Chapter 4

Unedited Needs proof reading and editing still, might be a rough read - you are warned

Training continued at a fairly hefty pace, my sense of exposure was slowly diminishing. I cut our training to three days a week, but added the training of the rest of the guard, to the other three days. On guard training days it was broken into three two hour shifts, just after each meal. I made sure one of the three guards in advanced training was available at each shift, and included at least one of the harem girls too. Most times I was present, not for training the guards, but for training the trainers, I did help out if needed though.

My shadow still received advanced classes in hand to hand, weapons, and woodcraft. I was almost to the point with them that I felt comfortable teaching them to kill. Merdy was included most of the time, but I also had her spending quite a bit of time with Edna, Jeffrey, and Wendy.

One thing worth mentioning, it was after our nightly training. I took Merdy by the hand and lead her the back way to the harem room. When I entered, there was a lot of interesting flesh to see, and several giggles, but I maintained my focus. I got to a bed that only had three girls on it, all eye fucking me, focus ... I pointed at Merdy, then the bed, and dropped her hand. She looked confused and a little scared, so I grabbed her hand again and led her back to my room. I pointed at myself and at my bed. Dragged her back to the harem room and repeated pointing at her and the harem bed. She seemed calmer so I decided to press my luck.

I pulled her to the side of the bed, and started undressing her. When she realized what I was doing, she tensed up, but didn’t stop me. I pulled her top above her head exposing her nice titties, folded it, and placed it on the shelf next to other piles of clothes. I went down on a knee, undoing the top of her pants, pulling them down so her pussy was right in my face. One leg at a time, I got her pants off, stood up, folded them, and added to the pile. I pulled the sheet back, applied a little pressure to her stomach so she fell right into bed. I grabbed both her feet and pulled her down some, covered her with the sheet, and tucked her in some. I leaned over her on the bed, looking at her eye to eye, only a few inches from her and pointed to my lips. It didn’t take long, she raised off the bed and gave me a peck. Progress.

On the way out I grabbed the foot of the worst offender eye fucking me, dragged her completely out of bed with her squeals. I threw her over my shoulder, her laughing up a storm, and carried her out. Back in my bed, with the help of my shadow, fucked her lily white ass to unconsciousness.

Progress was sorta halted four days later. We were in training, and they were practicing a hip throw which was the tail end of a counter combo. She was paired up with one of the male guards, and this wasn’t the first time they were paired. The only part I saw was a decent execution of the throw, but instead of helping him back up, she just started wailing on his head. I was quick to react and pulled her off, but she got 4-5 hits on him in that second or two. She was really pissed and started attacking me, so I just dropped her on her ass and took a step back. When she got up she was making her noises at him getting closer and closer to him, obviously still pissed. I bopped her in the forehead, which made her look at me angrily and rub her head. I gave her the sign for ‘what’ and she started with her noises again then grabbed my hand and held it to her boob. My eyebrows shot up, then she realized what she did, and pushed my hand away. Now instead of angry, she was embarrassed and turning red. I opened my arms, and she rushed in hiding her face in my chest.

The guard had recovered and was looking dejected “Sorry sir”

“You know what you did?”

“Umm, no sir”

“You grabbed her boob during the throw, and she didn’t appreciate it.”

“I’m sorry sir, I didn’t realize.”

“Don’t apologize to me, apologize to her. Do your hand like this.” I showed him the sign for sorry. Then I tapped on her shoulder to get her attention.

He did the sign and bowed and waited.

When she didn’t react, I tapped her on the shoulder and told her to shake his hand.

An arm stuck out from our hug with the hand extended, he shook it, then it disappeared again.

“One of you harem girls take him and get him cleaned up. Give him a blowjob or something. Let’s keep the grab ass to a minimum. Let’s go! Back to work!”

Once everyone was back to doing repetitions, the strength of the hug slowly diminished. When she calmed down enough to step away, I could see she had been crying. I gave her another quick hug and peck on the forehead, and took a step back. I punched at her like we had been practicing, she locked up my arm, reversed my momentum, and threw me on my ass. It was a pretty hard throw, but I was okay with that. I got up, and we did it again.

It was on the 5th or 6th day of training the regular guards that they started getting lippy. They were still learning the basics and couldn’t see the big picture. It is hard work, teaching your body something new, using muscle combinations you never knew you had. I pulled out the loudest of them and had my harem girl square off on him.

“Use whatever techniques you want, but your goal is to kill her.” I said looking at him.

He looked at me questioningly. “What?”

I nodded. “Your goal is to kill her, if she gets past you, she is going to enslave your sister, so a bunch of barbarians can take turns raping her. Your only choice here is to kill or be killed.”

I could see the resolve settle into his eyes. When he looked ready... “Fight!”

He screamed running at her, she took a sidestep under his arms, and leaned into a knee right to his gut. She followed up with an elbow to his shoulder blades hitting a nerve cluster dead on. He went down.

“You aren’t dead yet! She is laughing at you! Protect your family! Protect your village!”

He got up enraged, and charged her again. She let him grab her, she locked up that arm, and a couple punches disabled the other. She kicked his legs out from under him and he fell on his ass. Laying down on the ground she wrapped her legs around his head and arm and put him to sleep. When his eyes closed, I tapped her out.

All the sneers and comments about fighting a girl were silent.

“Gentlemen! Your job is to protect this village, I am here to train you to do that and stay alive!” I looked at each of them in the eyes. “She has only been training a few weeks, and she is already capable of taking four or five of you by herself at once.” I pointed her across from me. “Let me show you what she is capable of.” I looked at her. “Full speed, full contact, go through sets one through seven.”

She nodded.

Of course I knew what was coming, so I was able to block and parry as needed. I still had to back up so her forward momentum could be followed through. Keep in mind though, she is still a rather new student, so I had to be ready for slips and punches not in the routine. She did pretty well though, I can only see one area in set six she still needed work.

To my audience I imagine it looked like something from a kung fu movie, they were appropriately wowed.

“Now stop your bitching and complaining. GET BACK TO WORK!” I pulled the harem girl aside, and we worked on set six.

Two days later, Jimmy came up to me looking worried. “Hand to hand training is great, but an arrow or spear to the face trumps that every time.”

I sat us down, this was obviously bugging him. “You would be partially right. Spears I am not worried about. One on one, spears are a terrible weapon unless you are supremely trained. Spears are only really good in a formation of disciplined soldiers working together. Arrows though you would be right, but there is a catch. Untrained, undisciplined archers can easily be baited into shooting their arrows at bad targets. Once they are out of arrows, they are either using the bow like a club or picking up a spear. It is the main reason I wanted the extra barrier at maximum bow range, because we have limited arrows as well. How long does it take to make arrows?”

“We have two women, and that’s pretty much all they do. We get between three to five arrows a day from them.”

“As I suspected.” I nodded and patted him on the shoulder. “Arrows will always be a worry, but they can be easily countered with a good hiding place, or a shield. Another reason I want a smithy working, so we can make shields.”

He seemed satisfied.

Gilroy has been extremely busy. Besides making soap, the billets room doesn’t smell like a locker room anymore. Believe it or not, that is actually pretty huge for the health of our village. After my lecture about washing hands, he setup multiple places where it can be done, most notably, outside the out houses. I think it is time for his promotion.

I found some guards and sent them to task.

That night after the dinner meal, I had the five leaders at the top of the stairs. I walked back and forth in the middle.

“My name is Ben, and I am the Mayor Stewart, the Boss-Man. Does anyone want to challenge me for that role?”

There was some laughs, but no one came forward.

“Gilroy, get up here!” Some shuffling and he was there. “Go stand by Larz.” He walked up and stood there looking silly. He is kinda a goofy looking guy. “This is Gilroy! He is why your sleeping area doesn’t stink anymore.” That got some murmurs. “This man is now a leader, just like the other five. They will be treated with respect, they are my eyes and ears when I am not here.”

I stopped pacing. “Gilroy is in charge of the buildings. He will make sure buildings get built, get repaired, and get cleaned when they need it. His first project is to build me a smithy.” I looked around slowly. “Does anyone here know how to work with iron or steel?” No one came forward. “If you do, or you want to learn how to work with metal, get in touch with Gilroy. That is all, have a good night.”

Up in my room we did the usual. Worked on advanced combos, and some theory. At bedtime, Merdy left without direction, I am glad I was able to get her out of prison.

Getting comfy with boobs on each side, and Bubbles hair splayed across my leg. I was just about asleep.

“Why haven’t you fucked Merdy yet?” This came from between my legs.

“Because she isn’t mine, she just needs help fitting in. Now shush.”

Buttercup pulled my arm around her, and laid on my shoulder. “You are her hero, she wants you bad.”

I sighed. “I am not sure it would be good for her if she slept with the first person that gains her trust. Now please go to sleep.”

Blossom leaned in whispering. “I don’t think she will see anyone else until she gets over you.”

I sat up, upsetting everyone. “Since we aren’t sleeping tonight, get dressed, let’s go on patrol.”

Bubbles spoke up. “Should I go get Merdy?”

“No, let her sleep, she wasn’t keeping me awake.”

We exited the throne room, scaring the shit out of the guards. We snuck down and out of the main building, keeping to the shadows, across to the eastern barrier. Both guards were up there chatting when we sneaked up.

“Hey! Need you to open the barrier so we can leave.”

“Sorry sir, barrier stays closed after dark.”

“Fair enough, where is it safest to climb down the outside?”

“Sir, I don’t think you get it, no one leaves or enters after dark, Mayor’s orders.”

Blossom got a fit of the giggles, which quickly spread to the other two.

I positioned myself better in the light to help deescalate his attempted pissing match. “Well since I slit the throat of the previous Mayor, and didn’t issue those orders myself, I can only assume they are old orders. Is that right?”

The giggling got louder, and my glare in their direction didn’t help.

“Probably sir, let me get the door for you.”

“Thank you. I won’t be back before first light, so if anyone claiming to be me shows up here, feel free to shoot them.”

“Yes sir”

“God dammit, can you stop giggling?” That didn’t help either.

As we started walking, I cocked my head and stooped down. “You hear that?”

They got serious, paying attention. Buttercup scooted forward quietly and whispered. “What is it?”

I looked at each of them in the starlight. “I hear no giggling!”

After three solid whacks to my back, I started forward. I went directly east through the ruins, then cut north by northeast towards what should be an interstate highway leading to Cincinnati. I haven’t had the chance to explore much since I got here, so I hoped to be in a decent position to look across the river by first light. I was also curious if any of the bridges were still partially standing. I doubted it, but there might be enough left to guide you across the river.

Traveling at night can be extremely dangerous, even with the proper precautions. Despite that, it is very important to practice the skills, as when you need them, it is too late. The moon was less than a quarter, and was already setting before we started, so it was just starlight to go by. On the positive side, it was mostly ruins this way, very few trees to block the starlight. Another positive, sound carries better at night, so it really lets you to hone in your stealth skills, as any mistakes sound louder than they should.

Hand signals become arm signals at night, it is also easy to lose track of your team and get separated. A good rule of thumb, is for every ten minutes you walk, you wait five to make sure everyone is there, so much slower. Deep shadows are your best friend and worst enemy in unfamiliar terrain. I think I read once it takes 30 minutes for your eyes to adjust completely, I don’t know about that, but I know most people would be surprised how well they can see if they turned off a flashlight outside.

Not all the buildings were falling down, I couldn’t see much in the dark, but maybe they were metal. Have to check it out on the way back. We traveled all night with no major injuries, but quite a few minor ones, including me. At one point I was close enough to hear the river, so I backtracked a few hundred meters and took another break. It was during the break that I smelled smoke, but I couldn’t figure out from what direction. The wind was south easterly, so after the break, that is the direction I went. I never found the source before first light though.

With the predawn light, I saw two bridges still standing, very surprised by that. Both of them are further east, well they are east side bridges...

Bubbles had her head leaning against Blossom’s shoulder, eyes closed.

I made my way over to her, shook her and whispered. “We aren’t alone out here, you need to stay alert.”

She perked up immediately, and Blossom looked worried.

I lead us back slowly where I first got the scent of smoke, perhaps it is an old campfire I just couldn’t see during the night.

I heard a metal ting off to my right and froze, slowly squatting. I pointed and then tapped my ear, checking the girls, they were aware now too. The terrain that way was a slow decline towards the river, I wanted to come at it from higher ground, so I back tracked again.

I went up, or back about a hundred meters, then east in fifty to sixty meter intervals with a ten to twenty meter spur towards the river. I think it was on the third one when Buttercup caught the first glimpse. I adjusted ourselves ten meters back and twenty meters further east into an old building that had decent oversight of the camp. I could peak over the edge, and around a little rubble, and look right down into the area.

The camp had four guys, one just walked back into sight, so five guys. I waved Buttercup over since she was the oldest, and leaned in right to her ear. “You recognize any of them? Are they from our village?”

I let her get into my position so she could get a good look. It took an agonizing few minutes before she looked at me and shook her head.

I scratched out a relief in the dirt of the terrain, marked out the approximate locations of the men, then assigned overlapping duties to my three girls. They all nodded, so I headed out. I was taking the western approach, the more difficult one. Bubbles and Buttercup the southern approach, and Blossom the western approach, the most concealed. If everything went according to plan, I would initiate combat first.

When does a plan ever go according to plan. I heard a grunt, then the men talking “You okay over there? You didn’t slip and fall into your own shit did you?” and several laughs. So I sped up.

Rounding the corner catching them unaware in the middle of eating and cooking. “Gentlemen, I don’t remember anyone telling me I had guests on my land!” I smiled

Startled they all jumped up, but the two closest to the fire disregarded me and sat back down. The other two grabbed weapons and approached “A slave? Where is your master boy?”

The closer one eyeing me. “Speak up boy!” He kept approaching.

I approached the closest. “I am only going to ask this once.” a lunge and the closest one was out cold. “Who told you that you could come on my land?”

The two by the fire jumped up to grab weapons, but found my girls coming at them from different angles. I think they smiled.

Still unaware of what was happening behind him, the second one approached me faster, but more guarded. He had something akin to a stick, or billy club.

I just held my arms out to my side walking forward. “Try to take them alive, I want answers.” I said looking behind him.

He just sneered and rushed me. I avoided the club easily, and proceeded to ruin his day. I removed his top, and ripped it into strips securing his hands, arms and feet.

The two by the fire were face down next to it and groaning. Bubbles had her knee on the neck of one while Buttercup was securing him, Blossom was holding the other in an arm bar looking impatient.

I secured my first guy the same way, he only had to lose his shirt. “Is the other one still alive?” I asked pointing to the west.

Blossom looked up, “I am not sure, I didn’t have time to check.”

I just nodded and went to search for him. He was dead, so I picked him up and carried him back. I made a point to show me dropping his dead body in front of his buddies.

Looking at them, they were outfitted pretty well. Their clothes were pretty uniform, looked well made. Between them I found two bows, four quivers, two short spears, two long spears, and this last guy had a club and shield. The short spears had straps, so I assume they belonged to the two bow carriers. Pretty good quality weapons, the arrows not so much. The dead one looked about my size, maybe larger, so I stripped him naked. He hadn’t shit his pants yet, so that’s a bonus.

A quick pow wow with the girls told them what I wanted. Blossom disappeared, Buttercup went over and started going through the packs, Bubbles hauled one of the prisoners to a different clearing.

As I approached the three, Buttercup interrupted my thoughts. “Can you carry them away from here before you kill them? This is actually a nice place to camp.”

This wasn’t pre rehearsed, she stumped me for a second. I just looked at her like she was crazy. “Oh and how far should I carry them your highness? Two of them are fat!” I said sarcastically.

She just laughed. “Maybe roll the fat ones then? I just don’t want to smell them tomorrow.”

I sighed. “I will see what I can do.” I looked at them. “I don’t suppose any of you will volunteer to walk a ways so we could ... talk?”

They didn’t answer, but didn’t seem the least bit tricked by the word talk. I just sighed and walked where I had sent Bubbles.

When I found them, he was on his stomach in the dirt, she was sitting on his back facing away from me. When I walked around I was surprised, she was braiding his hair. I was stumped again.

“Do you want me to cut off his dick and balls, so you can have a girlfriend to chit chat with too?”

She just gave me her scowl, got up and left.

I pulled him to a sitting position, I couldn’t help but look at the braid she had started. I sighed. “Where are you from?”

“I ain’t tell you shit!”

I reached over to a pressure point and started rubbing it in a circle. While he was screaming bloody murder, I had a look around.

We were on the Kentucky side of the riverfront, close enough to hear and smell the water. I can see the remnants of a bridge, and that large ruin there was either an office building or a hotel. I think I-75 is to our west.

Looking at my guy. “You want to talk yet?”

“Fuck You!”

I smiled. “Okay, now we are talking.” I pulled my dick out and started stroking it. I made a show of checking him out.

His eyes were huge, but he still wasn’t talking. So I started working his pants off.

I heard a soft “Please don’t, please please don’t.”

“You want to talk, or shall I just entertain myself?”

He started talking super fast, not taking his eyes off my dick. “We are from Lextown, we are here to watch Cincy, see where they are strongest and weakest. We have another two guys on the other side sneaking in closer.”

“What was your plan for my village? Florence.” I said while stroking my dick.

“I don’t know any plans, honest, Sean keeps the notes we take.”

“Are you sure you don’t want to mess around? I almost got your pants off.”

“Please don’t.”

“If you change your mind, you will let me know right?” I picked him up, and pulled his pants up. Threw him over my shoulder, and carried him a good twenty meters away and sat him down on his side.

“Here is the deal. I need some of your blood to make it look like I killed you. But I can’t have you making noise to give me away. If I hear you, or the guy I am talking to hears, I am going to have to let him watch me killing you for real. You understand me?”

“Yes.”

“So are you going to be nice and quiet? Get some sleep maybe right?”

“I snore”

“What?”

“I snore, I will stay awake and keep quiet.”

“You are a smart guy, I like you. And I don’t just mean that because you offered me your ass.” I put a deep cut on his hand, and eventually got enough out of him to look like I just gutted a deer.

I showed him my hands. “You think that is enough, or do I need more?”

He looked a little white. “I think that’s good.”

“Okay, see you in a bit sweetie.”

When I got back, the three prisoners were softly arguing about something, while Buttercup was eating some food.

I just walked straight up to her. “That any good? I am starving.”

She took one look at me and shrieked jumping away. “Don’t drip blood on me! That is so gross!” I love my girls.

I looked angry. “I am not dripping, I got most of it off!” I gave her my puppy dog eyes. “Just give me a few bites and I will get back to work.”

She came over and filled up my mouth. Then she kissed me and pushed me away.

I walked over to the prisoners. “I guess I am done eating, anyone want to be next?” Looking between them no one moved. So I just punched the one on the end, and hauled his ass up and onto my shoulder.

At my previous talk spot I dropped him, maybe a tad hard.

I looked around. “As you can see, there is no blood here. This is the spot where I rest from carrying your fat ass, and you try to delay me by telling me all sorts of good stuff I might want to know.”

“I ain’t tell you shit”

“Okay, give me another minute or two, and I will be ready to carry you the rest of the way.” I sat there in silence, not paying attention to him. Had to be five minutes before I got back up and looked at him. “Alright, lets go.”

I reached down pulling him to his feet, then reached down and got him on a shoulder, and started walking.

“You don’t have to do this.”

“What?”

he spoke up. “You don’t have to do this, you can just let me go.”

I laughed, “Why in the hell would I do that?”

“I am important in Lextown, there would be a reward for not killing me.”

“Oh yeah? What kind of reward? Can you make me a sword? I always wanted a sword.”

“Yes! We have lots of swords, you can have your pick!”

“I think you are lying, why don’t you have a sword?”

“They are too heavy to carry on long distances.”

“What about a horse, I always wanted a horse too.”

“Sure we have horses, but they are expensive to feed, they eat a lot.”

“Why are you guys so interested in Cincy?”

“They are the closest threat to us, you always have to keep an eye on threats.”

I dropped him on the ground next to his buddy. Bubbles was sitting on him again braiding his hair. “You eat yet?”

She didn’t look up. “Yeah”

I headed back and separated the other two in much the same way. I got a little more information, but not much. By the time I was done with all four, and got them re-situated at their camp, Blossom was back.

I walked over and behind Blossom. “How many did you setup?” I rubbed her shoulders, and she relaxed into me.

“I got three done.”

“That will have to do. Eat and catch some sleep, we will have a long night.” I looked at Buttercup. “Head back to Florence and get some sleep. I want fifteen men and three woman here an hour after sun up. Make sure Jimmy stays behind. Lead them here in a formation.”

She nodded and got up.

“Wait, take these notes and give them to Jimmy. That’s all, off with you”

She took off.

“Bubbles, get these prisoners fed and watered. Try not to kill any more of them please. Wake me up in two hours.”

I found a semi comfortable spot, and dozed off.

I woke up with Blossom cuddled into me. Bubbles standing above me. “Take my place. I will wake you in a few hours.”

As I got up I got a kiss, and she crawled in, cuddling with Blossom in my place.

I went and took care of business. Sneaking back to the prisoners, just out of their line of sight, I heard them quietly chatting. “If you try and escape before tomorrow afternoon, I will cut you just above your heels so you never walk again. Now try and relax, get some sleep.” I snuck away to a different vantage point and kept an eye on them.

It was just after dark when I woke the girls. I approached the prisoners again. “We are taking off for the night to go scouting, we will be back before first light. If you aren’t here when I get back, I am going to track you down and hobble you just like I promised. Tomorrow afternoon we will be having guests, and I would like you here and able to walk when they get here. You understand?”

All I got was some grumbling.

When we got far enough away to talk, I explained the plan. “If I was them, I would send a scout over tonight to look around, then send a main force over in the morning. I want to capture the scouts and add them to our prisoners, and have them all ready to go when they get here. Let’s head over to the nearest bridge, see what happens. Oh and stand still a second, I need to check something.”

They stood there while I went to each one groping them obscenely getting good kisses. “We will have to finish this later.” They groaned, I laughed.

We watched two shadows make their way across the bridge and turn towards our camp. I let them get far enough away from the bridge that they thought they weren’t seen, then started stalking them. It only took an hour to catch up to them and get in position to secure them. We secured their arms and hands, marched them over to the camp and stored them with the others.

I laid down across from the prisoners, and got naked. Then had my girls get naked also. We had a good time. The prisoners definitely got an ear full, not sure how much they could see, but Bubbles was extra hot, so it worked out fine. We got a short nap, and was up and ready to go by predawn light.

Waiting is the worst part of any operation. You know what needs to be done, you have the plan in your head. You have prepared as best you can. Now you wait, going over it again and again, and again. If you lack confidence, you start to doubt the plan, doubt the evidence, and doubt your abilities.

I sent the girls to go find a hide with the bows, and to relax. Not long after sunup I could hear some singing, so I jumped up and climbed the nearest ruin. I could just see a formation of my people coming down the road, females in front, three columns of six, and Buttercup to the side leading them all in song. That made me smile, and I climbed back down.

When they got there, I gave the two short spears to Buttercup, and told her to go find her sisters and be rear guard for them.

I gathered up the guards. “Since we have some time before they show up, how about I train you on how to use your spears effectively?” I grabbed one of the Lextown spears, and went through some old spear forms, I never learned many, and only remember a couple. “First, spears are not a good one on one weapon, but used in a group of disciplined guards, they can be devastating. Give me a rank or row of eight, and a rank of seven behind them, ladies step out a minute, you will be my enemies.”