Chapter 68: Unravelling Deceptions

Early Oct, 1986

Darren James POV:

Everyone was in a great mood when we gathered at Ibera’s ‘Command-Kitchen’ on Thursday. The assholes were getting the boot to Perdition Island and I was just coming off the best day of my life.

The only thing I was gonna miss today was Sarah’s company. She needed to spend some time back at her father-in-law’s house with her daughter, Abby, and I was happy for her!

All of my prior fretting about my relationship with her was ancient history. I felt like a new man and an integral part of a great family.

And I haven’t even met three quarters of them yet!

Today, Charlie, Bob and the effervescent Linda, are getting things setup for their RVs to be delivered and positioned on their new homesite.

The Professor, Brad grinned, “Darren, you seem especially happy this morning, I take it you had a nice peaceful evening last night?”

I snorted coffee out of my nose, “Ummm, peaceful?” Cough, “Ugh, not exactly. Very interesting? Heck yeah! Portal, please show last night, Charlene Grayson’s condo, 10:30 PM Pacific time, guest bedroom first, please? Brad and Brenda, you may want to close your eyes for this!”

JB and Brad were tripping out, watching Bob, Charlie and I make sweet Linda ‘airtight’. Brenda was blushing, peeking out between her fingers. When the view switched to Mary and Sarah making love to me, only JB was flummoxed. Then, when we appeared to be going to bed, Sarah, me, Charlie and Charlene, everyone went, ‘Ahhh, nice!’

THEN, when they heard the ever-stupid Brian beating on the door JB laughed, “Oh, did that guy just fuck up! Oh shit! He just shot hisself in the foot? What a dumbass!”

I had to explain what really happened which only made everyone laugh harder!

I also showed them the rest of what happened. The Angels curing the two girls. Then, Charlie’s doppelgänger. Ibera was snickering when she heard what Bob said about Charlie and what would happen if the doppelgänger made love, then ‘merged’.

JB was mesmerized seeing ‘two’ Charlies. I chuckled, “Hey, Ibera, why don’t you show JB your three ‘twin sisters’, She-Bera, Trebera and Quadrabera?”

JB’s eyes liked to pop out when a giggling Ibera was suddenly FOUR giggling Iberas! They all tittered, in unison, “Our Bobby has been telling stories!”

Finally, Brad corrected himself, “Sooo, you discovered that life with Charlie and Bob never has a dull moment!?”

I just grinned and nodded my head, “You got that right!”

After reminding us of our ‘confidentiality’, he related a story about their encounter with Russian submarines during their cruise to transport a whole bunch of rescued teenaged girls. I was all eyes as he used the portal and I got my first glimpse of many of the other members of Sarah’s Family.

Both JB and I got a kick out of the way they ‘bamboozled’ the Russian Officers, then ‘borrowed’ all the secret files. (With Ibera’s help. They didn’t even have to steal them!)

He said we didn’t have time to watch the whole thing but be assured, it was interesting!

“Now, we gotta get to work, guys. Let’s start with George’s group. I think they could use the head start and besides, they’ll be the easiest to deal with!?”

And so we did.

George and Blane Murdock really had their shit together.

It was apparent they put a lot of thought into their list of items they wanted. They were very fair as far as girl’s items vs. guy’s items. Blane told us, when we looked at him ordering quite a few MREs, that they wanted something they could fix in the event they couldn’t find anything and were very hungry.

They knew the unused MREs would last forever and would come in handy if needed. The tools they requested showed they planned on building many interesting devices.

Some of the interesting things they requested for their toolkits were 30 pieces of 3/8-inch round, 4-foot long, solid aluminum rods. He got a raised eyebrow from Brad as we all knew he intended on making arrows out of these. Especially, when another item he ordered was a Gillette razor and 60 packages of double-edged blades and tin snips.

He was smart enough to also ask for stuff like 20 tubes of superglue, 10 rolls of duct tape, extra polypropylene tarps as opposed to just 4 of the canvas ones, and two Air Force survival-style parachutes. (This would give him all that material along with all the extra pieces of para cord in two nice compact packages.)

I could go into everything else, but it would take 10 pages or more.

Things like the two cases of pint-size Mason jars with resealable lids and two cases of quart size Mason jars, also with the resealable lids. He said he needed those for canning vegetables and such, as he also ordered a plethora of seeds so they could plant their own garden.

When he ordered four pieces of four-foot-long, coiled, quarter-inch diameter copper tubing, Ibera had to take his hand so he could ‘imagine’ what he wanted. That was because Ibera didn’t fully understand what he meant.

He was grinning when the four pieces that were laying in front of him were exactly what he wanted. They fit nicely within each other and didn’t take up all that much room in one of their toolkits. The acetylene torch with four, 2-pound canisters of acetylene raised a few eyebrows. But when he asked for 20 braising rods, it made sense. He was going to use that to build his still.

Then one of the girls, Naomi, asked nervously, “Um, Miss Ibera? Um, I want to ask for one more thing, but I want to make sure it’s okay, you know, so we don’t lose anything?”

We all looked at her, skeptically. Ibera said if she was only asking if it were permissible, that would be okay.

She looked at her friends, then asked, “How about a 10Lb can of gunpowder?”

Brad’s, Ibera’s and my eyebrows all rose. Brad asked, “Is this for you? Just what are you planning to do with it? Oh and don’t look at your friends!”

She’d obviously been well coached, “I want to try and do some mining in those mountains. I may need that for blasting. My father used to be a miner and with the cardboard we’ll have from those jars, my friends can help me make sticks of dynamite. It’s not for a weapon, honest!”

I considered all of their items and really couldn’t see how they could make a gun of any kind. Not that it wouldn’t be possible, just that it wouldn’t be easy. Brad was conferring with both me and JB, mentally, and came to the same conclusion.

Brad nodded at Ibera, “Okay, we can give you one 10Lb can. Just, be very careful you don’t hurt yourselves.”

Blane looked relieved when a large can materialized right in front of them.

I was surprised just how much 10Lbs of gunpowder was!

About the only other thing that raised some eyebrows was when he wanted a spool with 200 feet of ‘C 2-octaves below middle C’, piano wire. This was very heavy duty and I could only think he was planning on making crossbows, using it for the bowstring.

When they were finished packing everything, they had 16 very stuffed duffel bags and eight thoroughly equipped backpacks. They’d tied the gunpowder to the frame of Naomi’s backpack. I’ll admit, they kept up their ruse, if it were one, true to the end.

We had them load, then climb in their two special boats. We gave them a detailed aerial view of exactly where we were going to put them on the island.

It was going to be the middle of the northeast quadrant.

It was the smallest of the four quadrants, but also the hardest to get to as far as the two bisecting mountain ranges were concerned. On the south end of the quadrant the mountains had cliffs extending well past the shoreline, making walking up from the south nearly impossible. It was almost the same on the north, though not quite as treacherous.

We also showed them exactly where they were going to be relative to everyone else.

E Norm and his group were going to be on the northwest quadrant.

Chen, still by himself, was on the south end of the Northwest quadrant. About a quarter-mile south of him was where we planned to place Marek, Peters and Fred Callas, since they would pose the least threat, we felt, to anyone.

On the far south end of the southwest quadrant, about 25 miles south of Marek and company, was where Franklin, the two Hunts, Humbacker, Jasmine Tran, Sam and Maxwell Lester were going. This would place them the farthest away from George’s group.

Five miles north of the south end of the southeast quadrant was where the other group of 5 ex-assassins were going to be placed. These guys could also pose a threat to George’s group, hence they were also as far away as we could get them.

We explained that we hoped by doing this, the two southerly groups might find each other first, then fight for supremacy, and not mess with George and his group.

Both Blane and George thought that was a great idea. We reminded them that the compasses in their survival knives would read true even though the Sun was going to rise in the West and set in the East.

They also knew that they were the only group being given that information. Their location would also be a complete mystery to everyone else.

We felt they had every advantage we could give them.

As one last piece of information, Ibera told them that if they were to walk straight into the forest from where they get dropped off, they might get lucky and find caves that they could live in!

The look on Blane’s face was priceless.

Even though their combined toolkits had nearly a dozen tarps, just knowing they might not have to use them for their shelter made them exceedingly happy. Ibera reminded them, once again, their toolkits would show up about an hour after they did. We guessed they would have 8 hours or more before their true adversaries would even arrive at the island.

The next thing we knew, with Ibera looking at them and waving goodbye, they disappeared into a portal. Ibera explained that she had to use her PK to put them and their boats into the portal, one after the other.

We took a short break before getting the next group ready.

Even though this group had been organized, the sheer amount of stuff that they wanted took a long time to get put together.

George’s group had taken nearly 4 hours of Ibera time.

We took a break for lunch and to decide who’d be next.

We knew E Norm’s group was going to be a cluster-jam, but, it WOULD be interesting.

We decided to do the smaller groups next, just to speed things up.

We had the feeling some groups weren’t going to get off today.

We chose Marek, Peters and Fred Callas next, figuring they might be easy.

They were going to the North-end of the SW Quadrant.

That would put them nearest to Chen, who just might be willing to team up with them. These guys were treated like outcasts, themselves, and might just be happy to get Chen’s experiences to help them out.

They were only going to be several hundred yards from Chen’s last whereabouts. After the storm, Chen HAD gotten lucky and found his toolkit floating not too far from shore and swam out to recover it.

He’d already begun building another shelter, but, much further inland. Since the mountain ‘divider’ was very low and easy to cross here, he may even hear them if they made enough noise.

Marek’s group, as we came to call them, was almost too easy.

It was also apparent they had taken everything that Brad had told them to heart. Just like George’s group, they each asked for two pairs of jungle boots, two pairs of heavy-duty leather sandals, and two pairs of tennis shoes. They even remembered to ask for white socks and wool socks for when they had to wear the jungle boots. (Wool socks whisk away the moisture from your feet.) They too asked for one duffel bag each, stuffed with MREs along with large packages of trail mix, jerky and other backpacking staples.

These guys were very concerned about beverages.

They each asked for three bottles of their favorite booze. (Bourbon, vodka, and Jamaican rum.) They also asked for two camping-style coffee percolators with 20 pounds of un-ground coffee beans. They remembered to ask for a coffee grinder, too. Brad told him they might get lucky, since this was a tropical island, and find some coffee plants. We could all tell that made them very happy if that were to be true. They also asked for some standard type clothes, mostly shorts, T-shirts, loose-fitting jungle fatigue shirts and three swimming suits each.

It was evident these guys weren’t trying to take advantage of us in any way. Since all of them had been very nice to Ibera, we prompted them to make sure they filled their toolkits with any other items they felt they might need.

While nowhere near as creative and inventive as Blane Murdock had been, they took advantage and asked for a 10-pound sledge, two different types of saws, extra-long steel tent stakes, extra rope, both para cord and heavy-duty climbing rope. Seeing they had more room, they conferred and finished filling it up with a wide assortment of carpenter’s tools.

Then Peters, the quiet guy in the group, asked, “Could we get like a wagon, that one of these toolboxes would fit onto?”

Okay, this guy was smarter than I gave him credit for. Ibera showed him several different types and he chose the one with the biggest and widest tires. I was impressed when he asked for solid rubber tires instead of inflatable. I chuckled to myself knowing that even Blane didn’t ask for anything like that, even though he could have.

Seeing they still had room, they asked for one additional full set of fishing gear. That included another spear, mask, fins and snorkel. Now all three of them would be able to go diving for the bigger, nicer fish and shellfish. (They already had two sets, due to their extra toolbox.)

We saw them looking forlornly at the monstrosity of a boat they were going in.

While it wasn’t as huge as any of the others, it was much bigger than either of the boats that George’s group had gotten.

They had originally requested an extra toolkit instead of a boat, but we told them there was too great a chance of getting separated ‘accidentally’ if they weren’t all on one together.

That’s when I saw Peters grin at his buddies, “Since we have a little room left, could we have eight, four foot pieces of round, one-inch-thick, hickory rods?”

Ibera grinned while patting him on the cheek, “Sure thing Sweetie, those might come in handy to make paddles out of, don’t you think?”

He blushed, seeing how easily Ibera saw through his request. “Thank you ma’am, they will indeed.”

They added several more important, last-minute items before everything they had was full. They climbed into their boat and even thanked Ibera, one more time, before they too, disappeared into their portal.

Two down, three to go.

We decided that both E Norm’s group and Franklin’s group would have to wait till tomorrow. Mainly because, if we tried to do them today, they wouldn’t get to the planet until well after dark. Even though that would certainly be hilarious, we didn’t think it would be fair.

Today’s last group had Lucinda ‘Ghost’ McEvil, Lonnie ‘Lone Wolf’ Corrigan, Sly ‘Slick’ Willum, Tony ‘Tiny’ Molina (6’8”-250Lbs) and Josh ‘Baldy’ Baldwin in it. When we materialized in their area we were frozen, watching a ribald scene unfolding.

It appeared that the four guys were gang banging Lucinda McEvil!

However, as soon as the first guy, Lone Wolf Corrigan, finished blowing his load in her pussy, she immediately screamed for Slick Willum to hurry up and take his place. She then put Tony ‘Tiny’ Molina’s big cock back in her mouth and continued sucking, like a starving calf on a teat! These guys must not have gotten laid in a long time, because within two minutes, Slick Willum moaned and blew his nut into her as well.

Just as she was urging the last guy, Josh Baldwin, to replace Slick, Brad whistled very loudly!

That shocked them immensely and completely ended their fun.

It was funny seeing Lucinda, who immediately wanted to lay into us, suddenly, realize why we were here. She quickly shut up and just grinned cautiously at us.

Brad chuckled, “Lucinda, just for the record, were these guys raping you?”

She blushed profusely, shaking her head, “Oh, no sir, it’s just that...”

She then started dancing and broke into a song, “Boys will be boys, bad boys, bad boys, boys be MY toys, bad boys, good toys!”

That caused all of us to fall on the floor laughing. Even Ibera was squealing hysterically, holding her sides.

It only got worse when Josh asked timidly, “Can I at least have my turn? Pleeease?”

All Brad could do was wave his arm in a circle, indicating to go ahead and go for it.

We knew it would only take a minute, and we weren’t disappointed. It was cute when both Josh and Lucinda, who had a river of thick, gooey, spooge running down her leg, thanked us for our patience.

While they were finishing up, Lonnie, Sly and big Tony had fished out their lists of what they wanted.

With this crew, it was obvious from the start they wanted things they’d be able to make weapons out of.

The first thing they asked for were four, four foot machetes.

Since the average machete is between 14 and 24 inches long, with the ones in their standard toolkits being 18 inches, there’s no doubt what they wanted these for. Especially, when they asked for eight different files, a manual grinding wheel and four, heavy-duty sharpening stones. They wanted these in addition to the standard ones in the toolkit.

They also asked, Lucinda in particular, for 10, nine-inch-bladed, forged steel, butcher knives. Again, highly excessive, considering the biggest animals on this island weren’t much larger than a coyote. It’s not like they were going to be butchering dozens of Angus steers!

They wanted hack saws, with five each of five different types of blades, 30, 3/8-inch-thick, 48-inch-long fiberglass rods, 200 feet of super heavy-duty surgical tubing and 16, four-foot-long pieces of perforated angle iron.

(I chuckled to myself noticing that, unlike Blane, they never asked for a vice to hold any of the steel so they could cut it with a hack saw. They also neglected to ask for any nuts and bolts for building anything out of the angle iron!)

If that wasn’t bad enough, they had the unmitigated gall to ask for 2000 quarter inch diameter ball bearings without the races.

They weren’t happy when they were told if they wanted ball bearings, they were going to get the entire bearing. Not just the balls. Since they were only going to get three toolkits, they were also told all the bearings would have to fit inside. They weren’t happy about this at all as they would only have room for about 40 bearings total, each having approximately 12 of the precious balls they really wanted.

JB commented, mentally, that these fools hadn’t asked for much of anything that would actually help them build a shelter.

When it came time for their personal items, we could tell they hadn’t given this much thought, either.

They asked for multiple pairs of jeans, work boots, tennis shoes and camouflage jungle fatigues, but no shorts and only a few T-shirts. At the last minute, they did all request heavy-duty rain ponchos.

None of these guys must’ve ever been in the military as none of them asked for any MREs. As a matter of fact, it wasn’t until Lucinda asked for a big bag of trail mix and three bags of beef jerky, that they had even thought about food!

Now they were all in a panic and began ordering a huge amount of canned goods. Then, they considered something to drink and asked for 10 cases of Coke.

By the time they got all that packed in their duffel bags, they were very full and very heavy.

Just as they were loading everything and getting into the big boat, the big guy they called Tiny, gasped, “Hey guys, did any of you ask for anything like blankets or sleeping bags?”

Lucinda nodded, saying she had a sleeping bag and a fleece blanket. The rest of the guys were just looking at each other in a fluster.

Brad just laughed, “Ibera, go ahead and give these clowns each one U.S. Army blanket. I feel like being benevolent today.”

As they were holding their precious blankets, Brad told them it was time to go and to hang on to the gunwales of the boat. The last thing we heard one of them scream was, “Hey, God dammit, this boat ain’t got no oars! Aaaaghhh!”

And, PFFFFT, they were gone.

Since they were going to the far south end of the southeast quadrant it was going to be quite some time before they managed to construct paddles capable of getting them anywhere near George and company. The boat they were in weighed close to 900 pounds or more. We also noted that when they got there, they did so in the middle of a torrential downpour.

Their first day on Perdition Island was certainly going to be memorable.

Just to be nice, we decided to inform E Norm’s group and Franklin’s group that they had one more day to get ready and therefore a couple more good meals. (Maybe.)

We then showed them (separately of course) what Lucinda’s group ran into when they got there.

Many of them had their mouths open and we heard comments like, “aw shit, look at those poor bastards, they look like a bunch of drowned rats trying to drag their shit onshore.” Brad informed them that whichever group was nicer to Ibera, would get to go first in the morning, thereby lessening the chances they would run into a similar ‘welcoming committee’.