Chapter 35 -- A Religious Experience
Note from the Author:
This chapter is a long one, for those that like it long and stiff. I didn't intend it to be so long but Josh had a lot of stamina.
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The moon was up when Sue woke me by kissing my ear. "Rise and shine, Josh," she whispered in my ear.
I turned my head to her and kissed her softly, "I'm awake, Sue," I said to her, pulled my blanket back and sat up. Sue woke Linda and went back to the fire. I put on my boots and sat on my blanket yawning and trying to wake up all the way.
Linda got her boots on and stretched her arms out, "Oh I miss my bed. Sleeping on the ground is uncivilized."
"You'll get used to it at least we've had good sandy beds so far. When we get into the granite country, in Arizona, it's a lot more work to make a good bed." I said.
Linda smiled, "Maybe I'll just sleep on you Josh. At least all your lumps are in the right places."
Amelia said, "Well keep yourself off his lump for a while Linda, at least until I get to sleep."
Sue said, "There is some tea left Josh, you might have to heat it." Sue slid into her blankets and closed her eyes.
Gloria was curled up in her blankets and looked cold. I put her field coat over her sleeping form and checked out the tea pot. It was barely warm, so I put some more wood on the fire and set the pot next to it.
I walked out to where I could see the stock in the moonlight and gave them a quick look see. Most of them were down and all were quiet. I turned back to the fire and saw Linda toasting her hands to the fire.
She grinned at me and said, "Are the animals quiet?"
I smiled and sat beside her, "All but one."
She grinned and kissed me then gave Amelia's back a glance.
We sat there with our hands entwined for a while until the tea began to steam a little. I got a cup and dipped out some, blew on it while Linda warmed her hands on my rapidly rising penis. I sipped the tea and handed the cup to Linda, "You have some tea and I'll patrol."
I gathered my gear and walked around the stock, took a leak and looked in on Barb. She was up grazing and nickered to me when she got my scent. I came over and ran my hand over her warm coat and checked the perimeter of the pasture.
I finished my patrol all around the camp and came back into the fire light. Linda smiled and opened her blanket to me. I put my carbine down and went to her. She wrapped me in the blanket and pulled my back to her. Her hands unbuttoned my shirt and she put her hand inside it on my chest. She kissed my ear and we watched the stars.
Linda said, "How about Respite?"
"From what?" I asked, not sure what she was talking about.
"As a name for this place, Respite," She said. "I think it has a nice ring to it."
I sipped some tea and nodded, "Respite, well how about Area 41 for the way we passed the day before?"
"What made you think of that?" Linda asked.
"Well four women and one man, forty-one," I said.
Linda's hand stretched down and she rubbed her hand across my hairy belly, "How about Furry Hills," she said as she brought her hand up and massaged my nipple. "The hills in the west looked furry to me, all that brush and no trees."
I sipped the tea and leaned against her soft bosom. "Well we could call this Respite or we could call it Four Climax City."
Linda kissed my ear, "I haven't had four climaxes, Josh. Why do you want to call it that?"
I sat up and kissed her, "I'll show you tomorrow Linda."
Her voice was almost apologetic when she said, "Josh, I have to pee, will you hold my hand and walk with me so I can get away from camp?"
"Sure Linda," I said and stood, taking her hand.
We walked away from the pasture I figured we needed a scent marker in back of us as well to warn away any critters who didn't know we were here. I found a place where two game trails crossed and told Linda, "This is a good place. You want me to step away?"
"No, hold my hand so I don't fall back into it."
Linda faced uphill, dropped her pants and squatted down holding my hand and peed for a while. She reached down and wiped herself with her finger and then slung the drips off into the night.
Once she had her pants pulled up we walked back to the fire and sat in the moonlight quietly for a while. We put a blanket around our shoulders and snuggled together watching the others sleep and listening to the sounds of the night.
Linda said, "I can't believe we are going to open the reserve."
"Why not?" I asked.
Linda put my hand inside her shirt on her breast, "Well it's been 275 years since the Administration sealed the vaults. After all this time I wonder if it will all be in good condition."
"What will be in good condition," I asked, "What's in the reserve? I've heard it talked about but no one has ever told me what it is."
Linda looked at me kind of shocked, "You don't know?"
I kissed her and said, "Nobody tells me what's going on. I guess men are just supposed to spread their seed and not worry about anything else."
Linda smiled at me, "You do such a good job, I guess everyone just assumes you know what's going on."
I massaged her nipple, "So are you going to tell me or are you just going to leave me in the dark."
Linda kissed me and said, "The Reserve is why Burney was created Josh. The Government set up a strategic reserve of material and information back before the plague and all. Just in case a global calamity or some other world wide event caused the collapse of civilization. At first it was a place for strategic materials and after a while they decided to put in tools and information. There are 55 vaults in the complex. Some of them are just warehouses and some are complete power stations or factories that can make materials or products. We are finally going to open the reserve now that we know that there are more people who can help us rebuild the world."
I took a while to digest that information. "You mean you have lots of stuff then, enough to remake the 20th Century technologies?
Linda laughed, "No Josh, I mean we can give you the 21st Century technology and a lot more. It will take while to get it all working and of course we need to build a road to Davis so we can move the heavy stuff around."
I sat there and thought about it. "Why didn't you open it up before now?"
Linda hugged me, "We didn't need to Josh. Burney was doing fine but we didn't have the people to fully exploit the reserve, not until we found out about Davis and all. Now we can get the population to start exploiting the reserve and start training people to run the machines and all. The Administration figures we need a population of ten thousand to get every thing working. Of course that will take years but now that you have broken the curse our offspring can be taught to start working with the materials and tools left. It is going to be wonderful, Josh. Think about it we can have electricity and restart the water pumps. We can be as rich as they were back before the Plague."
"But that technology was based upon petroleum, we'll have to find oil wells and build refineries and set up a fuel distribution network."
Linda laughed, "Well we have to start somewhere but we can get along with vegetable oils for a long time. We have lots of hemp oil now and once we get the water system really working, we can grow a lot more and set up the textile industry too." Linda hugged me, "Just think, Josh, we are going to remake the world. You and I are going to save humanity."
I laughed and said, "Well we'll need some help."
Linda laughed and said, "Perhaps our son will be able to help out too. But he'll need some help, so after I get back from Davis maybe we can give him a younger brother to help?"
I kissed her and didn't mention that by the time she got back from Davis I'd be somewhere else and we'd probably never see each other again. We got a little distracted for a while as we considered our futures and Linda was pulling on my prick while I was massaging her nipple. It was getting a little too distracting and I pulled back and said, "Linda we're on duty."
Linda squeezed my dick, "I am keeping you awake, aren't I."
"Yes," I said and hugged her, "but we need to watch the stock." We stood and walked out to the edge of the fire light and watched the mules grazing and sleeping.
Linda and I stood there in the light of the crescent moon and stars. She had her arm around my hips and held the edge of the blanket in her other hand. "So how big is the reserve?" I asked her.
"I don't know really Josh. I've only seen a little of it, all the vaults are sealed in a dry nitrogen environment and no one had been in most of the vaults since they were closed up. I know that the Facility has a hundred and fifty hectares of vaults, but most of that is records and information storage. There is a lot of material that the Administration salvaged after the Plague and we've been using that for our metals recovery, you know for steel and copper. We never tapped the reserve metals, although there was a movement about a hundred and fifty year ago to do just that."
"What happened that they didn't?"
"That was at the time of the second insurrection. At that time the Military was in charge and General Gates said that we didn't have enough population to actually exploit the reserves and wouldn't release them. There was a big battle when Arnold Burney led a bunch of villagers up to the facility to force the military and well it ended badly."
"How so?"
"General Gates sealed up the Facility and when the rebels tried to storm it, General Gates had the Army shoot them all. It was five days before the bodies were all buried and then the Administration tried General Gates for crimes against humanity and hung her. The Administration disbanded the military and that is when the Village Council was set up and, well we've been pretty much just trying to develop our population ever since."