Chapter 16

Pauline got behind the wheel of the Ford Taurus and started the engine. A quick check of the gas tank showed that the car had three quarters of a tank of gas. That would be plenty for the task that they were starting out on.

They hadn't driven too far until they came upon a very large car dealership. The dealership sold several different makes in a huge complex. Each make of car had its own building and maintenance shop. There were many used cars in front of the dealership but Pauline was looking for new vehicles.

The women gravitated toward the GMC section of the dealership. Pauline had suggested that dealership to the other women because she knew that GMC sold everything from pickups to over-the-road vehicles.

After a quick check of the new pickup truck inventory they decided on two fully equipped, top of the line pickups. The trucks were four-wheel drive and had a club cab and each truck had a factory, color-matched fiberglass cap on it. The club cab would be better if more than three people wanted to ride in the trucks and the cap would protect anything they wanted to carry in the truck. The cap could be easily removed if an open truck was needed.

Pauline turned to Ruth, "Let's go look for an SUV. You can drive it back to the motel if you want unless you'd feel more comfortable in the pickup."

Ruth shrugged, "It doesn't matter to me."

The two of them went into the showroom. Their eyes fell on a Cadillac Escalade that was sitting at the door as you walked into the showroom. The doors were unlocked and Pauline opened the driver's door and looked inside. The car had every option available and the interior was all leather. Pauline noticed that there was a sticker on the dashboard that said diesel fuel only.

"How about this one?" Pauline asked Ruth with a smile on her face.

"Yes!" Ruth said emphatically.

They went to find the keys for the vehicles. Pauline wrote down the stock numbers of the pickups on a slip of paper that she found on one of the sales desks and Ruth went out to the showroom and got the Escalade stock number. After searching several offices they found where the keys were kept.

Pauline held the keys to the Escalade out to Ruth, "Do you want to drive this one?"

Ruth grinned and took the keys. "I was hoping that you'd let me drive that one."

Pauline put her hand on Ruth's arm, "Ruth, we have to talk. That little outburst back at the motel was uncalled for. We have to be very careful that we don't upset the others. I see that the other girls seem to look to you as the de facto leader and if you start to cause trouble someone could get seriously hurt or someone could die. We still aren't sure what has happened and we don't know if anyone other than us is left in the world ... If we are the only ones left on the world, survival is going to take a lot of work and cooperation from all of us. This is going to be a very different world from the one that we knew and we all have to work together or some of us are going to die."

Ruth pulled her arm away from Pauline, "Well I don't think its fair. I can see that you and Pat have become an item and it's not fair. If Pat is the only man left on earth what about the rest of us; are we supposed to live like nuns?"

Ruth's answer took Pauline by surprise, "You're right, Pat and I have become an item as you put it. If Pat is the only man on earth he is going to have the job of ensuring the human race survives but he just can't start inseminating every one of the women. We have to think of the safety of the children that are born to us. If Pat were the sire of all of the children born from now on the gene pool would be so small that the quality of the human race would deteriorate until the human race passed out of existence. We just can't start breeding new children without some thought as to how we are going to ensure the quality of our children."

Ruth thought for a moment and then asked, "How are we going to make sure that the gene pool increases?"

"We've already talked a little about this. Fertility clinics have frozen sperm stored for future use. When the women decide that they want to have children we could inseminate the women from the frozen sperm from the fertility clinics. They keep a very detailed record of the donor's characteristics so we can ensure that we make the best match possible. I know this sounds a bit clinical and not very romantic but we have to think of the future of the human race. It's up to us to do whatever it takes for humans to survive."