Chapter 4

Carla was in and out of the office all morning, both guiding the installation and helping Maria, the young woman working the Avenger sensor package. That afternoon, they worked with Chaquanda, a young black woman. They taught her to control the sensor package while Brenda worked with one of our pilots-in-training, showing her how to fly the Avenger. By late afternoon, they landed the Avenger and then they crashed on the bunks they had brought into the office on the other side of mine from Carla’s office.

“Can I come in?” Brenda asked sticking her head through the door between the offices. I waved her in and my mouth dropped when she padded in wearing only a long T-shirt. The way her breasts swayed it was obvious they weren’t restrained. I stood up reflexively when she got close and she hugged me, the soft mounds of flesh she’d been blessed with pressing against my chest.

“Thank you ... for everything,” she sighed, still pressed against me. “Any chance you have time to debrief me?” she asked coyly.

“You’ll need to check with my wives,” I reminded her.

“Stacey already approved,” she giggled.

I looked around trying to decide the best spot to debrief her, but she pulled me insistently back to the room with the bunks. “Ummm ... what about the others?” I asked hesitantly. “They have permission, too,” she chuckled. They were stark naked and waiting for us. Each of them kissed me suggestively while the other three helped remove my clothes. I was surprised at the ease with which Brenda and the two younger girls played with each other as well as with me. I found out later that all of them had been forced to have sex with other women so frequently that it no longer bothered them. In fact, they had begun to enjoy it. Many of them would have sex together at night just for the comfort of being touched gently and lovingly.

Brenda pulled me to the floor with her. She sighed contentedly when I went down on her to get my first taste of her sweet pussy. Evidently, all four of them had been warned by my wives that I would insist on it. When she felt I’d tasted her enough she pulled me up and guided my cock inside, sighing happily as I filled her welcoming sex. Our coupling was slow but enthusiastic, culminating in a near-mutual orgasm.

While she basked in a post-orgasmic afterglow, I was passed around between the other three women. Between them they managed to keep my interest piqued and my cock peaked until each of them received a load of cum. I thought about my first time with Pam, Stacey, and Vickie and how Vickie had to work to get me ready for a third time. Now, I could usually manage four women a night and two or three in the morning, as well as a couple of quickies during the day--if I had time.

We woke up to giggling only to find several young women bringing our dinner to us. “Rise and shine ladies, you have a long night of work ahead of you,” Stacey teased as she helped each of the women to their feet. “And Mike has a long hard night ahead of him,” she laughed, grinning lasciviously.

“It’s definitely long and I’m sure it will be hard,” Brenda quipped as she reached over and squeezed my cock goodbye.

My jaw dropped when the ladies started putting on their new uniforms. All four had the red epaulet on the shoulders signifying that they were my wives. “I don’t even get asked anymore?” I whined playfully. Grinning evilly Stacey held my balls in her hand--the implied threat obvious. “Sweetheart, these four beautiful and horny women would like you to accept them as wives,” she said so very sweetly.

“How could I possibly refuse?” I answered. Stacey gave me one of those smiles that always lets me know how very happy she is.

While the others laughed at our antics, Stacey dropped to her knees and sucked me until I was hard. “This wife can’t wait long enough to get back to the house,” she moaned as her clothes flew off. She pulled me on top of her right there on the floor and guided me into her sopping sex.

It was definitely a long hard night, but I persevered and left several more smiling wives in the morning. The base was abuzz about the Avengers. They had scanned the entire valley up to and including Sacramento. While Brenda had to do the takeoffs and landings, they had four pilot trainees now flying four of the drones and were training four more girls to operate the sensor assembly. My four new wives were proudly wearing their uniforms and grinned happily at me momentarily before returning their attention to their work.

Carla hurried in when she saw me and gave me a toe-curling kiss. Her eyes were gleaming happily. “You’ve got some work to do,” she said pointing to a large map of California that had appeared on my wall. There was a large stack of papers in front of it. For the next half hour, she briefed me on what they had found so far.

There were four reasonably large groups of between ten and forty in Fresno and several smaller ones. In small towns and rural places up the valley there were close to 100 heat signatures of one to six people. Sacramento looked like the war zone in Southern California with over two-thirds of the city destroyed by fire. There was only one group in the city, a group of nearly 500 in a hotel not far from the river. From there, the drones had turned back to the south. Two were scanning the towns and rural areas in the hills and mountains. She hadn’t gotten to those images yet. The other two were headed for the Bay Area to do an initial assessment before working their way down the coast.

“Shit, looks like we’ve got some work to do,” I sighed.

“There’s something else,” Carla said apprehensively. “We’ve all been sort of giddy for the last day or so and kind of got carried away a little. Last night we heard someone explaining to the new people about the rules for joining a family. I guess I should have told you that there is always a chance that I’m pregnant. I haven’t missed my period, but I did have sex with the guys since my last period.”

“Everyone was having sex. I hardly expect anyone that’s accepted into the family to be any different. That’s why all the guys agree to accept as their own any child born to one of their wives. If you decide that you’d rather be with the baby’s father, I understand, but unless you do, any baby you have is my child,” I said soothingly.

“That was the easy one,” she sighed. “Maria knows she’s pregnant, probably three months. Chaquanda is a week late and thinks she might be pregnant, too. Brenda isn’t, though. She had a miscarriage a month ago and the guys left her alone afterwards. I guess the gang members targeted the women that weren’t pregnant first trying to make all of them pregnant,” Carla said sadly.

“I guess I need to go reassure my new wives, then,” I whispered, groping Carla’s tight ass while I kissed her.

“Stacey said you’d be like that,” she sighed happily as she let go of me.

“I understand I’m going to be a daddy,” I whispered into Maria’s ear as my arms closed around her waist from behind.

Carla took over the controls from her so she could spin and hug me to death. “You’re not upset?” she whispered emotionally.

“Why would I be upset about you having my baby? Any child born to any of my wives is mine, regardless of the circumstances,” I said loud enough for the others to hear. I gave her a swat on the butt and moved behind Chaquanda. “And how is my mocha goddess and possible mother of my child this morning?” I asked after kissing the side of her neck.

“Horny, now,” she moaned as she rubbed her tight, round ass against the bulge in the front of my pants. “Nnnnnggggg,” she groaned when I massaged her breasts for a second.

“Have you joined the mile-high club yet?” I whispered suggestively in Brenda’s ear while my hands explored the interesting places on her body.

“No, but I’m about ready to join the floor-in-the-middle-of-the-control-room club,” she growled.

I gave her butt one last grab. “Back to work, ladies,” I teased.

“Carla, come here,” Brenda hollered excitedly some time later. I rushed in, too, to see what was going on. “Take Terri’s controls,” she said.

Carla took over and asked a few seconds later “Good guys or bad?”

“I haven’t gotten a good enough look but I’m guessing the front vehicle is trying to escape the back one,” Brenda explained as she brought the drone around for a pass from the front. We could clearly see four apparently unarmed girls in the car, fleeing south on the 101 near Morgan Hill. The back pickup had three armed guys in it.

“What is it with these jerks and their pickup trucks?” I asked rhetorically.

“Guys with small dicks drive trucks to feel more macho,” Carla answered without even looking up from her screen.

“Hey, I drove a pickup,” I protested but my protest fell on deaf ears. They were concentrating.

I radioed and ordered two Seahawks airborne giving them a heading that should intercept the car. “You’re hot,” Brenda informed Carla as they began a pass from the rear.

“Cool,” Carla said excitedly. “Target locked ... one away,” she announced. Four very long heartbeats later, the pickup exploded in a ball of flames.

“Thank you, love,” Brenda said as she concentrated on flying the drone. I thought she was going to land on the highway, but she pulled in front of the fleeing car about twenty feet off the ground. I gasped when she ducked lower to miss an electrical wire but she cleared it and moved higher. “I’m hoping they follow me,” she explained. The second drone finally got into position high overhead and showed the car still behind the drone. There were no more pursuers and Brenda took the Avenger a bit higher to be safer.

The car followed the drone, turning west on Highway 152. Ten minutes later, it slowed and pulled to the side of the road. “I think they’re out of gas,” Carla announced. The girls were out of the car and waving frantically to the drone that circled back and waggled its wings. For forty more minutes, they circled the girls with one drone to reassure them while the other watched from much higher. The girls must have heard the Seahawks approaching and dove behind a clump of trees.

“We were sent to rescue you by the pilot of the drone that’s been watching over you,” they announced over the PA as the helicopters landed on the road. They split the girls between the two choppers and they were quickly airborne again. The drones went back to their scans, having given us a brief glimpse of the charred ruins of the Bay Area. It wasn’t quite as bad as Sacramento, but it was over half burned.

While waiting for the girls to get here, we launched several raids. Our remaining ten Seahawks headed to Fresno with six Apaches for cover. Three cargo planes were ready to leave as soon as a landing strip was secured.

Ten ACAVs headed for smaller targets between us and Fresno. I was surprised once again when Susan showed me to my new war room to watch over everything. The offices behind mine and Carla’s had been joined into one large room. An electronic map of the western half of the U.S. filled part of one wall with blue dots for aircraft and green dots for ground forces.

Several of our ‘geeks’ worked side-by-side with some of the women showing them how to operate and manipulate the computer screens on the wall. Just like my battle wagon, there were small images of every available video feed, including the four Avengers. I could follow two different engagements on the front wall, one on each side of the door. I could follow two more on the side walls of the room. I had a raised command console near the back wall in the middle of the room. I smiled watching the training going on. The occasional touches between the ‘geeks’ and the girls they were training went from occasional and accidental to lingering and obviously intentional on the part of the girls being trained. I grinned, thinking about the odds of relationships like these developing a year ago. I noticed that the ‘geeks’ had added a patch with a computer screen to their uniforms. It was only fair. The helicopter and plane pilots had insignias of helicopters or planes. The QRT forces had lightning bolts and their squad number. The ACAV and tank crews had an ACAV or tank on their uniform. Even the Council got in on it, poking fun at themselves with the insignia “ZZZZZZZ.”

I also chuckled when I saw the list of available QRTs. Originally, they had simply been numbered 1 through whatever. Now, though, there were QRTs specifically designated for special circumstances. Chicas Caliente 1 through 4 were obviously all Hispanic women for raids like Stockton where a female Hispanic presence would be more comforting to the captives. Hotchicks 1 through 4 were obviously all female for rescuing female captives. Our now 36 snipers were listed according to their latest rating to show their highest training score, and how many times they had fired in action. Each was tentatively assigned to a QRT.

-----. -----

Three of the big groups in Fresno were coed groups working together to stay safe, but they reported several attempts to take one or more of their women. The final group was just ten women. Once they were loaded on a cargo plane and headed back here, our teams spread out to check the other heat signatures Carla found. Of the 23 smaller groups, 17 were captive groups. Rather than waste time, the troops had a sniper or snipers target the suspected captors. When they called to the group telling them to come out, the captors would scramble to safety or to peek out the window. The captives would stay where they were, unable to move, or would simply hit the floor.

Once the captors showed no sign of surrendering (none did) the snipers would take them out and a QRT would quickly enter the building or room to secure the captors if they were still alive and make sure the hostages were safe.

By the time the Seahawk teams were ready to head north from Fresno they had rescued 27 men and 190 women. They also managed to get 11 of the wounded captors back to the base still alive enough for the doctors to save. The troops spent the night in a small hotel on the north end of town before continuing north. Among the just-rescued captives were a former Army infantryman, a commercial passenger jet pilot named Ed, an OB-GYN doctor, a farmer, and two nurses.

The ACAV troops joined them much later, having rescued 68 men and 160 women from 63 small coed groups as well as 108 women from 34 small captive groups. The cargo planes flew back and forth all day like a good volley in a tennis match. Twenty-six of the 47 captors survived and would end up as slaves. I wondered what we’d do with so many slaves.

Our semi drivers had begun hauling back doublewide mobile homes and our slaves were put to work pouring pads for them. We laid out all the empty fields above the housing with streets running east and west and paved the streets with gravel for now. Two cross streets were included, one at the east end and one in the middle of the new “trailer park.”

The first rectangular section would hold 800 double-wide trailers with as much yard space as the houses--maybe even a little more. The second, triangular-shaped section would hold the same number. The trucks worked for four weeks driving up and down the valley to find enough new trailers for the first section. Several experienced construction workers supervised our construction crews who worked around the clock getting underground sewer, water, and utility lines installed and foundations poured.

It took three days after Fresno for our troops to reach Sacramento, rounding up everyone between there and Fresno, including people in the mountain towns and a few hiding out in cabins. Quite a few of them asked to stay where they were. We left them alone after telling them where we were if they or anyone else they met wanted to join us. Each day planeloads of people arrived and were greeted. Nearly 300 people arrived as well as nine captors that survived.

We put new arrivals that could drive a stick shift to work. They spent one day watching and a second driving with a trained driver before joining the growing convoys setting out every morning in search of all the usual goods we brought back. Some of our crews had even begun removing newer mobile homes from existing mobile home parks.

During the three-day trip north from Fresno, the Avengers had kept watch on the Sacramento compound 24 hours a day. By day three, we knew their routine. Three trucks left every morning at 8:00 and spent the day scavenging the city and surrounding countryside. Each truck carried an armed driver and an armed guard with six captured men in the back of the truck to load goods. The rest of their group headed several miles away to the fields where the captives were forced to work the farms they had under cultivation.

We even had an exact count of the gang members. There were 42 guys. Nine women were always around them, seemingly claimed by the top gang members. None of the women ever carried firearms or interacted with the captives except a couple of times when one of the captive women was taken into the house at the farm by the guy who “owned” one of the girls. We concluded that he had wanted two women having sex at once since the heat signatures for all three were nearly indistinguishable from each other.

Unlike Stockton where the captives had driven their own vehicles, two gang members drove and rode shotgun on the four semis they used to transport their captives to the fields. The other members and their “girlfriends” rode in SUVs--one at the front of the convoy, with the rest bringing up the rear.

We staged our attack on the narrow road leading to the farm. Where the road made the final 90-degree turn along the top of the levee, there was a short, narrow bridge that was twenty feet long. Trees along the side of the road that helped stabilize the levee also provided great cover. By the time the last truck made it off the bridge, the first of the trailing cars would be starting the trip across.

But not today. We planted charges on the inside of the front driver’s side tire on the SUV’s the previous night. The original plan had been to blow the tire on the first SUV behind the semis just as it got to the bridge, so it would crash into the bridge instead of into the canal. Finding no girlfriends in that SUV today the tire was blown soon enough that the SUV veered off the road and down the steep bank of the levee, right into the canal. The gang members in the remaining SUVs rushed from their cars to try and help. The girlfriends stayed in the cars. Not a shot was fired once the gang members realized they were surrounded by ready automatic weapons while their own weapons were still hanging from their shoulders or even lying on the ground.

On the other side of the bridge, the tire on the lead car was blown causing it to lurch to a stop. The driver and shotgun got out cursing while snipers picked off the four drivers and four armed guards in the now-stopped semis. The Hellfire missile exploding into a nearby tree quickly erased any thoughts the men in the front SUV had about resisting. We did as the Council had asked and gave them a chance to surrender. Had they resisted, the troops surrounding them, and/or the second Hellfire missile would have finished them off. Unfortunately, everyone from the submerged car survived, too. They were freezing and waterlogged and easy to corral as they clawed their way up the grassy bank of the levee.

The troops asked several of the former captives about the girlfriends and they verified our suspicions. The girlfriends were just unlucky enough to be the most attractive captives. Our cargo planes landed at the Sacramento Airport to pick up the captives and fly them back to the base. Aside from the Hellfire, only eight shots were fired--all kill shots for the drivers and guards to protect the captives.

The troops spent another week working their way north to the Oregon border and then returned home to a hero’s welcome--not only from their families, but especially from the more than a thousand people they had saved. The single female troops had offers from nearly every family to join them, the male troops were besieged with requests from the single women of the community. I just had to deal with my usual number of horny wives.

The newest rescued captives included a dentist, a doctor, another OB-GYN, and three more nurses. We also gained an actual licensed general contractor to guide our aggressive, but clumsy, building attempts, not to mention several more farmers and a refrigeration specialist.

We spent two weeks regrouping. Our engineers installed road sensors on every major road into California from Oregon and Nevada as well as on every major road into the valley where we hadn’t yet installed them.

Then Stacey made the announcement. The following day was to be a holiday--our first--Founder’s Day. Only critical jobs like medical help and taking care of the livestock, as well as monitoring the area, should be done although everyone was encouraged to help out with the livestock so they could be done early. Monitoring and guard shifts would be limited to two hours. I noticed that the Council spent most of the day meeting but they’d been unusually busy for the last month or so.

When Stacey finally got home that night, she was exceptionally happy and extremely horny. When asked about what would be happening the next day she just replied, “A lot of very good things.” We made love twice, albeit gently. I teased her that I didn’t want to give the baby a headache. She insisted on another go-round in the morning while we showered. I was surprised when she wore a dress since almost everyone wore military fatigues. At first, it was just a prudent thing to do since we never knew when we’d need to respond to a situation. After a while, everyone just got used to wearing them. It also helped us recognize new arrivals since they were in civilian clothes.

---.---

The fog burned off early and the day was unusually warm for early March. A podium had been erected outside the Council chambers and folding chairs for nearly 3,000 people were set up. Everyone’s mood was festive and expectant as they dug into the food that had been prepared for the day. Promptly at 10:00, the entire Council took their seats on the podium, including the ones just elected by the newest arrivals.

Stacey welcomed everyone and thanked them for attending, and then turned the meeting over to Janet, the Council Vice President.

“Good morning. I’d like to start the day by announcing that the Council has been wrestling with coming up with a Charter to govern by. We took into consideration our current situation, as well as the probability that we will, at some point in time, need to expand and build more towns in our sphere of influence. It is our intent to have one unifying government for everyone living in our sphere of influence. We are still working on the laws for now and for the future but want to unveil what we have finished to date. Alarmed by the way the succinct wording of the Constitution was twisted and interpreted over time, our basic laws come with qualifiers we hope will prevent them from being twisted or interpreted in ways we did not intend.

“Article 1. The laws of this Council shall not arbitrarily take away from any individual their life, freedom, or ability to pursue their life as they see fit. Neither does it obligate the government to provide any form of assistance to an individual to facilitate their life, freedom, or ability to pursue that life. Along with the right to pursue their life as they see fit comes the responsibility of the individual to accept the consequences of their decisions and actions. Those rights and any other rights delineated in any other laws are forfeit by any individual convicted of a crime.

“Article 2. It shall be the responsibility of all free citizens to serve in the military, bear arms, and become proficient in the use of those arms. We realize that there are some religions that abhor violence and military service. Any member of one of those religions who is living their life in accordance with the other tenets of their religion may spend their military service doing clerical or other non-violent work. Every citizen will still be required to bear arms and to become proficient with them. No religion prohibits its members from protecting themselves against dangerous animals, something we have had to do more often lately. At this time, anyone age 14 or older is required to serve in the military. We expect that in the future that age will rise.

“Article 3. All laws and regulations shall apply equally to every free citizen. No laws may be enacted now or in the future to exclude any group from those laws, especially politicians and lawmakers. In addition, no politician or lawmaker may accept any gift, favor, gratuity, or fee from anybody. Acceptance, offer, or payment of these is a felony and will result in all rights being stripped from the offenders in addition to any penalty of imprisonment and/or fines deemed appropriate by the court.

“Article 4. The government shall make no laws nor take any action that infringes on the right of its citizens to practice any religion that preaches tolerance of all and doesn’t believe in violence against others who believe differently. There shall be no commercialization of any religion or religious holiday. This article shall not be interpreted to mean that lawmakers are prevented from practicing their chosen religion or expressing religious beliefs in Council or other government proceedings. There shall be no active proselytizing. Those who wish to convince others of the value of their own religion must do so by setting an example and living their life in accordance with their beliefs.

“Article 5. Unless convicted of a crime, all persons shall be free citizens with equal rights regardless of race, religion, sex, or any other personal characteristics or beliefs. Only those convicted and sentenced may be kept as slaves and only by the government. No business or individual may ever own, keep, or maintain a slave.

“Article 6. No person, government entity, or business shall take advantage of or attempt to take advantage of any person by withholding information, lying, using misinformation, or telling partial truths.

“Article 7. The government shall not infringe on the right of individuals to express their personal views or opinions so long as it does not violate any other articles or laws. The right to dissent does not include the right to destroy property or to disturb others as they go about their lives. It also does not grant the right to incite others to destroy property or disturb others as they go about their lives. Nor does it grant them the right to act on a dissenting opinion so long as the law prohibits it.

“Article 8. This article grants the same rights and responsibilities to the press. The term press shall be held to mean any printed or electronic media designed solely to disseminate information about news stories and/or to encourage political discussion. It does not grant them the right to purposely disseminate erroneous, licentious, libelous, or slanderous views or information.

“This is not yet meant to be considered a comprehensive document and we still have a lot of work to do before we submit it to you for a vote, but these articles have been accepted by unanimous vote of the Council and will be considered law until the final document has been ratified or rejected.

“And now, I call upon Armando, our disbursement coordinator for the next announcement.”

“Good morning. It is my honor to announce that the Council has considered the nearly one hundred name suggestions for our community. Some were considered too humorous, some too religious, and some too personal. The unanimous first choice has been set aside out of respect for the man who made all of this possible--Mike Miller.”

The applause and cheers were embarrassing. I had made it clear very early on that I would not be a happy camper if anything was named after me until after I died so I wouldn’t know about it.

“Therefore,” he continued, “we have chosen the name ‘Esperanza,’ Spanish for ‘hope’ to represent our hope that civilization may begin again here and flourish.”

Again, the applause and cheers were deafening.

“We have also adopted a new flag. We used red, white, and blue out of respect for the country we used to be a part of and might possibly belong to again in the future depending on what others across the country are doing to rebuild. We have also included a black border around the outside of the flag to pay homage to all those who died and to help us remember that our actions may have undesired consequences. And now, for our final announcement I ask our esteemed Council President Stacey Miller to rejoin us.”

I love watching Stacey blush, something she does less these days after the responsibility she accepted in representing our family on the Council. It’s possible she got the job of president out of deference to me, but I’ve been told she got it because everyone trusted her and admired her ability to grasp details and come up with solutions. Having sat in on more Council proceedings than I care to, I tend to believe the latter.

“The Council recognizes the potential for an abuse of power if one branch of the government does not have another to balance it and override it if necessary. We feel overwhelmed at times with all that remains for us to accomplish and have unanimously decided on a temporary balance. This balance will remain in effect for at least ten years and is nearly the way things are done now. It is a great personal honor for me to announce that the Council has unanimously requested my husband, Mike Miller, to accept the temporary position of King.”