Chapter 5: Epilogue

Private First Class Brian Thackery comported himself honorably and bravely during the Turkey Shoot that was Operation Desert Storm. He never came under fire, though he was close enough to hear most of Saddam's army being crushed. When an M1 Abrahms main battle tank broke down after crossing the line into Iraq, he speeded to its aid to provide security while it was repaired. Hours later, having effected repairs, and fuming at having been delayed while his brother tankers went on to expend copious amounts of sabot rounds into Iraqi tanks, Sergeant Cooper, the tank commander, shook Brian's hand. He then disappeared over a low hill to their front.

Almost three minutes after he was gone, PFC Thackery and his partner got another radio call from Sgt Cooper, who requested that Thackery again come to his aid. He did not specify what kind of aid was needed. Cooper simply said "I need you to follow my tracks to my position." When Thackery and his partner drove over the hill in their armored Humvee, Brian felt his anus pucker hard.

There in front of him was the tank, with Cooper standing on top, waving his arms. He and the tank were surrounded by what looked like three hundred Iraqi soldiers, fairly bristling with weapons of various kinds and calibers.

None of them, however, were pointed at either Cooper or the tank.

Realizing how completely ludicrous the situation was, PFC Thackery depended on his training and drove forward fearlessly. Out of the side of his mouth he told his partner to get into the turret of the Hummer and man the M-60 Machine Gun that was mounted on the roof.

The hummer rolled to a dusty stop about ten feet from the tank and Brian got out.

"What's going on here?" he said in his lowest, most gravelly MP voice. It was the one he had developed through intense practice when no one was around to hear him.

Sgt Cooper said "PFC Thackery, these people have surrendered to me, and I haven't got time to mess with them. I need you to take them off my hands so I can go shoot some tanks! This is their commanding officer, Captain Habib." He pointed to a man on the ground beside the tank. That man turned to face Brian.

"It is MAJOR and it is Habibi. Ah, I see you are Military Police! Excellent. We surrender. Please take us into your custody."

Brian was surprised that the man was speaking English, and astounded at the situation he was in. Considering his lack of experience, it could only be said that he made two mistakes.

First, he sent Cooper on his way to kill tanks. That was a mistake, by virtue of the fact that it left him more or less completely defenseless. An argument could be made however, that, had the Iraqis started shooting, Brian and his partner would have been toast regardless of whether the tank was there or not.

He got on the radio and reported that he had prisoners. That was a radio call that was being made more and more frequently, and the response was "How many prisoners?"

Being a man of fairly literal bent, Brian reported that he didn't know for sure. He had not, after all, actually counted his prisoners.

The radio operator at Division Rear, assuming that Brian was a radio operator for a company in the field, instructed him to move the prisoners on a particular azimuth (direction) which would take them to an EPW (Enemy Prisoner of War) collection point.

Brian then made what was considered his second mistake. He let the prisoners retain their weapons. When asked why he did this, he replied that any time he'd left his weapon lying around he got his ass chewed, and he was afraid to leave all those weapons in a pile in the desert for fear that he'd get an Article Fifteen (punishment).

Thus it was that PFC Brian Thackery, accompanied by Three hundred twenty-four fully armed Iraqi soldiers, approached the EPW collection center, manned by seventeen MPs belonging to the 615th MP Company. That they were not fired upon was only because Brian sent his partner ahead in the Hummer to let them know what was going on, while he walked with Major Habibi, who had spent four years at Cal Tech, studying Electrical Engineering. It was during that time that he learned Saddam had abandoned his forward forces, planting mine fields behind them so they couldn't retreat. They had not been resupplied with either water or food for over a month, and were starving. Before they arrived at the EPW collection point Habibi formally handed Brian his Makarov 9mm pistol and said "Thank you PFC Thackery. When do you think we'll be able to get something to eat?"

Thus it was that PFC Brian Thackery, the last of the Thackery seed, as far as he knew, fulfilled his and his father's dreams of not only surviving the war, but becoming something of a hero as well.

And so, in July, 1991, when Brian was given an extra 30 days of leave in honor of having captured the most prisoners of anybody in the whole Army (Sgt Cooper was too embarrassed by the whole incident to take any of the credit)he flew home to Anniston.

Well, he flew to Atlanta, and his father picked him up. His father was alone, which made Brian pretty sad. He had enjoyed many memories while he was off to war, and a majority of them involved Thackery women. He had written them a lot of letters, and had received a few in return, but had moved around so quickly that his mail rarely caught up with him. The few letters he did receive were along the lines of "Your sisters are doing fine in school, we miss you, come back safely" kinds of letters. And in none of them was he notified he was going to be a Daddy. And, while he had more or less forgotten the reasons for all that sex he'd gotten from the Thackery women, he remembered each sexual partner quite vividly. He had hoped to get to hug a few when he got off the plane.

It was on the ninety mile ride from the airport to Anniston, during a long talk with his father, that he found out just how potent the last of the Thackery seed was.

His father had, at first, bought the story from Nancy that his vasectomy must have undone itself. He laughed as he described himself strutting around at the plant, while all the other men kidded him about being SO potent that not even a doctor could do anything about it.

But, by the time it became clear that his two daughters AND his sister in law AND her daughter were all pregnant too ... well, he wasn't stupid. None of the women would admit anything at all, but their shared attitude about Brian was illuminating.

After telling his son all this, he looked over at him and smiled a tired smile.

"I don't know whether to get in a fight with you or hug you." he said.

Brian, having a conscience, was subdued. He wasn't going to try to lie his way out of it either.

"Sorry Dad. She woke me up one day and things just sort of got out of hand."

Tom stared ahead, but then smiled. "Yeah, I remember what she could do to a man when he wasn't paying attention. And she always has gotten her way when she set her mind to it.

And, even though he now knew what was waiting for him at home, it was a stunned Brian Thackery who got out of the car to be greeted by a line of five very beautiful and very pregnant women, all grinning insanely as they laid eyes on the cause of their swollen bellies.

They were hard to hug, but their welcome home kisses were warm and happy.

They were all hard to sleep with too. All of them, save Nancy, anyway, who was again being faithful to Tom. It was she who negotiated the sleeping arrangements, though. A heavily gravid woman has her routine, and way of doing things, and she had enough trouble as it is to be asked to change that.

So Brian slept in a different bed every night, pressed up against tightly stretched skin under which a little person moved and poked and kicked him. Or perhaps spooned to her back, his arm draped over the little piece of him that was in her bulging belly. And he found out what it was like to try to make love with a pregnant woman. It was a lot of work, but their appreciation for his efforts, and the feel of shooting off in furnace hot pussy was well worth the effort.

All of the women had been examined by Ultrasound, of course, during their prenatal care. All of them told the doctor they did NOT want to know the sex of their baby. All of them dreamed about producing the first new batch of the Thackery seed. They didn't want reality to intrude on their dreams just yet.

They say semen induces labor. They could have done a case study with Brian Thackery and his women.