Chapter 4

Switching on the tube as I sat on the couch, I saw CNN was still at it, though only women were on the air. From the awkward camera swings every now and then, I could see that women were manning all the cameras now too.

Wising up after a minute, I put a blank tape in the VCR, pushing record for the longest lasting tape speed. It looked like the news wouldn't be around much longer, and I figured we might as well record the last of it, in case they said something that might be important to us later.

Another flash of inspiration sent me to my study and I wiggled the mouse of my computer to kill the screen saver. I actually had four computers on a peer-to-peer network with a KVM switch, so I could just have one monitor, keyboard, and mouse. I could then switch to the system I wanted to use at the moment. I usually stayed on the main Windows 98 machine for browsing though.

The screen popped up and I clicked on IE's icon, bringing up Google's advanced search page. I'll be damned; the cable modem was still connected. I did a couple of quick searches and then tried some of the resulting hits, and all those sites came up too.

It made me wonder who was spending their time keeping the Internet going through all that was happening. Then it hit me that most of it would just keep chugging along on it's own. They had backup generators and would probably still be running for hours even after the power went off.

This small desktop network of computers had served me well while I was still working for a living and doing it from home some of the time. I'd added to them and upgraded for something to do once the money rolled in. They probably wouldn't amount to more than expensive doorstops for very much longer, but they might help out for a few days, if the power stayed on.

Karen came in about then and I noticed she was dressed like Nancy, a T-shirt coming barely below her ass cheeks. I good morninged her, and walked over to the kitchen where she was pouring a cup of coffee.

Curious about her panty situation, I slipped my hand under the T-shirt's hem when I got to her, squeezing her ass and rubbing around her hip for a feel and a panty check.

Nothing to find, not even a thong. She faced me, smiled, and gave me a peck on the cheek. Nancy was close too since she'd just refilled her cup, so I slipped my hand under her shirt for another ass cheek inspection. I didn't find any sign of panties on her either. She smiled and pecked me on the other cheek. This harem thing might not be all bad.

"You're getting frisky pretty early in the morning, Jack," Karen said, smiling.

"Not me, I just thought I'd inspect the troops," I said.

"Well, what did you find?" Nancy asked.

"Inspiration to carry on."

They both laughed, then Karen told me we needed to have a talk after she ate. I agreed, asking if she could listen to some things I had on my mind while she was eating and she said she could.

I told her I thought we were going to have to organize things a little, and I went over my thoughts on what we needed to do to secure ourselves for right now. She agreed about the food, and the medicine, and other supplies, but she wondered why we would need weapons.

When I explained that sooner or later we would be attacked or at least hassled, either for capture or to take any resources we had, she brought up the fact that all the criminals had died. I pointed out that new criminals could appear easily, especially since there was no longer any government to direct the police. I even told her my suspicions that the police could end up trying to take over, to our detriment. She yielded the point.

She'd finished eating by that time and she filled her cup, and asked me to sit in the living room for a chat. The way she said it and her body language reminded me of the time when I was thirteen and got The Talk about the birds and bees. The chat turned out to be along those same lines.

As she was about to start I grabbed the remote to turn the TV's volume down, but the anchorwoman said something that caught my attention. She was relating that many more of the military had been lost since midnight and that large numbers of police had passed on also.

She apologized for the sketchy reports and added that their best estimate said about eight to ten million more people in the United States had perished overnight and that the total living population in this country was estimated at not over twenty million. I killed the volume after that and we just sat silently for a few minutes.

"Jack, you know civilization can't cope with this. There isn't going to be any civilization left even if the sickness stops now. You're right, we're going to have to feed, take care of, and protect ourselves.

"You're the only one we know that can lead us, and we're not sure if you can but you are the only hope the seven of us have. We'll help in any way we can and we do have some skills, especially for health care, but we don't know the first thing about most anything else.

"If we learn anything you'll have to teach us. Eventually we'll have to think about rebuilding the population or at least doing our part. I trust you won't have any problems with your role in that," she said.

"I'd just about come to the same conclusions myself. I'd never considered having children before but now I think it's my responsibility. It's one I'll try my best to enjoy," I said, smiling.

"I hope you're being serious Jack," she said.

"I am, Karen. I do think we should postpone that until we've found a suitable place to live where we can be relatively safe and where we're sure we can support ourselves," I said.

"What do you mean?"

"We can't expect to live here. Even if we salvage enough food and supplies to last us for years, we can't afford to stay. We have to find a place where we can produce food and other supplies for an increasing number of people. It also has to be a place we can fortify against others who may not attempt to produce food or fail to.

"I'm not saying we have to banish everyone we come into contact with, but we must be prepared to turn away or even fight off anyone that won't help," I said.

"I can tell we've picked a good leader already. We didn't think of anything like that. We might have learned by experience eventually but only if we lived over it. If you think the babies should be postponed we'd better make a large supply of birth control pills one of our first priorities. I know we all want to start practicing for them right away," Karen said.

"I hope some of you already have a few," I said, laughing sheepishly.

"We discussed this last night and we're all using the pill already, except Jenna. Maybe the six of us can keep you entertained until we can get her a supply. That's assuming we're all acceptable to you. We agreed that if you vetoed any of us we'd accept your decision."

"I don't like to be crude. Well mostly I don't but I'll admit I can be sometimes. There're no worries on that score since you've all pegged the peter meter."

We both laughed and so did Nancy, and now that we had that mostly out of the way, I wondered why no one else had shown themselves so I asked about it. Karen told me they were waiting for an all clear since they knew what was being discussed and didn't want to appear to be ganging up on me.

She gave them a signal, and the rest of my new band came out for breakfast. I saw that the morning's uniform must have been agreed on last night.

They were all wearing T-shirts that came just below their ass cheeks. I quickly jumped up and intercepted the first new arrival telling the rest they should all line up for a good morning kiss.

They giggled but did it. I had pecked Nancy and Karen on the cheek but starting with Jana, who was first in line, I gave them all a taste of my tongue and a double-handed ass groping.

There was no evidence of a bra anywhere and no matter how I felt around I couldn't find any panties. Jenna was last in line and I gave her extra attention causing her face to turn bright red even though she was an active participant.

After they'd eaten and cleaned up the dishes I asked them all to come sit in the living room. It was one of my best moves ever since their morning uniform was a thing of beauty. No amount of tugging on their part could keep me from getting a glimpse of every beaver present. I took a moment to ogle each one of them in turn as they giggled and squirmed and they all seemed to be great sports.