Chapter 16: Thanksgiving and Beyond

November 27^th, Day 183;

Walter

I awoke to screaming kids, jumping on the bed. I pulled each of them down to me. I kissed them on their foreheads and gave them a tickle before I went to the next one. After I finished, I climbed out of bed, and walked into the bathroom. Going over to the urinal I took my morning piss. I was standing there when Mayra wandered in and sat down to pee.

"I hate you!" she said and I looked at her in surprise.

"What did I do?" I asked.

"THIS, DAMN IT!" she said pointing at her belly and continued, "I have to pee so much, my back hurts, my feet hurt..."

Smiling at her, I washed my hands and walked over to her. I was looking at her belly. For only three months along she looked like she was five months. I reached down and rubbed her belly, and I started getting hard again as kissed her.

"Sorry my love, I would take it all away if I could. How about later I give you a massage?" I asked.

She smiled and hugged me, as she responded, "Yes. That sounds good. But for now, would you please turn the hot tub on for me."

"Yes, I will," I said as I broke the kiss and walked across the room and turned the Jacuzzi tub on for her. I watched as she came over stripping her clothes, I helped her inside the tub and let her lean back against the base. Getting the tub pillow for her, I placed it behind her head. I kissed her forehead before I walked out of the bathroom, and finished getting dressed.

I walked out into the living room and turned the computer screens on. The ocean was boiling with a new storm that was rolling in. The temperature outside was negative nine degrees and the barometer was dropping. Switching to the canyon view, I saw the snow was almost to the top of the ten-foot wall and building. I sat at the computer playing an old pirate game I have always enjoyed.

Around noon Bahg came over with a children's book, and held it up to me, so I read him 'The Little Train That Could' until he slept while I watched the storm on the monitors.

"Walter, dinner is ready," Amanda said as she walked up behind me and shut the monitors off. She leaned down and kissed Bahg and tickled him awake.

"Come on little one, dinner is ready," she said and picked him up.

"Walter stop worrying about when the pirates will get here, they will get here when they do, and we will deal with it. But for now, let's eat," she said.

"I know, I'm just worried about what is going to happen when they do come," I replied.

"I know, but don't worry about them now. If they did show while we were eating the alarm will sound if any large object enters the range of the program parameters I programmed in, and if they do come, we will deal with them. We have the superior firepower. So let's go eat, I'm famished," she said and then kissed me after she set Bahg down and gave him a swat on his butt to get him going to the kitchen.

I wrapped my arms around Amber and kissed her passionately and my hands gripped her tight ass and massaged her globes until I heard someone clear their throat.

"That's my daughter you're manhandling," Mary said as she walked over to us.

We jumped apart and Amanda started blushing as I tried to speak.

"It's ok, just don't hurt her," Mary said as she hugged me.

"I won't Mary," I replied and hugged her back.

"Now you two, dinner is ready, so come on," she said and walked toward the dining room.

We entered the room, and I stopped to look at the two big tables groaning under the mounds of food. There were three turkeys and two hams sliced up and placed on serving trays as well as bowls of mashed potatoes, stuffing, yams, green bean casseroles, baby carrots in a glazed honey sauce, cranberry sauce, apple sauce, several Jell-O molds with various fruits, and for desert, there was pumpkin pie, pecan pie brownies, apple pie, butter pecan turtle cookies and five flavors of ice cream. The only thing I missed was coleslaw, but we couldn't find any cabbage, so I planned on putting the hot house together next summer, so we could grow vegetables all year round.

We sat and ate, but I picked at the food because something was worrying me, and I didn't know what it was. Shrugging it off, we ate dinner, and inhaled our desert. By seven, the kids were dropping off, and we carried them into the bathrooms and got them cleaned up. They were in bed by eight and then us adults sat around the living room talking.

"Walter, you're going to need more beds for all these kids," Mary stated as she looked at four of my pregnant women.

"Already fixing it, I'm going to put a second floor in each of the kid's bedrooms. I figure I can put the older ones up above, and the younger ones below for now. Eventually, I will have to figure out how to add more bedrooms or build a larger house. But what about you? It seems Arthur has gotten you and your sister wives pregnant as well," I said as I hugged Katia and kissed her head.

"Yes. You know, I never thought I would like Arthur to be with other women. But for some reason, without the social stigma of society, I'm comfortable with it. And, it will be a big help when the babies come, and all of us can take care of all of them," she said.

"I agree, I just wish..." I stopped talking as I looked at the picture on the wall of Gail, and sighed.

"Walter, enough of that shit. There is nothing you can do to bring Gail back. It's just like I cannot bring James back for Amber. You just have to move on with your life. You have people who love you and care about you, children that will be coming along soon; and an enemy you must defeat, or we all perish," Mary said as she sat on Arthur's lap.

"I know Mary, I know. It's just that at times like this, I miss her. It will get easier now with my wives," I replied as I pulled Galina into my lap when she came in from using the toilet.

"Now on to other matters. Come spring, I want to move all the freezer trailers, and you ladies around to a safe location. Arthur will stay with you and with enough supplies so you can survive in case something happens to Mike and me when we confront the pirates. You will have the two pickups with the machine guns in them as well as any other weapon I can think of. I plan on moving all the remaining trailers as well. The solar panel system that Rala put in each will keep them going for years, and you will have the two generators that don't seem to run out of gas on account of the improvements to them. We will also take the saw and all the construction equipment so you can rebuild..."

"But why did you build that tower and mount that cannon on it?" Katia asked.

"It's a focal point, basically I am hoping they will see it and run with their tails between their legs, especially when I fire it once at them. Where we have it mounted it can see all the way into the big bay. I don't think the tower would survive more than one shot fired from the cannon..."

"Bullshit. I built that tower to last, you can fire that big gun until the barrel melted, and it would still stand," Mike said as he took a sip of his brandy.

"Mike, it's not made with real concrete," I replied.

"Yes, it is. It's just old-fashioned concrete. But there is stuff still standing, on Earth, that was built thousands of years ago made from the stuff. So don't knock my tower out there," he said and stood up. "With that, I want to say thank you for dinner, it was great; but I'm going to bed. Ready ladies?" he said.

He led his wives off to bed. Arthur did the same, and then it was just me and my wives. We dragged ourselves to bed where I made tender love to all of them, before collapsing into the giant puppy pile as Amanda called it.

Extra Month #2, Day 27,

Day 273, Year 0001 DA

Walter

I woke up with a feeling of dread. Climbing out of bed I was running for the computer before the girls could ask what was going on. I was at the computer and running through the camera feeds and froze. Coming up the road, trudging through the snow, were about a hundred men armed with various weapons. Running to the door, I shoved my feet into my insulated boots, grabbed my trench coat and wrapped it around my body. I hoped my long johns would be warm enough as I ran out the door and towards the gate, as I pulled my gloves on.

The snow was about two feet deep and was hard to get through to the stairwell, going up the stairs. I reached the Gatling gun and unfastened the bungee cords. I looked down the road and could see the pirates coming around the bend as I popped the top to the ammo locker and lifted the first stick of ammo up. Tucking one clip in each pocket, I pressed the third down into the gun and primed it. I waited until they were a good thirty-foot past the bend and opened up with the big weapon as I started cranking the handle.

Down range, the men screamed as the bullets hit them and they tried to get closer to me. Muskets went off and I laughed at them as I moved the gun and caught a group of them charging down the left side of the canyon.

"Come on someone, get on the other gun," I said to myself as I loaded a new clip. The pirates screamed and charged the gate, and I lowered the barrel and started firing at the ones up front and then it happened. The notorious Gatling gun did what it was famous for, it jammed. I worked to clear the breach and looked up as a man was coming up over the wall. Grabbing the shovel we use to clear the platform, I swung the shovel and hit him in the face as Mike and Arthur joined me with their rifles.

I felt something slice my jacket, and I whirled and brought the shove down in an arc. The blade hit the man in the shoulder and bit deeply, he fell back, and I punched a second man and he fell back over the wall.

"Walter!"

I turned and looked at Noma standing there with my rifle. She started to pass it up to me, and then I was flying through the air. I caught the pirate as he was coming up behind her with his sword raised to strike Noma in the back. I was scrambling as the man tried to get up, wrapping my arms around the man's head, I squeezed until he passed out. Dropping the man, I took my rifle from Noma and told her to get back inside as I kicked the man in the temple.