Chapter 51

I woke sandwiched between two women. It felt good. Kim was snuggled into my left side and Doha was snuggled into the right, both of them were pressing their naked forms into my side as I held them tightly to me. What felt even better was what was going on, ‘down south of the border.’ Rizah was lying between my legs slowly lapping at my cock, tentatively tasting it. Ohba was sitting beside her, whispering encouragement and giving her instructions. She was doing an incredible job. Then a fist pounding on our bedroom door broke up the fun.

“Jake!” Dunbar shouted loudly through the thin barrier of wood. “Get your ass in gear and move it! I’ve got something I need to show you!”

I wasn’t happy about that and neither were the women. I knew that if Dunbar was pounding on my closed bedroom door, then something big was up. I definitely had to get up.

“I’ll be with you in a moment,” I shouted back to keep him from pounding on the door again; or worse, barging in. It wouldn’t have mattered to me, and I was certain that the local ladies wouldn’t have minded either, but why ruffle any feathers that early in the morning?

Instead I extricated myself from the pile of disappointed women. I went and visited the facilities and then came back and dressed myself for the day. It took some time to pull on all my gear, and in that time, Kim got dressed as well. As did Ohba and the two new girls.

Dunbar insisted on keeping things a secret when I asked him what was up. He just told me to follow along which I did. He led us out of Winslow’s headquarters where we’d been bunking, and then up the track towards the two temporary shelters. We’d walked maybe fifty yards when I spotted what had brought Dunbar banging on my door.

There was a large open field west of the complex of buildings that Winslow’s people had erected. It was to the north of the recreation hall, and it was huge. For the most part it was just empty undeveloped space, that hugged the edges of the rise upon which the base had been built. Today, it was no longer empty. It was filled with container units. I stopped and gaped at it.

“That’s impossible,” Kim murmured aloud, her voice filled with disbelief. “I can see it, and I know we talked about this; but I just can’t accept that it actually happened. How the hell did you do this?”

I looked at Kim and smiled, but I didn’t give her a reply. We could talk about it later, in private. For now I wanted to see what had been sent to us, just to make certain that it was what I’d asked for. From a distance, it looked like it was.

As I strode towards the containers, I noted that Dunbar had alerted a few other people as well. Burton was there, as were Penny and Bob, the Quartermaster. I could see he was in a tizzy. He was marching back and forth from one container to another, glancing at the manifests posted on the exterior of each unit. It was clear that he couldn’t believe his own eyes. When he spotted me, he turned and strode towards me, huffing and puffing as he did.

“How did you do this?” the man demanded to know. “It’s all there. Everything I itemized for you, plus more. It shouldn’t be here, but it is. I only gave you the list last night, so how the hell did you accomplish this.”

“Professional secret,” I told the man flippantly, as I continued on, simply striding by him.

“That’s not good enough,” the man snapped back at me, hurrying to keep up with my stride. “I want to know how this was done and if you can do it again.”

I stopped and looked at the man. By then we were within feet of the containers. Penny was standing there with Burton looking annoyed, and the rest of my entourage had caught up to us. They were all glaring at Bob the Quartermaster, letting him know silently that he’d just stepped out of bounds.

“I don’t need to tell you anything,” I informed the man, staring sternly down at him. “For now I’d suggest you shut up and be happy that this actually worked. If, as you say, everything is here; then there is enough food and supplies here to feed the community for six months. You should be happy about it, instead of ‘beaking off’ about ‘what I need to tell you.’ Now I suggest you go and organize a work party. I know that you’ve got a couple of sets of dollies down in the base’s vehicle park, and an electric driven tug. I suggest you go and get them, and then get to work. I’m certain that the cooks will be happy to see this stuff and so will everyone else.”

The man wanted to blow up at me, but he didn’t. Instead he glanced about him, taking in the fact that the rest of my people were glaring at him just as sternly as I was. Seeing that he wasn’t going to get any support from them, he backed off.

“Fine,” Bob the Quartermaster muttered dismissively as he started to step away, “I’ll go and organize a work party as you suggest, but this isn’t over. You might not want to talk about this, but I’m certain everyone else will; and whether you like it or not, they’ll demand an answer.”

“They can demand all they want, but I suggest you remind them of one small fact,” I shot back coldly at the man as I gripped his shirt, “and that’s the fact that they are prisoners of war. You tell them that when they start asking their questions, and remind them that there aren’t any international laws here, protecting them from me getting pissed off! The first person that tells me I have to explain things to them, is going to end up dead!”

I let the man go and he strode off in a huff. He marched over to an ATV that was parked on the track that ran through the upper base. He hopped on it and then drove away.

“You’re not making any friends there,” Penny pointed out as I turned my gaze towards her.

“He’s a puffed up asshole who doesn’t know the word ‘please’,” I told her dryly, “and I can live with one less friend of his ilk.”

“Perhaps,” Penny murmured back, shrugging her shoulders as she did, “but I’d still think twice about pissing people off. After all, whether we take everyone north with us, or we set up a second settlement near here like we discussed yesterday, Bob is now part of our community. You should think about that. He could be of some help.”

“I agree,” I admitted reluctantly, “but he rubs me and I rub him, and it’s always the wrong way. I doubt we’ll ever get along, either here or at our settlement, and personally I’ve got one quartermaster already. I definitely don’t need two. Besides, Bob might not be here much longer.”

“You’re not really going to kill him, are you?” Penny gasped with surprise, her face paling as she spoke.

“No, I’m not going to kill him,” I chuckled in reply, earning myself a displeased frown in turn from Penny as she regained control of herself.

“Then what did you mean by that?” Penny enquired stiffly. “Or am I not allowed to ask?”

“You’re allowed to ask anything you want,” I reassured the woman, stepping over to where she was standing and putting a reassuring hand on her arm. “You don’t have to worry about that. You’re part of my team and I know that. I trust you and I hope that you trust me. I might not always answer those questions, but I will listen to them. Even if I don’t answer them, I’ll try to reassure you that keeping from you what I know is for the best.”

“All right,” Penny responded with a sigh of relief and a softening of her bearing towards me. “So what did you mean when you said Bob might not be here much longer? Where is he going to go?”

“Home,” I replied bluntly stepping away from Penny, leaving her to stare after me in wonder and surprise.

I didn’t stick around after breakfast. I had a job to get done that morning that, in my opinion, couldn’t wait. While everyone was as excited as Bob the Quartermaster had suggested, I wasn’t in the mood to answer any questions; at least not until all the container units had been shifted from the field where they’d arrived, down to the lower base where they could be accessed and used. Since there were twenty-one units in total, I knew it was going to take some time.

After eating I rounded up a little help. I asked Ohba and Bogdi to join me as I took a trip up the coast to the fishing village to the north. I wanted to speak with Otho, the village’s headman, and to return to him the women who had been taken from his community by Winslow and his men. In all, there were eighteen of them. They were all anxious to go home now that they were no longer slaves, and they’d seen their tormentors punished. There had been a few more originally, but not all of them had made it through the winter.

I decided to take the stake truck. It was the only large vehicle left that was running with any reliability. Hopefully it would make the trip, both there and back.

I let the women take whatever they wanted including food. Many had spent their time in captivity being used as sex slaves for the more important members of Winslow’s staff. They’d actually lived in some comfort, although even a gilded cage is still a cage, no matter how nice. However, it did mean that they’d been exposed to a certain standard of living that some of the other slaves hadn’t, and when I gave them the opportunity to loot their former masters’ possessions, they went for it.

It was amazing to see when we were finally ready to leave. The women showed up carrying sacks made of bed linen that had been pulled together at the corners for easy carrying. Some actually carried two, and I learned through inquiry and by hefting the bags up to the women as they scrambled into the back of the stake truck that most of the bags carried the same things. There were pots and pans, knives, spoons, and forks, and camp plates and cups taken from the mess hall since they were tougher to break. They also had some food in their makeshift sacks, the last of the soap products, extra bedding, towels, and face clothes. They even took jewellery. If their former master had it, whether that master had been male or female, the women took it, wearing it openly about their necks, and upon their ears and fingers.

The drive to the village took less than an hour. I took my time and kept my speed down considering the fact that my passengers were seated on the hard, bare bed of the truck.

Our arrival in the village caused quite a stir. I pulled in just at the top of the rise that overlooked the village, where the track turned into the village to run through it to the beach. Then I honked the horn as I drove down the hill.

My intent hadn’t been to frighten the villagers, but that was exactly what I did. When we’d pulled in, a number of older women had been sitting on roughly worked stools before their hovels, working on mending fishing nets. They had risen to their feet on seeing the truck. I don’t know if they would have stayed to greet me or not, but the honking horn made that possibility unlikely as they immediately scurried away.

“Smart move, Jake,” Bogdi chided me with a chuckle. “Scare everyone away.”

“Yeah,” I sighed with faked remorse as I parked the truck, “I’m such a bad boy. Well, it couldn’t be helped. How about you and Ohba lower the tail gate and help the ladies down, while I go and beg forgiveness.”

Bogdi agreed as did Ohba, who kissed me tenderly on the cheek, before piling out the passenger side right after Bogdi. While they did that, I opened the door on my side of the vehicle and climbed out as well.

Otho met me halfway. Obviously he’d either heard the horn or someone had gone to fetch him. It didn’t matter to me. I smiled at him as he approached. He didn’t smile back. His face was filled with concern.

“Greetings, Otho,” I called out to the old man as he came to a halt about ten feet from where I stood, just ahead of the truck. “I hope you are well?”

“I am well, Jake of the Bear Tribe,” Otho replied in an officious manner. “What can my people do for you today?”

I felt the chill in the man’s voice, and I sensed the distrust. I sighed and shook my head before replying.

“You needn’t fear my people, Otho,” I assured the old man, speaking to him courteously and without force in my voice. “My people do not seek to harm you or anyone else. We only wish to live in peace, and when we meet another band such as yours, the only thing that we ask of that band is to accept our arm in friendship. Will you take mine? I offer it to you freely, without threat or coercion. What do you say?”

I’d stepped forward as I’d spoken, extending my right arm towards the man, to be taken and clasped in greeting and what most tribes here abouts considered a symbol of peace. Otho didn’t take it. Instead he took a step backwards, openly trembling with fear.

I sighed heavily in response.

“Nothing, Otho, but to offer me your arm in friendship to me,” I replied promptly, extending my arm towards the old man, “and to accept the gift that I have brought you today.”

“I am sorry that you cannot accept my arm in friendship,” I told Otho, trying to keep my disappointment out of my voice, but failing miserably. “I had been told that the River People were amongst the friendliest of the tribes in this land and they always welcomed strangers who came to them in peace. It is a pity we cannot be friends. Even so, to me at least, and to my people, your village is not our enemy and we intend you no harm. In fact, I have brought home to you something that had been taken from you.”

With that I called out to Bogdi and Ohba. A moment later a swarm of young women toting the prizes that they’d claimed from Winslow’s base flowed by me and towards Otho and the village. Their appearance took him completely by surprise.

“What... ?” the old man exclaimed once the women had ran by him, screaming out to their kin that they were home.

“I told you that I would bring back any of your people that I found, once I’d dealt with the bad men,” I told Otho pointedly. “I’ve kept my promise. I do confess that not all of them have returned, for some died during the winter. But, I have done my best. Now I will leave. Farewell, Otho, and be at peace. I will not trouble you again.”

The old man was stunned. By that point, the rest of his village had come out of hiding to see what the commotion was all about. People were screaming with joy and others were crying, both with happiness and sorrow. Otho just didn’t know what to say.

I didn’t hang about to let him sort it out. I’d made a promise and I’d kept it. I climbed back into the truck. By then Ohba and Bogdi were in the vehicle with me. I just started the truck and drove away.

“You can’t blame him, Jake,” Ohba muttered to me as we turned back towards the base. “They’ve suffered a lot since the bad men came. They do not know you like I do or those others that you’ve saved from the bad men. You still did a good thing and I am proud to have been here with you, to see it happen and to be part of it. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.”

I smiled at Ohba in return for her words and her gratitude. Bogdi assured me as well that he was happy to have been part of the trip as well. Hearing it definitely helped to lighten my mood on our trip back to the base.

To my surprise I found Carmen waiting for my return at the gate that led onto the base. Even as I slowed down to roll through the gate, she leapt up from where she’d been sitting and she waved me down. When I stopped to see what the matter was, the young Puerto Rican woman ran to my side of the truck and then scrambled up on to the step that hung below the driver’s door so she could lean through the window and speak to me.

“What’s wrong?” I asked her anxiously as she thrust her head through the open window. “Has something happened?”

“You happened,” Carmen shot back at me in frustration. “You and those containers that seemed to appear out of nowhere this morning, is what’s wrong! Everyone is talking about them and how they got here, and they all want answers that no one can give them. The worst part of it is the fact that you took off, leaving us to manage it. That wasn’t very nice, particularly since everyone has been pestering me for answers. Now drive up there and talk to them.”

I just smiled at that and I shook my head, chuckling as I did, which pissed Carmen off even more.

“I’m glad you think it’s funny, Jake, because I don’t!” Carmen declared angrily. “It isn’t fair. No one has even thought about speaking to Kim about this or one of your two henchmen. They’ve badgered me and they’ve badgered Sarah. Sarah got smart and found a place to hide, but they just wouldn’t leave me alone. All they wanted to know was if you could open the Gateway again, and if you could, would you send them home. How the fuck should I know? I don’t even know how you got those containers here in the first place.”

“Through a Gateway,” I replied fighting back a chuckle as I did. “The same one that will open tomorrow morning to take whoever wants to go home, home; if they really want to leave this world.”

My reply silenced Carmen. She gazed at me with a look of utter disbelief etched across her face. It took her several minutes to reply.

“Really?” Carmen asked hesitantly, all the anger now out of her voice. “You’re not just making that up?”

“Yes, really,” I said firmly with a hint of seriousness in my voice, “and no, I’m not making it up. However, there is a catch.”

“What’s the catch?” Carmen enquired anxiously, her eyes now lit up with hope.

“Can you keep it to yourself, at least until I’ve spoken to everyone else?” I asked the young woman in all seriousness.

“I’m not going to like this, am I?” Carmen muttered questioningly in reply.

“You’re right, Carmen, you won’t like hearing this,” I told her soberly, “but I do want to be honest with you. You’re part of my team, and I trust you. Can you keep this to yourself, or do you want to wait and hear it with everyone else?”

Carmen said she wanted to hear it from me then and there, so I told her the catch. I explained that it was very likely that anyone who went back through the Gateway would end up being arrested by Homeland Security; and if not them, by some other branch of the government. She wasn’t very happy about that.

“Why the hell do they have to punish me?” Carmen demanded to know, her temper flaring again. “I’m just a medic. I haven’t done anything wrong. In fact, if anything, I’m a victim.”

I shook my head and I did my best to calm Carmen down. She still wasn’t happy about it when I was done, but she promised me that she wouldn’t tell anyone the catch, leaving that job to me. I thanked her, even though she was still scowling at me with annoyance.

I drove with Carmen clinging to the outside of the truck up to the mess hall. It was now past noon and anyone not busy was in the mess hall eating. I left her with a job to do. I also dropped off Ohba and Bogdi, thanking them for their help and promising them that I’d see them soon. Once they were gone, I drove the truck to the vehicle pool and dropped it off.

Bob the Quartermaster had been busy while I was gone. There had been twenty-one forty-foot long container units that had to be moved. As I strolled back from the vehicle pool I could see that he’d already shifted half, if not more, from the field up the hill to down here where they were needed. I was duly impressed. I might not like the guy, but from what I could see he’d done a great job. I would have to thank him.

“So there you are,” Penny called out from the quartermaster’s stores as I wandered past it. “Have you come back to face the music?”

“I have,” I told her good-naturedly, smiling as I stopped so she could come over and talk to me. “Has Carmen told you about the meeting?”

“She has, although I already knew what you’re going to say, given what you hinted at this morning,” Penny informed me. “I haven’t said anything to anyone else, except the people who were there. I didn’t tell Carmen I knew, either; even though I could see from her face that she knew as well.”

“Do you know all of it, though,” I asked out of curiosity, “including what Kim and I discussed informally yesterday?”

“Yes, even that,” Penny sighed in reply. “It’s going to piss a lot of people off.”

“I know,” I admitted reluctantly, “but I’m hoping that the opportunity to go home will outweigh everything else. We’ll see tomorrow morning. By the way, Bob’s done a great job.”

“I’ll tell him you said that,” Penny assured me, “although you probably will speak to him before I do. I won’t be attending the meeting. I volunteered to come here with Kim. General Ridgeway recruited me specifically for this job, and I’m not going to turn my back on it; not even to go home. So good luck, and I’ll see you later.”

I thanked Penny, for the fact she was willing to stay with me and for everything else. I let her go and I turned to head towards the mess hall. Even from where I was standing I could see there was a crowd in it, waiting for me to arrive. To my surprise, Kim was waiting for me at the door.

“Do you want to eat first?” Kim asked grinning mischievously as she enquired. “I’m sure no one will mind.”

I declined, though I did request that she made certain there was food left for me when the meeting was done. She said she would.

The mess hall fell silent as I walked into it. For the most part the place was filled with only uptime people, both prisoners and my troops. To my surprise, my people were armed. I guess Kim was worried that my words would do more than simply piss someone off. I nodded to Dunbar and Burton and then I got down to business.

“I’m not going to give a long and drawn out speech, here,” I told everyone pointedly. “All of you are aware of what happened this morning. We woke up to find twenty-one forty-foot long container units plopped down at the top of the rise with twenty of those units filled with foodstuffs. For the most part ... for those who haven’t been helping Bob shift those containers down here, so they can be accessed and the goods in them used ... the containers contain sacks of flour, rice, cornmeal, powdered milk, dried fruit, vegetable oil and shortening, and tons of other food and sundry items. With meat and fish acquired locally there should be enough supplies there to feed this community for six months. As for the last container, it contains seeds for planting, agricultural tools, and two horse drawn ploughs. It means that anyone who stays here to live, can plant crops in the next few weeks and harvest them next fall.”

I paused there for a moment, glancing about to see if everyone was following me. They were. I didn’t think any of them had caught the implications of the last part of what I was saying, but that didn’t matter. Once I was certain I had their attention I went on.

“What I just told you people is option one,” I informed them forcefully. “I’ve provided you people with the chance to survive, here, if you want to. However, if you don’t want to stay here, there is a second option. You’ve all asked the question today once you heard about the containers arriving. Can I send you home? To the best of my knowledge, the answer is ‘yes.’ The people who sent the food and supplies to us this morning, have instructions to open a Gateway tomorrow morning. The Gateway will open to take anyone who wants to go back to our Earth home. There is, of course, a catch.”