Chapter 14

We drove home. Sara would stay with Linda and Tom. She was totally captivated by Matilda. We had Melissa and Ted Long who would stay in one bedroom. Steve would stay in the other. The four ladies would stay together in our extra house.

Those four women were trying to recover from their ordeal. We got to know them well and appreciate each one. Jessie was short with blond hair and in her early twenties. She was reasonably attractive though not beautiful. Tracie was tall and skinny with long brown hair. She would be twenty-one in September. She had been engaged and was the most distraught of the four. Her fiance had been killed before her eyes when she was taken by Joe and his gang. Kathy was almost thirty with a good figure. Her dark, auburn hair was perhaps her best feature. It was long and glossy. She had been a waitress before the Day and, of the four, probably the least bright. She did have a lot of common sense and experience that helped her cope with life. She seemed to be the least affected by her time with the gang. The last and most imposing was Carol. She was the same age as Pat and I. She exuded sexiness all the time. She told Pat that she loved sex and enjoyed the gang except for Eddie. Even Eddie, she said, could be enjoyable occasionally. She always wore tight outfits and reveled in being caught naked or flashing any part of her body. Surprisingly, she was the most intelligent of the four. Pat talked her into admitting that she had graduated from Georgia Southern with honors.

That was the new group. Eight people from dissimilar backgrounds and headed toward dissimilar goals. Somehow, we all got along. I suspect that Pat and Heather had a sobering talk with Carol. She became a bit more circumspect around Dad, Tom, and me. When we went into Ellijay for our weekly meeting, she was dressed sexily and showed a lot of skin. I was surprised when she allowed Bill Wilson to squire her around. He was just over thirty and had been a professor at a girls' college in Gainesville. For some reason, they clicked and she was the first to move out of the house and in with him. At the meeting in September, they asked that their marriage be confirmed. From the time she moved in with him, she began a model wife. Bill admitted to me one day in October that she was a tigress at home frequently going naked and showing an ability and interest in sex that he enjoyed. I think Pat and Heather were not sorry to see Carol live elsewhere.

Melissa was healing slowly. Her husband, Ted, was knowledgeable about farm work and gave us many good ideas for improving our farming. The other item of more immediate interest was the slowly, albeit steadily, developing romance between Steve and Sara. Steve lived in one of our spare bedrooms while Sara stayed with Linda and Tom. Sara was helping to care for Matilda and loved doing that. Her beauty was recovering from the abuse she had suffered. Steve was over at Linda and Tom's home any time he could be spared. He wasn't pushy but was gently available to Sara at any time.

Charles and Karen came to our formal meetings as did most of the others. Few of their community came for the rest of the meetings. They contributed information and offered assistance. Over the winter, we got to know each other. For Thanksgiving, they joined us for the meal and time together. For Christmas, we had a big celebration, They invited us to Calhoun for New Years' Eve and most of the EHG went. Charles' family and friends had cleared a motel for our use. We had a delightful time.

Melissa and Ted were talking about returning to their farm at the end of January. Jessie wanted to go with them and did.

It's February and Pat is about to deliver. I think Dad is almost as nervous as I am. Karen and Miss Mabel will be present to assist. Linda is coming over, too. Matilda will stay with Sara and Steve will watch over them. She is still a bit anxious but I believe Steve has won her over. When he asks her, I believe she will say, "Yes."

I am a father! Mark Dillard, Junior, was born at eight thirty in the morning after two hours of labor. He just missed being nine pounds. He looks great and Pat makes a beautiful mother. Dad is proud to have his first grandson. Karen hugged everyone and will be a wonderful grandmother, too.

While they were watching over Matilda, Steve asked Sara to marry him. As I expected and Pat verified, she gave him a heartfelt yes.

The two ladies remaining in our third valley house are being pursued by men. We have given up blocking the road because there is too much traffic. I was surprised that Tracie had attracted the most attention. Tall and thin, she is almost beanpole-like in shape but every available man including a number of men shorter than she were wanting to be with her.

I told Pat that I didn't understand. She told me that I should listen to her speak with my eyes closed. I tried and realized that she had an extremely sexy tone to her voice. When interacting with her, I found her to be consistently kind and gracious. I then recognized her allure and could appreciate it.

After delivering Mark, Junior, Pat strived to regain her figure and succeeded so well that she was now lighter than before though she was breast feeding! I couldn't keep my eyes off her. Her hips seemed to move a little extra for me. She admitted that she wanted to look really good again for two reasons. First, she wanted my appreciative looks at her and, second, she was planning on another child. She said, "I figured that, if I have a smoking hot body, you won't be hard to seduce."

I said, "For you, I am and will be never hard to seduce but you are even hotter than when we married. You are attracting looks from other happily married men as well as a few women!"

She said, "I remember kissing you one day on the porch to give you something to think about. I don't want you to take that long any more. I want you and want you hot to trot with your wife." I grinned at that and made it a point to make love to her every chance there was.

Over the next year, things in the area seemed to have quieted down. People have found their places or died. Charles even had a couple join his community from Chattanooga! No one had been in Atlanta since the Day. Our rule with the EHG was to stay north of the junction of 75 and 575. We had not seen any gangs from Chattanooga during this time. Our trips to Dalton and Canton had slacked off for two reasons. First, we just didn't need anything from those areas like we had earlier. Second, gas was becoming an issue. We need fuel for our tractors. Our tractor was diesel as was my monster SUV. Since the big trucks weren't on the road, we had diesel. Even that was not going to last forever and some of it was no longer usable.

Mark, Junior, is growing like the proverbial weed. Our efforts have been successful because Pat is pregnant again!

We aren't the only ones adding to our numbers. Sara and Steve moved onto Tom's old farm and she is pregnant. She is beautiful and her pregnancy makes her radiant. Steve is always close when they are outside. Tracie had chosen a man her height to marry and, at our last meeting, they announced that she was pregnant. She seemed happy. Carol was well along in her pregnancy. Charles and Karen's people were experiencing a population increase, too. Melissa and Ted had gone back to their farm after she had fully recovered and delivered.