been beaten and tortured. Teresa had been raped, probably many times, before being stabbed to death.

I looked at Bennie, "Where are Harry and Marissa? Do you think we can help them?"

Bennie responded, "I'm not sure. We need to do something for Charlie and Teresa quickly if we are to follow the group that did this and have any hope of helping the other two."

We rolled them together in blankets and left them under a tree. We also left our pack horse and set out after the gang that had caused the damage and deaths. We didn't catch up to them on their northward march until evening. We were able to get close because they had no sentries. We crept up on them carefully.

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