Chapter 22

Day 195 - December 2

The next morning, Della and I were snuggled, drinking our coffee and talking about the plans for the day. She had expressed a desire to go in the van on the sign planting detail, so I was telling her what we did. As we talked, I was stroking her back, then I started stroking her butt.

Della smiled at me and pulled my other hand up to her breast. Evie, who was sitting across from us, smiled. As I was caressing Della's breast with my left hand, I was still stroking her butt with my right. I decided now would be a good time to escalate the touching, so I let my right hand move down the crack of her butt and let my middle finger slide across her anus.

Della let out a little gasp, but didn't flinch. Instead, she leaned her head over and kissed me. I rubbed her little rosebud for a minute, then let my fingers slide forward and gently trace her pussy lips. I didn't try to penetrate, I just let my fingers gently caress her outer lips. I could feel the moisture start to flow as I stroked her.

I let my hand slide back up to her butt and Della broke the kiss. "My God! That felt good."

"I'm glad it did, Sweetheart. Now, I think we'd better get breakfast started so we can get on the road."

Della and Evie got up and started for the kitchen. Evie leaned in and gave me a kiss as she passed.

Even though we were branching out quite a bit and would be taking a zigzag course on our way to Florida, we knew we'd still be missing large portions of the country. We could only hope that people were moving about and would see our signs.

We decided to spend the night where we had met Tiff, in White Sulfur Springs, WV. What would have normally taken three hours to drive took us almost nine hours. We had to have visited at least thirty to forty little towns that day. When I say little, I mean little. A few of them had never had more than a hundred people living in them.

We pulled into the parking lot where we had met Tiffany and Eve. The RVs were already there and so was the van Tiff and Eve had been driving when we met them. The people who had traveled in the RVs had barbecue grills set up and the coals were already hot.

When the last of our vans had caught up with the RVs, steaks were put on the grills. We hadn't even turned them over when a strange car pulled into the parking lot. I'll have to hand it to our group. There was no wild scramble for weapons, but I did notice Tina and Syl disappeared.

Four people got out of the car, two men and two women. They walked over until they were about twenty feet from us and stopped. "Howdy," I said. "I'm Ed James. How are you folks today?"

"Hello, I'm Herb Winslow," one of the men said. "This is Al Green and the two ladies are our wives, Beth and Julie."

"It's nice to meet you folks," I said.

"I have to apologize to you, Mr. James. We've been following one of your vans most of the day. We read one of your flyers just after noon, and decided we wanted to meet you folks."

"No apology needed. Have you folks eaten? It'd be easy to throw four more steaks of the grill."

Herb looked at the other four people and when they nodded, he said, "I think we'd like that, if it isn't putting you out too badly."

"Not at all," I said. "Pull up some chairs and I'll introduce you to everyone."

After introductions were made and we were all sitting eating our steaks, Beth Winslow asked, "You have over twenty people with you. How many are in your village?"

"We have a little over 250 people," Brenda told her. "How many are in your group?"

"There are six families and five singles," Beth said. "Twenty-seven people total."

Brenda went on to explain to the new people about Weisberger.

"Do you really have electricity all of the time?" Julie asked.

"Yep, 24/7," Brenda said. "What are you guys doing for electricity?"

"We have a diesel generator," Herb said. "It works well enough, but we're concerned about what's going to happen in the future when the diesel runs out."

"Yeah, that's one of the reasons we started looking for some place with a hydroelectric power source," I said.

"What are your plans for the future?" Beth asked.

"We would like to have at least a couple of thousand people in our village," Brenda told her. "We're getting things set up right now for housing that many people and for food production. We're also starting a project for preserving information and equipment."

Herb was nodding the whole time. "The rest of our group don't even know you guys exist so we haven't talked to them, but what would it take for our group to join yours?"

"Well, Herb," I said. "We're trying to insure our village doesn't have any prejudice or abusers of any kind or any criminals. We'd have to interview every member of your group and we'd decide on each member individually."

"I guess I can understand that," Herb said. "It doesn't seem very trusting though."

"It's not very trusting," Syl said. "Ed and I have both been shot since IT happened. We've seen a lot of abusers and a lot of prejudice as well. We're pretty sure we can trust anyone in our village now with our lives. We want to keep it that way."

Julie asked how we had come to be shot and Syl filled them in on what had led up to both incidents. When Beth asked where our village was located, I said, "I'm sorry, Beth, but we won't give out that information. I will say it is around Lexington, KY."

"I can understand you being a little secretive," Beth said. "We're just outside Charleston and I wouldn't want to tell anyone exactly where until we trusted them completely."

We all talked for a while, and then Herb said they needed to get back to their village. They agreed that if their group or any part of their group wanted to join us they'd meet us in Knoxville.

After our visitors had gone, we discussed them. All of us agreed they seemed okay and we agreed we hoped they'd show up at Knoxville.

Day 195 - December 2

Evie, Della and I were waiting for the rest of our family to get up and talking about the people we had met the night before. "They seemed okay," I said. "I wish we had talked a little about what skills any of them had."

"You seem a little hesitant about them. Was there something in particular that bothered you?" Evie asked.

"Not really. I guess it just seemed they were being a little too secretive. Almost everyone we've met so far has wanted to tell what they were doing when IT happened and how their group had formed. These people didn't even bring it up. Maybe I'm just becoming paranoid."

"I don't know, Ed... Your instincts have been good so far. If these people show up in Knoxville, we should make sure we interview them carefully."

"I did notice one thing," Della said and then hesitated.

"What was that, Honey?"

"The guy Al kept looking over at Syl, especially when she came over and sat on your lap. I couldn't tell if he was wanting to jump her bod or if he was thinking she shouldn't be with us."

"Did you notice that, Evie?"

"No. I did notice he didn't say much and that he seemed to fidget a lot."

"Well, it's something to think about when we interview them. In the mean time, I think the three of us should start breakfast for our lazy spouses. What do you guys think?"

The area we would be going through today was one of the most beautiful in the country. The Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia have marvelous vistas, slow moving streams and raging rapids. It isn't one of the most populous areas of the country, but the people there knew how to live off of the land.

I was driving down a narrow country road when we saw something we hadn't seen, in at least the last six months, and never in the wild. A white tiger crossed the road maybe a couple of hundred feet in front of us. I stopped the van immediately and we watched the big cat to see what he would do.

The tiger wasn't in any hurry. He stopped and stared at us as if he was trying to decide if we'd make a good lunch. I don't know if it was the size of the van or if he couldn't figure out how to open the can, but he finally moved on across the road and into the forest.

We all gave each other a look of relief before I put the van back in gear and we took off. "I knew that we'd meet zoo animals someday," I said. "For the most part, I don't think they're going to be too big of a problem, at least for a long while."

"Why's that?" Syl asked.

"For one thing, I don't think that even that big guy could get across our fence at the village. For another, there are just too many horses, cattle, sheep and hogs running around loose right now. It is much easier for that guy to kill a cow than for him to try to break into the village."

I hoped what I said had relieved the women. I still had chills running up and down my spine.

We were just talking about stopping and eating lunch when the CB came alive. "Help! We need help!"

It was Bell's voice. I grabbed the CB microphone and keyed it up. "What's going on, Bell. Where are you?"

"Ed, Homer was putting up a sign when six women came out from behind a building. They're holding Homer at gunpoint. They haven't tried to break into the van as yet, but a couple of them are pointing guns at me too. We're in Buenavista."

"We're only about seven or eight miles from you, Bell. We're on our way."

"Hurry, Ed. One of them is coming toward the van right now."

By now our van was hitting seventy. "Can you hear what they are saying, Bell?"

"No, they weren't talking very loud. We had the CD player going and I just turned it off. The one that was coming to the van is tapping on the window with her gun barrel."

"Talk to her, Bell. We're almost there."

There was silence for a couple of minutes then Bell came back on the CB. "It's okay, Ed. At least I think it is. Evidently they were just being cautious. They know you're coming, so they shouldn't react when you get here."

"Okay, Bell. We're going to be a little cautious ourselves though. We're almost there."

"Gotcha."

When we pulled up, about twenty feet behind Homer's van, Homer and Bell were laughing and talking with six women.

Della and I got out of our van and started toward the group while Tina and Syl moved behind the van. As we walked up, Homer introduced us to all of the women. Patty Long was a medium sized brunette in her early twenties who had been a waitress and had been taking courses at a community college. Janet Davis, an early thirties red head, had been an Emergency Medical Technician.

Dinah Hunt and Alice Conyer were both schoolteachers and had actually worked in the same school district. Each had known who the other was before IT happened, but they hadn't been friends.

Carolyn (Caro) Washington was a nice looking black lady in her early thirties. Caro had worked with crippled children as a physical therapist. Tessa Albright had been a college freshman.

Patty and Tessa were the two most outgoing of the group and carried on most of the conversation. "You know," Patty said, as she looked Homer and me up and down. "We were beginning to wonder if there were any good men left."

"There are a lot more women than men now," I said. "We do have around fifty men in our village though. There are also around two hundred women."

"So, if you don't bring your own man, you're out of luck?" Tessa asked.

"Not necessarily," Tina said. "Ed has six wives and most men have three or four wives."

"Does that work?" Caro asked.

"It does for us," Syl said as she walked over and joined the conversation.

"I'd think there'd be a lot of jealousy," Patty said.

"Not really. Everyone has to accept that life has changed. Once you accept that and realize that you either share a man or do without, most of us decide to share."

"What happens when Ed shows favoritism?" Tessa asked.

"Ed doesn't show favoritism," Tina said. "He loves each of us equally and we all love him and we love each other."

"Homer doesn't show favoritism either," Bell said. "He only has two wives, but he loves us both equally."

"Wow. That sounds too good to be true," Patty said. "What are you guys doing out here in the wilds of Virginia?"

Tina handed each of them one of our flyers and said, "We're trying to find people to join our village."

When the women had finished reading the flyers, they all looked at each other and nodded. "What do we need to do to sign up?" Tessa asked.

"Well, you could meet us in Knoxville or you could go along with us and help us put up signs," Homer said. "We'll need to interview each of you individually though."

"Could we talk about this for a minute?" Patty asked.

"Sure," I said.

They walked off about twenty feet and stood close together talking. We could see a lot of smiles and a lot of head nodding. In a couple of minutes they came back and Patty asked, "Would it be okay if we wanted to go with you now?"

"I think we would enjoy that," I said.

"We could interview you tonight," Tina said. "We were going to try to make it to Richmond today."

"I don't think we're going to make it that far, Sweety," I said. "We can call the RVs and have them stop in Staunton. Do you ladies have anything to travel in?"

"We've been staying in an RV," Tessa said. "It's brand new and should be fine to travel in."

"Okay, why don't you follow us or Homer. When we stop for the day, we'll do your interviews. Primarily, we're trying to weed out abusers, people who are prejudiced, and criminals. We also give each of you a quick physical to insure you haven't been abused. One of our wives is a doctor."

"I can vouch for the fact that none of us are prejudiced," Caro said. "We're more like sisters than friends. I don't think any of us would mind a physical."

"How do we prove we weren't criminals?" Tessa asked.

"You don't really have to prove it," Tina said. "We assume you aren't. I wouldn't worry about any of it if I were you."

"Our RV is just about a block down the street," Patty said and pointed in the direction of the RV.

"There are only two people in your van, Homer," Tessa said. "I was wondering if I could ride with you and help you put up signs."

"I was thinking the same thing," Patty said.

"I don't see that that would be a problem," Bell said. "It would make sign planting a lot easier."

Dinah and Alice went off to get their RV while the rest of us talked. They were back within a few minutes and we all loaded up.

When we were all back in our van, Della said with a giggle, "I think Homer has two new wives."

"Why do you say that?" I asked.

"Didn't you see how they were looking at him?" Della asked.

"I certainly did," Tina said. "They'll swallow him whole if Brenda and Bell go along with it."

We managed to get hold of the RVs and the other vans and arranged to meet in Staunton, VA. When we all pulled in to the parking lot of the strip mall where the RVs were waiting for us, we introduced the newcomers to the rest of our group. It was still early in the day and our people who had been in the RVs hadn't even thought about starting dinner as yet.

I noticed right away that Della was probably right about Patty and Tessa. Most of us had pulled up lawn chairs in the parking lot and were getting to know the new people. We were still vigilant for attacking dogs, but there didn't seem to be nearly as many in or near the cities as there used to be. I assumed this was because there just wasn't enough food to support them in cities.

Homer seemed to have an entourage. Brenda and Bell were sitting on either side of him and Patty and Tessa were sitting three quarters toward facing him. Homer had come a long way since we'd met him, but he still blushed when Tessa or Patty asked him a question.