Chapter 30

“So, what went down in Frederick in our absence, anyway?” I asked Charity after we came together at last.

Judging from the look on my bride’s face, her post-orgasmic bliss was shaken a bit. We were naked as we basked in the sweaty slickness of each other’s flesh against our skin. Charity looked even more like her Creek ancestors as she nestled her head against my chest, loath as she was to discuss politics when we had just shared such primal intimacy with each other. I caressed her belly, of course, and stroked her hair as we lay together on that bed ... my main bed on the bus.

“Well, the war spun out of control for a while. The Nazis didn’t give up easily. They went down swinging, furiously, even desperately seeking deals with every faction available to hold their sector for the ‘master race.’ Some supermen they turned out to be. In the end, the last of them were rounded up, shot, and burned, ashes spread rather than buried. We didn’t want any memorials to them, you know.

“After that, well, the violence didn’t stop. The SS were barely cremated before some in the Dominion Zone confronted several Gynarchists over castrations performed on the slain prior to their execution. They deemed that a sacrilege, but it was really a pretext to fight the rad fems for control of more territory. There was a lot to grab, after all. The Nazis had held the largest single sector before their defeat, after all.

“The Gynarchists held out bravely, and also appealed to some others. Some in the damn Intersectional faction even helped them a little, but only female volunteers were accepted by them. Even then, with their survival at stake, they wouldn’t abandon their desperate hatred for men. They wouldn’t take aid from the BQLF, either, because, they didn’t approve of the transgender community.

“Well, that stubborn pride was fatal to them. The fundies ruthlessly stamped them out, even if there were some brief and embarrassing setbacks. Reverend Earl Stamford of the Christian Salvation Front personally ordered the extermination of all ‘feminists’ of any stripe in town in retaliation for the castration and slaughter of a number of ambushed male Dominionists. They were shot on sight, no quarter asked or given by the Dominion Zone and the CSF.

“Stamford justified this by alluding to the slaughter of the Amalekites, Canaanites, etc. in the Old Testament as being commanded by God. He also called them ‘witches’ and had them shaved and stripped before they were shot, even pelted with filth and refuse by angry crowds. Then they were burned as well. Soon, he switched to simply burning them alive at the stake as witches, heretics, apostates, whores, etc. Their shrieks of agony could be heard everywhere in town, particularly once the executions were broadcast to the public.

“Well, it worked. Demoralized feminists found themselves recklessly risking bullets rather than facing the flames. Something about the prospect of being immolated like that can truly terrify people, you know. People became loath to assist them for fear of being roasted or cooked themselves in such a manner. Nothing like good, old-fashioned terror to drive home the point.

“Eventually, the Red Zone and we got together to assault the Dominion Zone, and it worked. What we found was even more horrific than what we imagined. Stamford kept any younger, prettier women among his captives, and as the Old Testament permitted, used them as his own concubines and those of others. But they had to be virgins, of course, and they were inspected for hymens. Anyone not found virgo intacta, well, their geese were quite literally cooked.