Chapter 10

“So, we should probably head out in the next few days, but we really need to rest a bit first here in Ithaca before leaving, wouldn’t you agree?” Mike proposed, to nods from the others.

“Yeah, we’ve been on the road quite a bit lately, and while we need to get back on it, this is a nice little bit of R and R for us all. So, Ithaca is a ghost town, too, or is this unclear?” Charles agreed.

“I haven’t found anyone else on the streets. They seem pretty deserted. That doesn’t mean that we’re alone, though. Someone else could be in hiding,” Joey explained, now much more relaxed after having acted on his long-term crush on his former boss, Tabby, “At any rate, I fully concur. We’re all tired, sore, and hungry. Best to recover first, and then go on the next leg of the trip, which really shouldn’t end until we get to Pennsylvania. We’re not that far away from it. I recommend avoiding New Jersey altogether at present. Rumor has it that La Cosa Nostra has retaken the Garden State with a vengeance, and by that, I’m being literal. Every former state and federal prosecutor who went after the Mafia has been whacked, execution-style, in public no less! They lay low for a long time, but they were just waiting for the moment to strike like a nest of vipers.”

“Are they even bothering to hide that they have taken control of the state?” Larry wondered.

“Hell, no! Mind you, everything that they’ve profited off that was illegal is now legal, but in such a way of regulation as to give them a monopoly. Prostitution, gambling, alcohol, etc. All of it is under the control of state-sanctioned private monopolies, though anything not related to vice has largely remained in independent hands. Most local business tycoons have shrewdly made terms with the new regime, which calls itself the Garden State Alliance, but has no one fooled at all.

“The police, the remaining puppet DAs, the city governments, governor, etc. They’re all under the guiding hand of the Leadership Council of the GSA. Democrats, Republicans, both have cravenly yielded to the GSA’s power and joined its ranks. It’s a one-party state now, all other parties are banned, and the one party is the GSA, which is just the political arm of what had been the Italian mob and its associates.

“They’re smart, though. No actual ‘made men’ on the Leadership Council. It’s largely Irish and Jewish associates of theirs, just like the old days. No women, either. It’s patriarchy on steroids in Jersey now,” Courtney picked up where her husband left off in the discussion.

“So, yeah, agreed, no Jersey for us. A pity. I’ve always wanted to traverse the Boardwalk,” Rupert shrugged.

“Me, too,” Naomi sighed in sympathy with her brother.

“Not to mention gamble in Atlantic City, eat some shrimp, get married, that sort of thing,” Cecilia spoke up at last after she finished her third shot of tequila, grateful that she wasn’t far enough along for that to hurt her baby ... most pregnancies were far too early for that. Only Bethany largely abstained from the booze.

That was when they noticed someone watching them, and Mike cautiously approached the stranger, gesturing for him or her to come inside, albeit unarmed for now. The newcomer was tall, with dirty blonde hair, and after close inspection, quite female, as her removed hat and trenchcoat revealed. She was a little shaken up, but once she had some beer and food in her, she calmed down somewhat.

“Sorry, I had to get away from James. He’s just gotten crazy of late. I don’t know what’s gotten into him! I grabbed what clothes I could find and dashed out of there ... Don’t let him bring me back! He’s a sick, demented bastard!” the young woman begged the group in a pronounced accent.

“Don’t be silly! We’re not going to make you go back to James, whoever that is! And you are?” Bill reassured her, his arms around her protectively.

“Nicole Lazio, no relation to the Congressman, that I know of, anyway. James is my boyfriend, or rather was, I should say, as I’ve been trying to dump him for a while now. We’ve been together for about a year now. James Cavendish. The man is out of control. Jealous. Abusive. Mean. Irrational. Paranoid. He’s convinced that anyone from outside the town is a threat to us and wants to take me away from him. He’s convinced that the government’s not really gone, too, and that it was working for aliens, etc. It’s just insane. He’s also convinced that he is some kind of ‘starseed’ or whatever from outer space.

“Now he wants to breed me, and I’ve been trying to escape him, and avoid his bed, for days now. I’ve stayed one step ahead of him, but dare not go too far, for fear of being in the open long enough for him to see me. I’m hoping that he’ll eventually realize that I’m leaving him of my own accord. I would go back to Brooklyn, where I was born, but it’s gone now. Along with the rest of the Big Apple, the greatest city in the old US of A. I think that he’s on some kind of drug or this whole crisis has made him snap,” the stranger explained to them, still visibly terrified.

“Any other people in town at all that you’ve seen?” Justine wondered.

“Not lately. There were some others, but they already left. They wanted me to go with them, but I didn’t. I should have. I was still loyal to James at that point. If there are any others, they’re hiding even better than I have. As far as I can tell, Ithaca is a ghost town, just like the others from what I have heard. Where are you guys headed, anyway? Not Utica, I take it. The other group that left went westward somewhere, except a few nuts who went to Utica, but I refuse to go there, too. Those people are even crazier than James, from what I hear!” Nicole answered, now a little more confident of her future, thanks to being taken in by the tribe.

“We’re looking westward, too, as Horace Greeley once urged the youth. Not that he ever followed his own counsel, but still. We’ve heard of this place out west, called Haven. We don’t know how far west it is, but rumor has it that it’s a safe zone or refuge of sorts, hence its name. We don’t even know if we want to live there, but we want to find out if it’s the sort of place for us or not. In the meantime, we’re traveling the country, and who knows, maybe we’ll find a place that better suits us than Haven. We don’t know, but until we do, we’re going West,” Charles told Nicole, seeing her visibly relax even more.

“So, some of you ladies are naked. Are you like, nudists, or some of you, or swingers, or whatever?” Nicole asked them, prompting giggles.

“I kind of am a nudist. Some of us are. Some aren’t. Tabby, Joey, and I are in a menage a trois relationship, it seems. We may or may not join the others in their little group marriage. My son Hank is engaged, as of today, to my daughter’s boyfriend’s mother, but I have no idea if they’re going to be monogamous or polyamorous. Same with my daughter and her boyfriend about that. Or rather, her fiance now. Most of the other group are together, except I think that the men aren’t intimate with each other, or at least that’s the impression that I get,” Courtney clarified, while Tabby finished undressing from her quickie before to reveal her tall, plump, still quite lovely body.