Chapter 2

That's what we did. Emma took over the setting up of the tentage. While she sited the area that it was going to be set up in, I went over to the second sea container and with the help of my sisters and their daughters I got it open so we could unpack it. While I was doing this, Betty led her daughters and granddaughters around to the rear of the sea container that we had already opened. Together they got it open and by the time I and my team were ready to heave out the tent poles and the canvas, they were there with an ATV and a trailer for us to heave it on.

You see our benefactors had thought of everything. The ATV was an industrial, no-name generic 6x6 ATV that sat two up front and had a cargo deck on its back. The ATV came with a small pup trailer.

Well, the ATV and trailer came in handy. It allowed us to quickly move the contents of the sea container to the place that Emma had picked out for our temporary shelter. With Betty driving the vehicle and with my team loading it and another team off loading it, we had everything cleared out of the container within an hour. After that it was a simple matter to put everything together.

Putting the tentage up took about the same amount of time thanks to our benefactors. With the knowledge that they had imbued us with and the fact that we had nineteen sets of hands to get the work done, everything went smoothly.

Emma sited the temporary shelter about a dozen feet away from the sea containers. From the look of it, once the long grass had been beaten down, the area was fairly flat looking and on a bit of a small plateau that was slightly higher than the surrounding terrain. That meant that if it rained, any water would drain away and not flood us out.

In the end we put together an H-shaped structure that was essentially two long sleeping areas joined together at the midpoint by two sections of tentage. This passageway served as a common entry point into the tent complex and a common area for us to sit and talk. Inside the tent we strung white liners and used them to partition the tentage into group sleeping areas. Thus we created a separate sleeping area for my immediate family and my sisters and their daughters in one side and a matching sleeping area on the other side for Emma's sisters and their daughters. We even created a sleeping area for my mother and mother-in-law in the other side of the tent.

After that we started making the place liveable. With the help of my sisters I strung lighting throughout the complex and hooked it up to a generator that was built into the sea container containing the computer terminal. While I was doing that, my daughters and my nieces laid matting down for flooring. The mats were similar to gym mats. After that they inflated air mattress for everyone. Interestingly, while the majority of the air mattresses were twin size, there was one that was super-king size. This one ended up being placed in my sleeping area for me and my wife. Once all the air mattresses were put in, my sisters-in-law saw to it that everyone received some bedding, a sleeping bag and an inflatable pillow. Then in the common area, they set up a couple of tables and a few folding chairs. As that was going on, my nieces found a couple of shovels and dug a drainage ditch around the whole complex, just in case it did rain.

All in all, the whole job took us about three hours to complete which wasn't bad considering that we had never done anything like this before and in truth, we had never really worked as a team before. Sure we've worked in small groups like at Christmas, but never all of us focused on one task. I can tell you we were all happy when the job was done. We were also hot and sticky and smelly from our exertions, and we were hungry.

"What are we going to do for lunch?" my daughter Karen asked as we stood back to survey our handy work.

"More important," miffed my niece Carol, "what do we do about a bathroom?"

Right then there was another thud.

We all turned around and stared.

To our surprise the sea container that had contained all the tentage, poles and the rest that we had emptied was gone. In its place there stood a new one waiting for our attention.

"I wonder what's in there?" murmured my wife.

"A light's blinking on the monitor," noted my mother. "Maybe there's information on it for us."

"Well, let's take a look!" I declared firmly.

Without waiting for a response, I strolled over to the information terminal and took a look. Silently the remainder of the family followed along.

Blinking on the screen was another message. It read, 'Cooking and Sanitary Facilities.'

"Okay," I murmured half to myself and half to the group, "let's see what this is about."

Then without any hesitation I touched the blinking letters on the monitor. At my touch it stopped blinking and instantly we understood.

"Cool," said my niece Fiona in response.

"Yeah," piped up her twin Francine, "it is cool!"

"Well, it certainly makes things easy for us," I interjected as I turned around and faced the family, "and it answers our questions. So who wants to set up the kitchen and who wants to help get the washroom working?"

In truth, it didn't take much to get both systems up and running. The bathroom unit was in the other sea container that had arrived earlier with the container that had stored the modular tentage and sleeping supplies. The kitchen unit was in the sea container that had just arrived. Both systems were self contained and all that they required was for us to unlock the clamps that secured the side panels on the containers. Then with a push of a button, we activated the containers' built in hydraulic systems. Within minutes the sides slid upward and then folded into storage slots under the roofs of the containers. Once that was done, there was nothing left to do but inspect what our benefactors had provided us.

The first thing we checked out was the bath unit. One end contained a row of three sinks and a bank of three enclosed toilets. Of course Carol was the first to try them out. While she did, the rest of us checked out the rest of the bath unit. Next to the toilet area we found a corridor. On one side was storage for supplies like towels, face cloths, and soap, and on the other side there was a built in washing machine and dryer. Beyond this point we found an enclosed shower with six stations. A turn of the tap below the one closest to the door showed us that we had hot and cold running water.

"I wonder where the water is coming from?" my wife said aloud, looking first at me and then to the family about her. "I don't recall anything being plopped into our heads about hooking this up to a water source."

"Me neither," I said while I absentmindedly flicked on a light switch and then turned it off again. "I think it's just like the generator in the other container that I have the lights hooked up to. I have no idea what's generating the power or if I need to fill a fuel tank or something. I know it's there and how to hook up the lights but that's it. Perhaps our benefactors will take care of those details."

"For now!" noted my mother-in-law in an apprehensive tone.

"Yes, for now!" I acknowledged with a tone of resignation.

After that we walked over to the other sea container and checked it out. This container held a kitchen unit complete with a double oven with a stove top, a microwave, and to my pleasant surprise, a built in barbeque grill. All of this was situated in the first third of the container. The second third contained a prep area and sink with storage areas above and below containing dishes, utensils, and pots and pans, along with a work island and a fridge. The last third of the sea container was a walk in pantry and a large stand up freezer that were both fully stocked. There was also a collapsible picnic table in it that took only a few minutes to put together and set up.

"Well," I said, "I guess that answers our questions about eating. So what do we want for lunch?"

"For now," my mother said as she rooted around in a bin, "something fast and easy so we can all get fed. Then we can check this baby out afterwards. Maybe we can have steaks for supper."

"Maybe..." murmured my wife in agreement. From the sound of her voice I sensed it was time to slip away. So I did.

Not that I wouldn't have helped out if I was asked but from experience I knew that battle lines were being drawn up between my wife and her mother and my side of the family. Normally, in our own house there was never a problem. Our house, our kitchen, but when we went on a picnic or camping with someone else, well there was always a tiff about who was doing what, and when that happened, I knew that it was better to flee than get in between a bunch of stubborn women.

So I left. As I did, I grabbed a beer out of the fridge and sauntered back towards the bath unit. Like I said earlier, we were all hot and sticky from putting up the tentage, so I reasoned that now was a good time to take a shower. After all, all the women were still hanging about the kitchen unit.

A quick shout into the shower compartment told me that I was alone, so I took a long swig of beer and then started to strip. When I was done, I tossed my clothes to one side and peaked into a cabinet in search of some soap and shampoo. Thankfully, I didn't need to search too hard.

I had been in the shower for about five minutes when to my surprise I was joined by my sisters and my mother. That's right. One minute I was rinsing shampoo out of my hair and the next I was staring wide eyed in disbelief at three extremely hot and sexy looking naked women. Instantly my cock twitched with interest.

Chapter 3 »