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Eden Reset

By: magmaman



Dan never was much into politics, he was a lot more interested in doing some spelunking on his days off.

But he also read the papers, watching as the man elected to lead the Nation made changes.

Everyone running for office anywhere always claimed they were going to make changes, but of course they never really did so that mostly got ignored.

Far too late, the people realized that this man was serious. They should have known though, after all, he came from a world that most politicians knew nothing, or rather, cared nothing about.

The new President really did state flatly ahead of time what he was going to do, but hell. He was a politician, nobody really believed him.

When the economic "crisis" developed about 60 minutes after he was sworn in, and the first of a series of bills were passed, a few people realized what was likely coming but it was far too late.

The first step was national control over finances, mixed in there was wage and compensation controls. It wasn't very long and a bill was passed keeping "fairness" in the media, that made it impossible for anyone to complain using radio, TV, or even the internet.

The reason was simple, giving up free air time to all opposing viewpoints meant the media outlets could simply not afford it.

It seems that no one will ever listen to what they don't want to hear.

So the media mostly played music and offered up generic news from time to time. Neat stories in the papers about how the Corn crop was doing, things like that. The Nation became a place of peace, the massively wealthy were reduced to the same status as everyone else. A few complained and tried to fight back, but not for long.

The only people truly wealthy were those in charge. Even they had no real wealth, rather, they simply were allowed to have about anything they wished for.

In some ways, nothing really changed much about that.

When the price of energy went through the roof, the people compensated by being conservative, everything became electric powered. 

Since the citizens had to apply to the government for a permit to see a doctor for anything short of an emergency, most learned quickly to keep their mouths shut. An appointment could become a bit hard to get if a person was known to be...problematic.

Medical costs fell rapidly once the wage controls came along, and of course major expenses like open heart surgery or kidney transplants were all assigned a value based on expected life spans and the citizen's ability to produce.

Folks much over 65 were simply considered non productive, unless they were government officials.

When the new leader got close to his term limit, a few people spoke of changes again but with the government now in charge of the census, this meant they really decided who got elected and which party. Everyone was required to vote, the little bar codes on the ballots made sure of that. In short order the opposition was out numbered by 10 to one. The constitution was amended to allow the new President to hold office for as long as he could win elections. By his 16th year in office, and reelected for the fifth term, things were pretty much under control.

There were a few upsets from the Supreme Court, but finally that was simply disbanded, the government then made law by the stroke of a pen.

All votes from Congress and the Senate were 9 to one when laws were passed. That was perfectly fair, in a democratic society, the majority rules.

There was even peace in the Middle East, Dan had seen the front page picture of the President shaking hands with the former terrorist leaders. Everyone was smiling, and the story proclaimed that the agreement meant peace for all mankind for all time. Reading the agreement for USA aid to mid-east oil producing Nations to help keep their economies afloat was interesting. Oil was so seldom used that it had little value. Most oil products were used to power the huge government transport trucks that distributed goods to markets.

There were a few other little news blurbs in the papers, local stuff mostly. Someone had lit a cigarette inside the 500 foot distance requirement from other people or buildings. He had been beaten to death on the spot. In another story, someone had tried to rob a local government Marijuana outlet on the corner, but the police found him quickly by using his global position sensor. They simply executed him on the spot. He had to be insane anyway, if he couldn't afford drugs the government would just issue a stamp to get them for free.

Yes, it was insane to commit robbery, there was just no reason to do that. Of course, in a peaceful society, there was no room for insanity, either. Since deliberately harming another person was considered to be....well, insane? It was amazing the amount of money that could be saved simply bypassing the criminal justice system, and dealing with running jails.

Crime became a very rare thing, and the news did still report about that, but just in passing.

The drug problem ended the day the government set up all of the drug outlets, and handed out prescriptions. Since there was no longer any money to be made dealing in illegal narcotics, that ended that in less than 60 days. Sure, some members of the south American drug cartels prepared to fight over that, but one rather small thermonuclear device ended the argument. 

There was also some complaints from governments down there about that, but in short order all of the borders were eliminated and the entire western hemisphere became one Nation.

This left just three separate continents worldwide.

Government didn't bother with trials any more. Government also did not bother with spending huge sums on jails.

Government didn't actually print money anyway, the new World Order Dollar was all in the database, everyone got exactly the same amount assigned at birth. Therefore the price of things never went up, in fact, exceeding the government price controls was illegal.

The differences were all based on productivity, those that worked hard got better housing units, better vehicles, things like that.

When all of the stock markets were closed and government took control of all production, the economy stabilized nicely. Once in while someone would rebel and become non productive, but that was considered to be a sign of insanity.

The medical profession was charged with investigating and dealing with things like insanity.

Dan didn't really care too much about what was going on, what the hell, he was getting by. He mostly wanted to be left alone. But the final straw was when the government required breeding permits, this was to stabilize the population. That was just too much, Dan had had it with government. Sure, he could go to the government sexual outlets, those were always nice and clean and the government allowed just about anything a person wanted to do. There were specialists in any act. Somehow that just didn't feel right, it wasn't natural to Dan so he never bothered to go.

Those sure were busy places, though.

Weekends found Dan headed down into the crack in the rocks he had discovered out in the badlands. A 50 mile ride, unload and then a 10 mile run on his little 4 wheel ATV, add a short climb and he was there. Looking around, Dan saw no one, he never did. So he carefully hid the ATV and began the walk to the cave. He had already been in there several times, each time going deeper and deeper, marking carefully the return route.

It was quite the place, the huge boulder in front hid the tiny slit that was the entrance, it could not be seen until a person was right there, within just a few feet of it. Even then it just looked like a small crack in the rocks, it wasn't until Dan had actually stuck his head in there that he realized.

Over a period of several weeks, he began the laborious process of mapping out the caverns. They seemed to just go on and on. Dan set up battery packs at intervals, and began a system of regular recharging outside. The new batteries the government supplied were quite efficient. They were about the size of of a baseball card and would run a light for 48 hours. He did wish he had more than the 8 cards but that was all government allowed. But then he only had the one charger anyway, it would bring 4 of the tiny cards up to full power in just half a day so it worked out.

He had been amazed to come around one high rock wall nearly a mile inside and find the pool of clear water. It was cool, but not so cool as to be uncomfortable. He stuck his hand in the water, tasted it. It was sweet and clear. He saw the motion as a large fish of some kind with no apparent eyes slid by. The fish did not respond to his solar pack light, so he knew it was blind.

That was the first full night that he spent inside. The next day Dan began to move equipment, things that would let him stay and live down there for days on end. By the end of the first Summer he had enough provisions to last for months, maybe even a year if he was careful.

He had several good axes, and a number of good blades. He would have liked to have a firearm or two, but government had ended people using them. They hadn't bothered to outlaw firearms, or go to all the trouble of trying to take them away from people. They had just banned ammunition, in a few years that problem solved itself. Oh, sure, once in a while someone got hold of a gun and ammo, but if they did they were quickly caught and executed.

Dan had long since quit his job, the last tax increase had just made it too much. With government now taking slightly more than 90% of all he earned, there wasn't much point in working.

Dan sold the house and farm he had inherited, it was quite a bit of money even after the government taxes of over half of it. The reason taxes were so low on property sales was to encourage people to invest, of course. But only in property that produced and was worked. All residential property was owned by the government.

There had been some political turmoil over that one but the government offered big tax breaks for turning over the property. The vast majority did just that, then the rest were such a small number that it became a requirement.

Those farm investments had to be applied for and approved by government. Dan had no problem at all getting his permit to sell, and the buyer next in line had a permit to purchase so the sale was instant. The sale price was set by the government so there was no haggling to bother with.

This trip he drove his pickup out and parked it in a wide spot on the road. He knew that after a week the government would spot the location from the global position sensor. Vehicles that were parked and not moved were considered to be a waste, so government would send someone out to take a look. Of course they would just confiscate it, people were not allowed to waste assets. They wouldn't even bother to look for him. If he had gone into the desert and died it didn't matter, and if he was living out there as an Anti-gov, that didn't matter either.

So all government would do was tow his vehicle and recycle it.

There was no global position sensor on Dan's ATV though. He made sure of that, buying it through the black market. That was a bit of a risk since the penalty for avoiding the GPS sales taxes on any vehicle was high, but he did it since he had plans to vanish anyway.

There actually was a pretty active black market going on, a person could get just about anything they wanted. Of course all capital transactions were tracked, but there was still barter. 

He hid the machine, setting the solar packs where they would catch the sunlight. They would recharge the system in half a day. The new systems were very efficient. No one could afford to drive a fossil fuel powered machine, of course.

Well, except for government officials, they all rode around in huge vehicles, with armed guards everywhere they went.

Moving the last of his gear into the cave, he moved through the passages in near dark, only a tiny light to help. By now he knew the cave like the back of his hand. It took Dan several hours to get his gear to his new area. The spot he had chosen was large, and one wall was warm. He was fairly sure there was some geothermal activity going on because that cavern was a steady 70 degrees all the time. Most of the rest of the outer cave was much cooler. Areas even deeper in got warmer, Dan knew he would not be able to go much further.

Dan had checked, there was a steady airflow in from somewhere, he hadn't found the source yet but planned to look for it. It was cooler air, but warmed as it flowed upwards though the area, and the natural vent at the upper end of the cavern allowed the warmer air to move up and out.

Hell, he could not have designed it any better. Even the small cooking fires he built made very little smoke, and it moved up and out with the gentle airflow. He had even gone outside to check on that, there was a very faint haze way off in the distance that he figured no one would notice.

Outside, there were Rabbits and other mammals, inside were large fish. The ones that looked like Trout were the best, their long slim bodies were devoid of marking. Blind, they relied on their sense of smell to find food.

Dan had learned quickly that some Ant eggs on a hook brought an instant bite, plus there were cave dwellers that looked like roaches of some kind that the fish took readily, too. He had to be careful with the fish, they had large sharp teeth. He had discovered that quickly, luckily it was a smaller one and his hand had healed in just a few days.

The deep pool seemed to be full of them, plus it went under the rocks out of sight. Dan had no idea how large the pool was but he suspected it was very large, there was no end to the fish moving in and out of the cave's pool.

Dan had also learned to use his light so he could jerk the bait away from some of the largest fish. Whatever those things were, he couldn't handle them, he had lost one line when something had grabbed his bait and almost pulled him into the water.

Dan didn't want to be pulled into the water very badly, he remembered those teeth. He had also seen what looked like a big lizard of some kind that was always near the warmer pool that was much farther into the cave. It was huge, about six feet long, and lay there on the bank, it's mouth open, just waiting. It was blind, also, but it's head slowly turned his way as he stood there. Dan retreated when he saw that, and stayed out of that area. There was no sign that any of those things ever came into the section he was in, but he piled up rocks making a wall just to be sure.

About 20 miles back on the trail coming in there was a sign, it had a nuclear emblem on it and said no admittance. He had read something about a waste repository around here, he had actually never thought about that much. Dan suspected that might have something to do with the rather strange things he was seeing. But the sign also was an asset, it meant that it was much less likely he would have any competition for the area.

After several months of living down in the caves, Dan was getting comfortable. Going out just once in awhile to gather wood to cook with and trap a few animals for dinner was enough. On some of the bright days he went outside to get some Sun, and always checked on his machine hidden up in the rocks with brush around. Once while he was outside he did see some riders off in the distance, but they never came close and would never see him even if they did.

Dan had become one of the mountain men, living outside and away from everyone else. People like him were called Anti-govs, he had read of them in the newspapers. There were far too few of them to be any kind of threat, so government just let them be.

Once in awhile one of them had been picked up and executed, but always for raiding someone's home, or something like that. Dan had no need to raid anyone, he had resources, everything he needed.

Well, a woman would be nice but that was a bit on the unlikely side. Not very many women would stand for living as an Anti-gov like Dan had become.

There wasn't a lot of danger of his being discovered if he was careful, and Dan was very careful. Even when he went outside, he climbed up to the top of a nearby pinnacle to look around. He could see for many miles in all directions, and except for some off road riders once in awhile, he was alone.

The last thing he needed was for some of the other Anti-govs to find his spot, Dan was afraid they would move in and quickly use up the available resources.

A couple of years went by, the seasons didn't have a lot of effect on the badlands. It got colder outside, then warmer, that was about it. Just once when Dan was outside did it rain, even that was over in minutes although the rain was very heavy. The world took on a ghostly appearance as steam rose from the surrounding rocks, then all was normal again. Back inside he found the water in the pool had risen very quickly, it has almost flooded his living area, then it had gone back down in just a few minutes.

That was another thing he needed to watch out for, too, he realized.

Another time a storm came up while he was outside, that one taught him a lesson as he barely made it back to the cave entrance. It became impossible to breathe outside with the wind tearing at the ground and throwing dust. Dan added weather to his list of things to check for before moving very far from the cave.

One day he was out checking his snares, the first two had been empty but there was a fine Rabbit in the third one. Rabbits were rare, mostly he caught the big rat like looking things. Those were OK but stringy, Rabbit was a real treat. He could see the snare was barely holding. 

That was when he made a mistake.

Standing up and moving quickly, he grabbed a rock and belted the animal. It let out a loud squeal and fell silent.

"Hello." Dan heard a voice behind him. Startled, he turned and looked, reaching for his blade.

A young woman stood there. She had a bandana over her head, she was dressed in a skin tight colorful suit of some kind.

"I didn't expect to see anyone." She said with a smile, stepping off her solar assist mountain bike.

"I am just trapping Rabbits." Dan told her lamely.

"I can see that, it's a big one, too." She stepped closer to him. Dan backed away.

"What's the matter? I won't do anything." She stepped towards him again.

Dan looked around, saw no one else.

"How did you get up here?" He asked her.

"We are camped in that canyon over there." She pointed at a draw between too large points of rock a couple of miles away. Dan had been over there, water came to the surface for about a half mile before sliding under the cliffs again. There were quite a few plants over there, it was an oasis. He had planned to explore that some more with the idea of living there but had never gotten around to it.

"We?" He asked her.

"Yes, there are six of us, counting me. We came out to ride, the government sells permits to ride here on the reservation now."

"Oh. Well, I need to be going." Dan reached down for the Rabbit, started to reset the snare and then thought better of it. He picked the snare up and clipped it to his waist. 

"Where are you camped? Maybe you would like to join us?" She smiled.

"Over there." Dan lied, waving his arm in the opposite direction. There was nothing over there but desert that went on for miles.

She got a confused look on her face, then looked at him closely. The rat skin jacket and fur boots were probably a giveaway. Dan did have on blue jeans but they had been patched many times with pieces of hide. There was a huge blade hanging from his hip, and the several year's worth of hair and beard growth made it obvious.

"Oh, my God! You are an Agee, aren't you?"

"Agee?"

"Yea, an Anti-government man?"


Eden Reset Ch. 02



axThe wind off the desert had a bite to it, Katey snugged the large cloth wrap tightly around herself as she worked her way down the rocky hillside.

She wasn't frightened, but she was being very careful. The desert Dogs were out there, one or two of them she knew she could handle but if she got the attention of a large pack it would be a problem.

She reached down and touched the huge blade that hung from the belt she had made from the wirebrush strands. She tugged on it, it still felt strong. Wirebrush was everywhere, it had taken over quickly after the time of the dark clouds that had signalled Earth's end.

All of those years she had sat at the Dan Father's feet and listened to him tell the stories of the times before slid through her mind.

The Mary Mother and Sara mother had also spoken from time to time, adding in moments of past to fill her mind with visions of what was before.

Before seemed to Katey to be a wondrous time, the idea of so many of the others everywhere was something her mind just could not really grasp.

But she had seen the places where the others had lived before, they were so large and seemed to go on and on. They had all lived a mostly orderly life together, not like the way it was now. There had been so many, now there was almost no one. The five family members in their own little band had struggled to survive, now there was just herself. Somewhere out there was her brother Marty, and her sister, Marilee.

The only others she had ever seen had come to try and take them, always after the women. Dan father had fought them, refusing to become part of their pack.

Katey knew why the others wanted her and her sister Marilee, Dan father had told her so. She didn't really understand that, the dark clouds had made almost everyone who survived sterile, so why would the others want the women?

"You choose who you become one with, Katey." Dan father had said. "Let no one force you."

She had not completely understood what that meant either until one day she saw that she had begun to bleed while out doing her toiletries. It looked just like the time a Rabbit caught in one of their traps had turned and bitten her on her leg. It had the same red color she had seen before when she was scratched or cut. But from there? She knew something was wrong, so Katey ran to Sara mother crying, afraid. She had no real idea what could have happened to her there. Whatever it was made her feel ill, her stomach hurt.

Mary mother and Sara mother had talked a long time with her quietly, explaining. Katey remembered thinking that they should have told her before. The truth was that they had but Katey was a bit of a wild thing, a tomboy and spent most of her time trying to keep up with or top her brother Marty. They often scuffled, and even with Katey being much smaller, Marty could barely manage to control her.

Things changed after that, she began to hide from her brother Marty when she felt the time coming.

She had no idea why though, except Mary and Sara mother had explained what men do. Marty had acted differently the first few times towards her when her time came. She knew what he was thinking at those times, and somehow it was not right so she learned to keep to herself.

Katey had no idea how old she was when Dan father passed quietly one night. He was there for dinner but did not awake the next morning. Mary mother and Sara mother lifted the now light old man's body and took him somewhere, returning after a few hours.

They had both been crying. Katey cried also, Marty did not. He seemed to suddenly become taller, stronger. He took Dan father's blade and hung it from his hip, then went to the watch rock to check everything.

Katey could see him up there, his powerful shoulders and arms bare but for the vest he had made from a Lion's hide. Marty's hair was long and flowing, stark white even though he was young. They all assumed it was due to the exposure to their parents from when the dark clouds came. Even though Dan father and the women had stayed fertile, something had changed.

Katey's hair was darker, more brownish yellow than white, although she had strips of white in hers, also.

From then on Marty was the leader, the strong male figure. He was very powerful, nearly six feet tall and heavy in the chest and shoulders.

His going up to the watch rock was a sure sign of his accepting his family leadership. Mary mother simply allowed that with a smile, and both she and Sara mother obeyed when Marty asked them to do something.

Nothing was coming their way of course, nothing ever did any much anymore. Not after the time Dan father had had enough of the constant attempts at raiding them and they all went down to the other's camp. Katey had stayed behind, hiding up in the cave where no one could ever find her.

The others were all sleeping, their reactions were far too late.

No one spoke much of that time after that, but there were no more attacks. Only rarely did they see a dust cloud in the distance as someone moved across the desert. 

Dan father spent quite a long time off by himself after dealing with the others, it was like he was talking to someone. His face was drawn and gray, it was a long time before he smiled again.

Katey learned to fear the idea of the others, she took every precaution to avoid them.

Then Sara mother became ill, over several days she became weaker and weaker, one day she sighed and was gone. It was during that period that little Marilee had simply vanished. Marilee was always into something, always wandering off exploring.  While their attention had been diverted, Marilee was simply gone.

She was barely 15 years old when she disappeared. Children were valuable in this new world of mostly sterile survivors, there was always the chance one could breed. Katey's family were not sterile for some reason. 

Marilee was a strange child, she almost never spoke. She had to be watched constantly since she was afraid of nothing and curious about everything. She was already close to 5 feet tall by the time she was barely 10 warm seasons old, and her hair grew in jet black with a strip of pure white in the front. By the time she was 12 her hair had reached her waist, she absolutely refused to let anyone touch it or try to cut it. Now as she had begun to bud out and become a woman her long hair had seemed to reach all of the length it was going to.

Rather than carry the large blades that all the rest of them used, she had several smaller, thinner ones. She had practiced throwing until now she could hit a Rabbit on a dead run with them.

One day while out gathering wood they had been confronted by a large white Cougar. Somehow a few had survived the dark clouds, hiding in their dens. Marty had stepped in front of Marilee, drawing his heavy blade. Katey had stepped aside with her sling at the ready also, the huge animal showed no sign at all of retreating. Then a blade had flown past Marty's shoulder, the big Cat had dropped in it's tracks with the razor sharp knife sunk to the hilt in it's throat.

Marty wore that hide now everywhere he went, Marilee had sat crosslegged for days stripping and curing the hide to make a parka for him. She chewed the tough hide until it was soft and pliable, then stained it with the bitter and peppery wirebrush berries in patterns.

Marty could almost not be seen when out in the brush. He moved like a shadow, there and then not even though in plain sight.

Marty had hunted for days afer Marilee came up missing, looking for signs. He had worried at first that she had run into a pack of the desert dogs, they would take her in an instant if they could. But he had found instead the tracks of a large solar powered machine, and he knew.

That was rare, all of the other machines had long since failed, the battery packs refused to take a charge. But someone had one that still worked, Marty looked out across the desert at the tracks fading in the distance.

He also found the spattering of blood, whoever had taken Marilee had ran into a struggle, she was deadly with her knives.

There was nothing he could do, yet he fretted all the time. He began to skip eating, instead he went and stared out across the desert.

Then one day he spoke with Mary mother, Katey saw her nod and reach out to hug him, the next day he was gone.

With no one left but Mary mother and Katey it was obvious that it would not be long before something had to change. 

Change came quickly. It was just a few weeks before Mary mother became ill, it was like she had whatever Sara mother had.

The outcome was obvious, and soon Katey was alone.

Some of the others came when the next warm season arrived, they searched for her for a long time. But Katey knew about the cave up the far side of the canyon, she hid inside for a long time, her blade at the ready in the narrow passage. It was so dark that she could not see but she could hear. The tiniest sound told her what was there, she heard them outside, searching. But they never found the cave entrance.

After they exhausted their fruitless search, Katey packed what little remained and headed out in the direction that Marty had gone. Marty had been gone for a very long time, but she had no other options.

There was just nothing else left to do, she knew she could not stay at their home by herself.

When she approached the hard path, the sign Dan father had hung so many years before stood silently as a witness, hanging at an angle by one fastner.  "Eden" it read, the letters still clear. Katey stopped, and used a piece of wirebrush to hook it back in place.

She glanced back as a gust of wind knocked it loose, it hung again at a steep angle.

That was almost like an omen, Eden was now gone.

She moved quietly across the desert away from the hard path, slipping from large patches of brush to rocks, checking carefully before moving on. The wind caused the now tattered flaps of the vehicles shoved over to the sides of the hard path to move, but there was nothing else. There were a few remains of the others from the world before, the grey bodies were mostly buried, just shells of what was once a living thing.

Katey had seen them many times before, she was hardened to that.

As she walked along, she spotted a mark on one of the vehicles. It was in a wild scroll, and looked something like the letter "M".

Her heart leaped, it was Marty's sign that he had left for them before when he went hunting or fishing. He marked rocks with a piece of the whitestone that he carried in his pocket. The next mark was to the left, the city was the other way. Katey had never been down that way, it seemed odd but Marty left the signs so she followed.

After several days following Marty's signs she came to a mark that had a line underneath, a circle on the end of the single line. Katey looked, then turned and headed out across the desert floor towards....nothing.

The ever present wind had covered most tracks, although in a few places she could make out a sign or two of where a machine had passed.

She went on total faith, Marty was months ahead of her but he was telling her which way to go. Katey checked her water, she had just two quarts left and had been out of food for over a day.

But she had her blade, and she knew about the sticky water plants that grew in the desert.

When it got close to dark time, she settled in close to a water plant, and made a snare from wirebrush strands. She made a simple loop, placed it where the creature would likely pass between two rugged plant stalks, and attached each end, knotting them securely. When the animal tried to slip through the noose it would tighten. She had seen the well used trail heading off over a low bank, kneeling down she saw the burrow. The tracks looked to be that of one of the big rats, that was food, she knew.

Plus a hide, which she needed to repair her sling, now worn from many hunts.

It was very dark when she heard the squeal, she hurried up and went over to her snare, following the sounds.

Her blade made quick work of the animal. She felt her way back to her camp. Picking up the sticks she had set up before, she pressed it down and spun it in the little pile of fine shavings she had placed there. Her practiced hands soon had a trail of smoke, then flame. She nursed the flame into a nice fire, then using her blade she skinned and cleaned the animal.

It was a nice fat little Rat, she placed it on some coals she brushed back from the fire, turning it constantly.

Then she ate ravenously, even cracking the skull open to suck out the brains before discarding and burying the remains. She didn't wish to attract a pack of desert dogs. Afterwards she buried some coals, covered them and slept soundly in the soft warm sand, curled up near the glowing fire. It warded off the night time chill nicely, she woke up refreshed. The Sun shone brightly in the clear blue sky, Katey stretched, dug up the remains, then used her blade to strip the hide of hairs and tissue.

Sitting cross legged, she cut the hide into strips, began to chew it to soften it. Finally satisfied, she used her blade to cut a section from a nearby wirebrush, trimming the ends into a long handled fork.

It was stout, she pulled on it with all her strength trying to break it and could not.

Sitting down again, she tied the strips of hide to one side of the fork, then tied a small pad of hide to the center of it. Selecting a pebble, she loaded the tool and spun it, releasing it at a nearby water plant.

She hit it dead center, blowing a hole all the way through the plant and out the other side.

Katey grinned, stuck the sling in her waistband, then gathered a half dozen nice sized pebbles she placed those in her pouch.

Then she went and found a nice hard sandstone rock, and carefully sharpened her blade. Checking the edge, she knew it was keen, so she hung it from her belt, wrapping a piece of the left over hide around the blade. She discarded the worn piece she had been using, carefully burying it to leave no sign. Then she covered her fireplace in the sand. Checking the Sun to get her bearings, she headed out again.

Abandoned vehicles were now scarce, but she came upon several at a narrower hard path. Once again, there was Marty's mark, she found the one with the line and the circle, and headed off again after checking all of the vehicles for anything she could use. She did cut a section of tattered canvas from one of them, folded it and took it with her.

That was all there was, she had flipped the switch on each one, all of them were dead.

It was four days later when she saw the hazy outline of a city. Getting closer, she could see the buildings were tall. She came to a stream, drank greedily. It was cold and clear.

Then she made a camp away from the edge of the stream, well aware that the small little brook could become a raging torrent at a moment's notice.  It was nice and cool, there was a lot more vegetation, trees nearby. She sat down and stripped a long piece of wirebrush carefully until she had about 10 feet of thin strand. In her pouch she had some metal hooks, Dan father had collected them years before from the town, she always carried them with her.

She had spotted a small rotten tree down by the stream, so she went down and dug into the soft wood. Sure enough, there was an Ant's nest with large white eggs. She put one on the hook and dropped the line into a small pool at a bend in the river.

The line twitched, she tugged and was rewarded with a small fish flipping out on the bank. She caught six of them, all about 8 inches long before a larger one bit and snapped the strand.

She was upset with losing the hook, but she had a dozen more of them. She was hoping she could find more in the city, and perhaps more things she needed.

As long as she didn't run into a pack of the others.

That night she cooked and ate the fish, they were delicious. But she made a mistake, leaving the remains out. Her belly was full and she needed sleep so she simply curled up next to the glowing coals, once again burying some to warm the ground.

Katey woke with a start in the dark to see several sets of eyes glowing at her, reflected barely by the fading fire.

Desert Dogs!

Rolling up to her feet and waving her arms, the animals didn't back down. She drew her blade, just in time as one darted in to attack. She brought the heavy blade down, there was a yelp and they all retreated a short distance. 

She grabbed her sling and loaded a pebble, spinning it and releasing it. One of the Dogs stumbled and almost fell, letting out a howl. They vanished into the darkness.

Then she backed to a nearby tree, climbing it she settled in on a branch fork. She leaned back and waited for daylight, Desert Dogs would never try to attack in the daylight.

Katey slept fitfully in the tree, she wasn't worried about falling off, she had slept in trees before.

When the Sun came up, she climbed down. The Dogs had eaten the remains of her fish, and had dragged her pack off and torn it up. She recovered that, gathered what had spilled out. Finding a wirebrush, she stripped off some threads and made the repairs, using the portion of canvas she had salvaged.

She really hated those Desert Dogs, she knew she had killed the one, having found it's body lying a dozen feet away. The rest had come back in the dark and fed on it, but a lot still remained. Her heavy blade had bitten deeply into the back of it's neck. The marks showed another one was dragging a hind leg, she grinned at herself when she saw that. She knew the rest would turn on it when dark came, one less desert dog to be concerned about.

She skinned the carcass, stripped out the meat. Building a fire, she piled rocks to shroud the coals, then sprinkled wood chips on the fire to make smoke. Wetting the remains of the hide, she lay it over the rocks to keep the smoke close in to the meat. 

So much smoke made her nervous but she needed to cure the meat for later. She smoked the meat until it was fully dry, then stripped out the hide and cut strands for ties.

The larger portion made a fine soft parka for her shoulders after she scraped off the now crisp fatty tissue and thoroughly chewed the pelt.

Once again she stripped out some wirebrush, selecting a stronger thread to make line from. She didn't need food so she coiled the line and put it in her pouch for later.

Then she headed out towards the city, following the stream. It meandered but seemed to be heading that way. Finding a small rise at nightfall, she went up and watched carefully, checking for movement. There wasn't any, so she climbed down and made camp, checked to make sure a nice tree was nearby in case she needed it.

She slept well, nothing bothered her that night. The next morning she made a meal of the dried meat, finishing it off with a drink from the stream.

She knew she was going to have to cross the stream, so she removed her heavy boots. She didn't want to get them soaked, they were the last pair that Dan father had brought home, and she had already repaired them dozens of times. She didn't really need the boots, the soles of her feet were like leather, but in some of the climbing the boots made it easier.

Moving upstream to a riffle, she crossed to the other side. She kept her blade at the ready, not sure of what if anything might be in the water but nothing showed.

Katey spent a full two days approaching the place of the others. She checked constantly for motion, anything that might mean trouble. She had long since lost track of the marks Marty was leaving, that worried her. She had seen nothing since leaving the stream.

Finally mustering her courage, she moved up close to a building. There seemed to be a wide hard path heading into the city, staying close to the edges she moved ahead. Coming around a corner, she was delighted to see one of Marty's marks.




Eden Reset Ch. 02



There was another mark up ahead, so she headed that way. As she was checking the marks, she heard the sounds of water. Looking around the corner, she saw water pouring up and falling back. That was a strange sight she had never seen before, so she carefully moved closer.

The rocks at the edge of the pond were very smooth and some of the edges were square. Katey knew those rocks had been made by the people before the dark clouds time. There was a green looking scum on everything. The hard path here had a raised edge on each side, she walked close to the odd looking rock wall for a long ways.

She came to a strange statue that had fallen into the hard path, it was white and had a huge built in hat on it's head. She had no idea at all what that was.

She realized that everything she was looking at were things the others had made.

Katey passed a building that had large doors that slowly opened wide when she walked up to them, that frightened her and she darted back behind some nearby bushes, drawing her blade.

When nothing else moved and the doors closed, she approached again. Once again, they opened wide, faster this time.

Inside, she found a large room with rows of machines of some kind. They all had screens on them, all of them were lit up, just sitting there. Katey also heard a sound, almost like an animal's call but it never changed.

Katey knew there had to be a huge Sunlight collector somewhere for everything to all still work. Checking carefully, she found no bodies, no sign of anything anywhere. There was thick dust on every surface. She looked at one of the machines closely, it had pictures of something in front of little slots. That made no sense at all, so she wandered around looking to see what else was there. She came to a room with bars in front, inside she found stacks of papers that looked like the pictures she had seen. They all had faces on them.

Curious, she picked up one of the bundles, went over to one of the machines. It seemed that they meant to put one of the papers into the machine, so she pulled one loose and tried it. It had designs on it, but they meant nothing to her.

The machine made a whirring and clicking sound and jerked the paper from her fingers, Katey darted for cover, the sudden sound frightened her again. She finally walked back, a light was lit so she pushed it, thinking maybe it had food since she had seen other machines that had packs of food inside but she could see no way to get to it.

She knew about the snack bags that were inside, Dan father had brought some home on his trips. But no amount of effort would get the box open, she had tried.

The machine groaned to life and the screen flashed, it clicked several times and then nothing happened. She pushed the button again, still nothing. Kneeling down, she looked up inside of it, there was nothing there. She set the bundle down and moved on through the room. 

Then it hit her. She went back and got the bundle, walked back to one of the machines she saw food inside of. Putting the paper in the slot, the machine jerked it from her fingers. She pushed a button and a small bag fell out into the bottom. She stood there and slid the papers in until the machine was empty, then sat down and ate.

The ones that were black rings rings of sweet bread with Chocolate on them were really hard to bite into but were best of all. She knew what chocolate was from some that Dan father had brought home so many seasons before. The rings were very hard and crunchy, she liked that.

Then she picked up a bag that had what looked like little berries, those were filled with the Chocolate, too.

Katey ate greedily until her lips began to sting from some of the food that a reddish color to it, then her belly hurt a little so she drank some water. There was more than she could carry, so she hid the sacks behind one of the machines.

Then she sat crosslegged on the floor and licked her fingers clean. She drank some more water, then dozed, the sound that came from somewhere still repeating over and over. That seemed to be something like when Dan Father played the songs when she was a very little girl. But the solar collectors had failed, it had been a very long time since she heard them. The sound lulled her to sleep.

Awakening refreshed, and finding nothing else she could use, she went back outside.  Marty's mark showed again further down, excited now she moved more quickly, hiding once when she saw a Desert Dog dart across the hard path.

Spotting the marks again with a line and a circle, so she turned and followed. 

Passing a doorway, she heard a sound and turned, her hand dropping to her blade.

"In here, Katey, quickly!" She heard Marty's voice. She darted through a side doorway, Marty shut the door and hugged her.

"I knew you would be coming." He told her.

"I had to, both Sara and Mary Mother have gone on." She told him.

His face fell at that.

"It's just us, then, and Marilee."

"You found her?"

"Yes, she is with the others, they have her right down there. They don't know I am here yet. I had been searching and found no sign, then suddenly here they were."

"How many?"

"I have seen six of them and two women, they are all old except for Marilee and one of the men. I think they took Marilee for him.

"For him?"

"Yes, you know, for...breeding."

"Oh." Katey knew about that. She also knew that Marilee was now 18 warm seasons, barely one season younger than herself so she was not too young. That worried her.

"We need to figure out how to get her away from them."

"We could try talking to them?"

"That won't work, they will never give her up without a fight, and then they will just be warned."

"Are they hurting her?"

"It doesn't seem like they are, but I see her work."

"We need to let her know somehow that we are here." Katey said.

"I think we should just try to take them down fast and get it over with. There were too many for just me, but with you here..." Marty's face darkened, his jaw set.

"I have a sling." She said.

"So do I." Marty grinned.

"Well, let's do it, then."

They moved out and slipped carefully down the street. Emboldened now that he was no longer alone, Marty led the way. They could hear voices inside, but they didn't recognize the words. Katey had her sling loaded, Marty loaded his, too.

Together, they stepped inside. One man looked up surprised in time to see Katey release her sling, the pebble hit him on the forehead and he went down without a sound. The one that Marty aimed at moved slightly but was struck on the shoulder hard enough to drop him to his knees. Katey's second pebble took him all the way down.

Marilee stood there startled, then she was running their way just as the man behind her reached for a weapon. Both Katey and Marty knew what those were but their own had long since ran out of ammunition.

Katey wound up her sling, stepping sideways to clear Marilee as the man was swinging the gun around. Her pebble struck him in the stomach, he dropped the rifle.

Then Marilee was hugging Marty, he picked her up and headed for the door. There was some yelling from the other room, Katey dropped the first man that came through the doorway with a stone, the other man jumped back.

She only caught a glimpse of him but he was tall and slender, much younger than the others.

Then she turned and ran, Marty was already on the other side of the hard path and ducking into another building. They ran down a long hallway, then into a side room.

"I took down at least three of them." She panted, trying to catch her breath.

"I got two, one of them you finished off. Nice job."

Marilee was struggling and squirming furiously so Marty put her down. She was much bigger than when Katey had last seen her, but Marty had carried her with ease.

"There are at least two of them left...and the woman." He told her.

"The others will recover, all we did was knock them down. Did you see the young man?"

"Yes, I saw him. We had probably better get out of here." Marty said.

They took off at a trot, Marilee running easily beside them. She still had said almost nothing. They ran all the way to the river, then turned and followed it upstream.

They covered several miles before they stopped to rest. They shared the last of the meat Katey had in her pack.

"The river has lots of fish." She told Marty.

"I know, I caught some when I came through. I have some line I found in a building." He produced a little wheel with red colored line from his pack.

Marilee hopped up and went looking for Ant eggs, Katey could see she hadn't really changed. She never spoke much, but if there was something to do she just did it. She was back quickly with a large handful of big white eggs.

They all went down to the river, in short order Marty had a couple of nice fish. Then Marilee took over, she caught one almost as long as her arm, Marty helped her to pull it out, flopping on the bank.

"That's plenty." Katey said, so they went into the brush to make a camp. Not daring to build a fire, they ate the meat raw.

Then they climbed deep inside a wirebrush plant after chopping out a section, and they curled up to sleep.

Once again, they were all together.

Katey dreamed that night of the tall young man, once she woke up and felt Marty pressed close to her.

It made her feel uncomfortable somehow, she wiggled around until Marilee was between them.

Morning came, it rained briefly, then the Sun came out. They ate the rest of the fish and then headed up the river.

They hadn't gone a mile when they heard the whine of a solar machine. They hid in the brush as it passed, the young man was driving, an older man sat up top and there was an old woman in the other seat. The others didn't see them, so they stayed hidden. 

Later, when all seemed quiet, they headed out again. At the edge of the vegetation, the land turned back to desert. They stopped, knowing that to cross would put them out in the open.

They camped right there that night, watching carefully. Katey set some snares with no success, so the next morning they found a water plant and cut some wedges out of it. The moisture was good and would save their meager water cans for later.

Then they headed out. Katey saw her own tracks in the dirt, so they followed those back towards the far off hard path. They were almost to the abandoned vehicles when they saw the big machine pull up and stop. The tall man was standing up, he was looking their way through some kind of glasses.

They were trapped.

Katey picked up some stones, Marty did the same. He handed his blade to Marilee, she took it, knowing exactly how to use it. The others had taken all of her throwing blades from her of course. Her jaw was set, Katey knew she was ready to fight too. The thin 15 seasons old little girl that had vanished so long ago was now a budding young woman.

The machine moved their way again, then stopped well out of their range. Katey expected them to use a weapon, but they didn't. 

She realized they could not, not with the three of them very likely being fertile, and two of them women.

Katey had just about decided to rush the vehicle to get within range since running would do no good, not if they had firearms. She really did not think they would use weapons but she wasn't sure of that.

Just then the young man stood up, and held up both hands.

Katey hesitated, not really understanding.

"Darth wants to talk." Marilee said.

The sudden sound of her voice was startling.

"Darth?" Marty asked.

"That man. He is kind to me."

Marty stood up straight, held up his arms. Katey stepped off to the side, her sling now at the ready. The young man climbed down off the vehicle and walked their way. He had nothing in his hands, nothing on his waist.

The man stopped about 10 feet away. His eyes were wary.

"What do you want?" Marty said.

"We need to make peace, work together. We have several of us badly hurt, we can't fight any more."

"There should be four of you badly hurt." Marty answered, folding his arms across his chest.

"Yes. They are sore but OK, they are back at camp being tended to by the family."

"What do you want?" Marty repeated.

"I want to join you. My people talked, they are all old and there is no future. There is a future for me with you. I have no place else to go."

"You want Marilee, is that it?"

"Yes, but...." His eyes dropped. Katey saw Marilee smile slightly out of the corner of her eye.

"In my family, we choose. In my family, we are free. Your people took our sister by force, why should we just not kill you and go on?"

"I can work, I will help. I want to be free too." Darth's eyes looked directly at Marty. 

"What about the others?"

"They decided and they agree. They end here now, they can only just live. I want to live, I want to be...with you. With you, I have tomorrow."

Marty glanced at Katey, she nodded. Marilee was looking off into the distance, her way of standing was unconcerned, but Marty knew. He looked back at Darth.

He nodded. Darth turned and walked back to the big ATV. The woman got down, hugged him, handed him a pack then climbed back onto the machine. It spun in it's tracks and was gone in just a few minutes. Darth stood there and watched it go.

His eyes looked damp when he came back to the group. Marilee reached out and touched his arm, smiled. Marty saw that motion and tensed slightly, then relaxed.

Marilee could choose.

"Let's go." He said, and they headed on across the desert.

That night at camp Darth gathered wood, spun up a fire quickly. He opened his pack and produced some dried meat and some kind of vegetable none of them had ever seen before. They all ate quietly. They buried some coals to ward off the chill, made beds in the soft sand. Darth carefully moved several feet away from the rest of them.

The next day as they traveled, Katey noticed that Marilee walked closely to Darth. She said nothing about that, but noticed. It took them a long time to retrace the steps, finally they came to the sign. It now lay on the ground.

Darth and Marty replaced the sign, hung it securely. They were home again, so many seasons had passed.

As they made the last turn towards the house, a voice rang out.

"Hold it right there! Who are you and what do you want?"

Surprised, Katey looked up to see a young man and a woman standing there. They both held long rods tipped with a point.

"Who are you?" Marty asked, stepping forward. The man was dark skinned, the woman was also dark but both had white hair.

"I'm Jon, this is May. We live here."

"This is our home." Marty said.

"We found it empty when we came through?"

"We have been traveling, how many of you are here?"

"Just us, we are all that is left."

"This is our home!" Marty insisted, pulling himself up to his full size, his hand dropping to his blade.

The dark man saw the movement, his spear tip dropped towards Marty.

The situation was tense, Katey knew it was close to a fight. She made a decision.

"Will you join us then? We can all live and help each other."

Jon and May looked at each other, spoke quietly. Then they looked back, and nodded. They all turned and headed up to the house.

Things were tight for a few weeks but the men built some more rooms. The new couple had tended and weeded the garden while Katey had been gone, so the food supply was good. Darth turned out to be as good of a hunter as Marty was, in short order they were always off gathering something to bring home.

Jon had a knack for growing things, he spent most of his time in the gardens while Katey and May took care of keeping things in a reasonable order around the house.

Marilee was always with Darth when the men returned from their hunting. Marilee had grown and filled out, she was now a mature young woman.

One evening Katey lay awake, Jon was out on watch. The tightness of their living quarters made most basic privacy impossible, she listened to the sounds coming from the nearby room, knowing that her brother Marty was mating with the slender dark woman, May. She knew their family of six would become more.

Katey felt the stirrings inside herself, but pressed them back out of her mind, she slept then fitfully.

The next morning she found herself alone with Marty, they spoke quietly.

"We will need more room if May takes with child." She said bluntly to him.

"Yes, Darth and I spoke, we will build another home soon." He knew that Katey knew, he was unabashed.

"Darth and Marilee will probably soon join." He looked at Katey pointedly.

"They already have." Katey said flatly, with a smile.

"That leaves just Jon." Marty waited for her reaction. Katey said nothing, she felt no real attraction for Jon, instead her thoughts and dreams had been of Darth. The strong hunter in him had more of an attraction than Jon, who was slender and seemed content to tend the crops.

Marty knew from the look on her face, but he said nothing more. He simply got up and went to work gathering stones. Soon he was joined by both Darth and Jon, they cleared an area and began the laborious process of building. It took two full seasons, finally a fine home stood a few dozen feet away from the main house.

Marty and May moved into it, she was heavy with child. With just the four of them living in the main house, there was suddenly room. Jon took one of the rooms they had added, Darth and Marilee took the other.

Katey used the main room that Dan father and both Mary and Sara mother had used so long ago. She was accepted as the leader of their group, since Marty now stayed very close to May. He doted on her.

When May delivered the fine baby boy, Marilee was there with Darth and Marty. Jon was tending the gardens like he always did, Katey had been out hunting with her sling for Rabbits.

Those were now plentiful, she had a half dozen when she got back, greeted by the lustful cries of the new arrival as she walked down towards the stone house. Jon came in and helped her prepare the meat.

"Marilee is now with child." Jon told her simply. Jon was like Marilee in a way, he seldom said anything and when he did it was to the point.

Katey just nodded, busied herself with the meat.

"I was thinking..." Jon said.

"About what?" Katey answered.

"I was wondering if you and...I?"

"You wish to mate with me?" Katey grinned at his discomfort.

"Well...yes. We could maybe make a child?"

She turned and looked at him.

"Just for that? Just to make a child?" She asked.

Jon's dark skin flushed darker.

"There is no one else." He said finally.

"I do not need a child."

"Our family does, we will."

Katey finished up cutting the Rabbits, hung the meat to dry. She would smoke it later on. She gathered her pack and sling, turned and left.

Jon said nothing more, just hung his head. Later he went back to the gardens, busied himself. Katey did not return that evening, nor the next. The rest of the family sat around the fire and waited.

Jon was outside tending the smoker they had built when Katey came down the trail. She looked at him and smiled, then went inside the house. She said something to Marilee, the two of them went into their common washroom. 

Marilee came out and she and Darth left, neither one of them said a word.

Jon was puzzled, nobody was acting normal. He came into the house, looked around.

Katey was sitting there, her hair put up carefully in long braids. She wore her desert dog parka over her shoulders and nothing else.

"About time!" She told Jon. He just stood there.

"Well?" Katey asked, turning and walking into her room.

Jon understood that.

Eden was likely to grow, it seemed.

Three couples, living their lives together. There was an unspoken rule, they shared in everything they caught and grew, they harvested when they could.




Eden Reset Ch. 02



They had paired up, but none of them ever changed partners. Both Marilee and May had conceived and both were now heavy with child. 

Katey did not.

After a few months Katey began to suspect that Jon might be sterile, so many of the others were. She knew that May had become pregnant almost instantly after her joining with Marty, and Marilee had also begun to show the signs just a month later.

Katey was accepting of her lot in life, she never rejected Jon's advances. It was something that she just did, allowed, but there was really no more to it than that. Jon just fumbled around some, made love if that was what it could be called quickly and that was all there was to it.

Katey just kept herself busy most of the time, there was never an end to something to do.

A high point for her was when Darth and Marty returned from a hunting trip, not with meat like usual but they had two tiny desert dog pups.

Katey became attached in minutes, she doted on the two pups. They grew quickly and responded in kind, where Katey went, the two dogs went.

One she named Rash and the other Tugg, by the time they reached their full size they both were close to 70 pounds. Well fed, they were much larger than the wild ones.

She spent a lot of time with them, they came in very handy since she could send them out for Rabbits and they both would come back with one, dropping them at her feet and then sitting down to await a reward.

One odd thing was when Jon came to her, both Rash and Tugg would get upset. Katey had to order them to stay and remain calm, they looked at Jon with suspicion, not growling or anything like that, just baring their teeth at him in a warning to not hurt her.

May gave birth to a baby girl, it was a struggle for her since the child was very large. She was very weak and ill for many days after, Katey worried since there was not enough milk. She even held the child to her own breast many times to pacify it's hunger, then one day the child calmed and seemed quieter than normal.

When the child finally stopped suckling and slept, Katey looked down at the tiny dribble of milk from her own breast in surprise.

Within a few days she was producing a regular small amount, the combined with May recovering soon had the baby girl fattening and getting healthy.

Marty watched Katey in surprise one evening when Terra, the new addition cried out in hunger and she picked her up and pressed her to her breast.

Then he grinned as he realized. Jon came to her in their bed that night, and he seemed fascinated by the tiny drips of milk he could produce. Then he pressed his own lips to her and suckled, waves of pleasure wafted over her at that.

When Jon finally entered her, he somehow felt larger, stronger, and something happened she didn't understand but her body reacted and her head swam.

"What was that?" Jon asked her afterwards.

"I don't know, it felt...good?"

Their relationship changed after that, the joinings became much more pleasurable for Katey, she found that to be much less of a chore.

Marilee finally also gave birth, another girl they named Mary after their own Mary mother. She was healthy and strong, Marilee had been outside scraping some hides when her time came and the child was delivered on the porch, she never made it inside the house.

Marilee was blessed with big strong hips, designed for ease of childbirth. Katey was grateful for that, it was much better than the long struggle they had had with May, and the weeks following tending to her. May was up and around but still weak, she stayed close to the house most of the time.

Marilee was up and around in a few hours, and soon was back to her work preparing the hides to make clothing.

Katey now spent a lot of time hunting with the two dogs, more often than not she was by herself. With Jon always in the gardens, and both Darth and Marty either harvesting firewood or hunting, the job for bringing in daily meals fell to Katey.

Every once in awhile she managed to fell a Deer with her sling, the dogs would encircle it and drive it to her, then sit and bask in her attention at doing a good job.

The two dogs became her own children somehow.

One day she waited in a draw for Rash and Tugg to drive a nice buck towards her. They often ran out for miles to locate and drive the prey back towards her. Her thoughts were elsewhere as she waited to hear their call warning her of their approach. 

It had been a very long time since any of them had seen a single sign of any of the others.

She sat on a small rock waiting, when suddenly she felt herself being grabbed from behind. There were two of them, they pressed her to the ground, they were too strong for her. She tried to reach her blade but they trapped her wrist. She opened her mouth to cry out, but the world went black.

It was hours later when Katey awoke, she tried to look around but it was pitch black. She tried to move her arms but they were bound, so were her feet. There was nothing to do but wait.

Much later she heard sounds of someone moving her way, then she saw a faint light. The light grew, until suddenly the place she was in was flooded with dim light.

Looking down, she realized she was nude, lying on a bed of leaves and straw. She was surrounded by solid rock, she could hear the sounds of water trickling nearby.

Her head hurt terribly, so she lay still.

"I think she is awake, that one." A male voice said.

"Yea, she moved for sure." another voice said.

Katey sat up.

"What are you doing to me? Let me go." She demanded, struggling furiously with the bonds holding her arms. She could make out two large male shapes.

"Where are we?" She demanded again, realizing that they must be in the long forgotten cave that Dan father had found so many years before.

"Don't you never mind, just keep still now." One of them said.

"Yea, it be my turn now." The other one said.

"Turn?" Katey thought, then she realized. One or both of them had taken her while she was unconscious, she could feel the sticky wetness between her legs.

"You dirty animals, how could you?" She demanded, renewing her efforts to get her hands free.

"Ain't no women around much, you got to share." One of them snickered.

Then one man reached out and pulled her arms up over her head. She tried to hit him but could not, the other reached down and undid the strands of wirebrush that held her feet.

Forcing her back onto the bed of straw, he climbed up on top of her and forced his way into her. Katey cried out in pain as he stabbed at her, then mercifully passed out.

She woke up later, the two men were down by the water. They seemed to be fishing, then when one stood and pulled a fish out she was sure of it.

She knew they were some of the others, and one seemed to be much younger than the other one.

Katey kept silent. The one man walked back in her direction with the fish, they had a small fire going. He picked up a blade and began to clean the fish.

She started to open her mouth to demand to be released again when she heard a small sound. It sounded like a claw brushing on the rocks.

Then hell broke loose, there was a sudden fierce growling and a flash of fur as one of her dogs flew though the air and knocked the man cleaning the fish over backwards. She saw his blade flash in the dim light but it was way too late, his scream was strangled as the dog clamped down on his throat.

Katey knew her dogs well, she knew the man had died there in seconds. The other one had stood and started to turn as her other dog took him backwards into the water. There was a huge splash and a struggle, then all was quiet.

Then she saw Tugg come up close to her, he sniffed of her and lay down at her side. Rash soon joined him, he lay down beside her, too.

"Katey!" She heard Marty's voice call out.

"In here!" She called back.

Marty's shape appeared in the dim light from the fire, he hurried to her side.

Both Rash and Tugg bared their teeth at him, he stepped back.

"Wait!" She gave the command, they both relaxed and lay still, not taking their eyes off of him though.

Marty sawed carefully at the wirebrush bonds on her wrists, they finally parted. Then he reached down and undid the remains of the ones holding her feet. He reached up and removed his deerhide parka and handed it to her. She gratefully pulled it over her shoulders, the room wasn't cool and she had no concern over her own nudity. She just felt...vulnerable?

Marty walked over and checked the man lying by the fire.

"This one is dead." He said, not really needing to. He glanced at the other one floating in the water. There was no need for comment.

"Let's get out of here, we can come back later and take them outside for burial."

They began to work their way out through the long cavern entrance, the two dogs following. Outside, Katey glanced back, only Rash came out. He kept looking back, then whining. He looked at Katey, went back to the entrance and dug with one front foot.

Katey turned and went right back into the cavern. Several hundred yards in, she felt the fur of Tugg's body. Her heart skipped a beat until she realized he was still breathing, his chest laboring. Feeling around, she found the wound on his side where the man's blade had bit deeply into his flesh. It was wet.

Picking Tugg up, she began to work her way back out. Marty met her a ways inside, he took the heavy animal from her arms and they finally managed to get back outside. There was no protest from Tugg, normally none of the rest of their family could even touch him without being threatened.

There was a lot of blood.

Back at their home, Katey made a bed for Tugg, then she used the stitching tools they had to make clothes out of. Tugg understood and did not struggle as the needle slid through his flesh to close the wound. Jon came in with some leaves of a plant he had gathered, he watched as Katey packed the wound.

The next day Marty, Jon and Darth were gone all day, she knew they were removing the two others from the cave. She tended to Tugg, Rash lay right beside him and refused to budge.

Marilee took water to them and set it down, getting no protest from them at being in such close proximity. Katey used a cloth dampened to get moisture into him. Tugg slept soundly while Rash watched everything carefully.

It was a full week before Tugg struggled to his feet, then he lapped water from the pan. He wandered around the room for a short period, ate the fresh Rabbit meat Katey presented, then once again lay on his bed and slept.

Within another week he was recovering nicely, now going outside to do his business.

Katey was very happy about that, she had become completely one with her two dogs. Darth had somehow managed to capture a small female desert dog, he was slowly taming her. Perhaps one day they would have more. Perhaps.

None of them spoke much about the incident, although the men redoubled their efforts at keeping watch. Jon made no attempt at mating with her, but one evening as he slid into their bed beside her she just reached out to him. She chose again, it was her place to chose, she knew. Jon happily accepted, and she felt that all was right with the world again.

It was nearly two months later that she realized.

Katey was with child.

She feared it was not a child of her man Jon.

But it was a child.

That evening, she spoke softly with Jon, telling him what she knew. Her worry was that he might react, perhaps not be able to accept.

Instead, he rubbed her bare stomach, it tickled. He grinned and held her close.

"You are my woman, this is our child!" He smiled.

Katey lay back and relaxed as Jon teased her body. She felt happy, a fullness of love for her mate. His concern was for her, his gentle and familiar manner was something she had grown to love. All would be all right in their new world.

She was going to have a son, she knew it. How she knew that, she did not know. Where it came from did not matter. The growth inside her meant their tribe would spread and grow.

All was going to be right in their new Eden after all.



Eden Reset



"I live out here if that is what you mean. Are you going to turn me in?"

She blinked a few times, looked him up and down.

"I never met one of you before, you really can live out here without government, can't you? I thought that was just a rumor. But...? Where? I don't see anyplace.....?" She looked around, all there was to see was rock and desert.

"I just want to be left alone, you aren't going to say anything, are you?" 

"No. It's all right, I won't tell."

"Not even to....those others?" Dan waved his arm towards the canyon she had pointed out.

She shook her head.

Dan looked at her, he was unsure of this and didn't like the idea of being found one bit. He began to move away down the hill, the opposite direction of his cave entrance. She stood there and watched him for awhile.

"I'm Mary!" She called out, just as Dan stepped behind a big boulder. He didn't answer, instead slipped into some nearby brush and waited.

It was about a half hour later when he looked out and saw the woman working her way down the mountain, then she turned and headed up the far canyon. She stopped just before she went out of sight, looked back up towards his direction, lifting her arm in a wave before she continued on.

Dan skinned out the Rabbit, scraped the hide. Then he went back up the mountain to the cave entrance, slid around the huge boulder that hid the entrance. Once inside, he worked his way through the familiar passages to his camp.

The next day he worked his way back outside. There was no sign of anyone, so he gathered some bits and pieces of debris and rocks, hid the marks his movements in and out had left. Over time, he had gotten careless about that.

Then he climbed the nearby pinnacle, sat hidden and watched for most of the day. In the early afternoon, he saw a tow vehicle pull out of the canyon and head away across the desert floor. It had a trailer with several bikes and ATV's on behind, there were people inside the big van. Right behind was another big 4 wheel drive, he was sure it was the same woman sitting on the passenger side. Her hand came up above the window and she waved in his direction again.

Dan turned and went back inside his cave, still worried. Every day he slipped outside and looked around, but he never saw anything. Finally after several months had gone by with no more incidents, he began to feel comfortable again.

Then one day while he was fishing, he felt a tremble in the rocks. The fish suddenly scattered in the pool, that was different. Then there was another tremble, followed by what was a rather large shock. A piece of the cave wall nearby broke off and fell into the pool.

There was nothing to do but wait, Dan figured he was safer in the large cavern than in the narrow passageways, so he just sat down. The trembling stopped after about an hour.

It was apparently an earthquake. He got up and started down the cave to the outside, checking as he went. Other than a few chunks of rock that had jarred loose, everything was normal.

A few hours later, he went outside and climbed the pinnacle. He scanned the horizon, there was what seemed to be a storm cloud far to the North, it was very dark. Then Dan noticed the trails of dust way off across the desert floor. At first, he thought it was just the wind kicking up dust, but it grew oddly. Finally he realized it was vehicles, and they were moving very fast, headed South.

"Now what the hell?" He thought. He could see they were going to pass by about 4 or 5 miles away, they seemed to be running from that dark cloud. It also seemed to be quickly gaining on them.

Then halfway back in the pack of vehicles he saw a lone rider. It turned off and headed his way. As it got closer, he realized there were two of them on the one machine, it was a solar off road bike. The bike proceeded up the hill towards the pinnacle, finally it reached a point where it just could not go any more. He could hear the tiny electric motor whine and stop. Then it whined, stopped again. The two people got off, began to push the machine. Dan looked out across the desert, the dark cloud had overtaken many of the vehicles, he could no longer make most of them out. It was also spreading his way.

He didn't like the looks of this at all. The little bike was now lying on it's side down below, Dan stepped farther out to try and see what the two people were doing. He didn't see them, so he worked his way back down off the pinnacle. 

That ugly dark cloud was getting too close for comfort, Dan decided it might just be best if he retreated to his cave. He had just started the short walk from the base of the pinnacle when a woman stepped into view about a hundred yards away.

"Hello!!" She called out, waving her arms furiously, looking up towards the hill Dan had just walked down.

It was that same woman, Mary she had said her name was. Against his better judgment, Dan lifted his arms, waved back. She spotted the motion, broke into a run with another person a few steps behind her. He realized that it was another young woman, perhaps about the same age, smaller.

"Help us, please!" The woman was yelling as she got within earshot. 

"Help you with what?" Dan asked her, confused.

"That!" She pointed at the black roiling clouds, now just a mile or so away and coming fast.

"What the hell is that?" He asked, confused.

"Poison! We have to get away from it!" She was in a total state of panic.

Dan looked at the cloud and back at the two women, then he decided. 

"Come on!" He turned and ran towards the cave entrance. By the time they reached the entrance he smelled an odd smell in the air, his nostrils started to sting. They got inside, Dan tripped his solar light and they began to work their way down the narrow passage.

The air began to clear as they got inside, but his nostrils were still stinging. He reached up to wipe his nose, sweat was running in his eyes. He wiped his eyes and instantly regretted that, they felt like fire. Now he was almost blinded, and he was feeling his way along the rocks.

Finally the first pool was just a hundred yards, Dan knew they had to make it to it. Once there, he felt around and found the solar lamp he kept stored there for emergencies. It lit the small room up nicely.

"Wash off in the pool." He told them, kneeling down himself to splash water on his burning face. They quickly joined him, the smaller woman climbed completely into the water. She had been bringing up the rear and seemed to have gotten the worst of whatever that was. In the dim light, Dan could see her face was bright red, and she was laboring to breathe.

The cool water offered quick relief, so after a few minutes they sat and rested on the rocks.

"We need to move deeper, there is airflow through this cave. Stay out of the next pool though." Dan told them. They all got up and proceeded on.

They weren't familiar with the twists and turns, at one point Dan lost track of the younger woman. He told Mary to wait, went back and found the other girl sitting, whimpering in fear and shivering, soaked from the water.

"Come on, you are all right. I got you." He told her. Her tear streaked face looked at him in the dim light from his solar headlamp. Finally she nodded, and took his hand. He led her on to where Mary was, then they proceeded on again. It took over two hours to work their way to the main cavern that Dan called home, the women were having a real struggle.

They sat and rested after washing again in the pool of water. Dan realized that his outer clothing had whatever was in the cloud on it, so he tugged off his jacket and washed that out, too. He washed his fur lined boots, then slid off his shabby blue jeans and washed them. He had a spare set of clothes that he got from some shelves he had built, dressed and hung the others to dry.

The two women just sat there watching, they could barely see him in the dim light. Dan wanted to shut the light off, he only had four batteries up at the moment, the other four were outside recharging. Each battery would light the cave for about one day or so and he had no idea how long it might be before he could retrieve any more.

Dan didn't want to go outside right now, to be honest.

"You women need to wash out your clothes, we are going to lose our light real soon." He told them.

They looked at each other, hesitated. Mary stood up and stripped off her clothes, walked to the edge of the water and knelt down to rinse them. 

"Stay out of the deeper water in this pool." He warned them again. 

The other woman looked at Dan, then she did the same, although her clothing was soaked and probably all right.

Dan didn't bother to look away, for one thing he hadn't seen a naked female in several years, for the other thing he could barely make them out anyway. He did notice that after wringing out their clothing, the smaller woman turned towards him, and he could see that she had no pubic hair. She was very slender, with just tiny buds for breasts. He doubted she was more than 18, maybe 19, very young. Mary was older, in her late 20's easily.

Mary stood up and walked towards the shelf to lay her clothes to dry, she had a large mass of pubic hair, and her breasts were heavy. Dan hadn't noticed that when he saw her months before, the riding suit she had on seemed to hide her figure.

"What was that outside?" Dan asked, finally breaking the silence.

"There is a war going on, everyone is caught in the middle of it, it is horrible." Her voice was almost a wail.

"A war? How can that be, I thought the government had ended all of that?"

"They thought so too. They banned all wars, government got control of everything. The President met with the terrorists and got an agreement for peace, that was in all the papers and on the news."

"So what the hell is going on?" Dan asked.

"I am not real sure, but they apparently put some kind of weapons in space. Our government even helped them, it was supposed to be for better communications. Once they got them in position, they attacked. Our government hit them back with nuclear, but it's like they don't care, they just kept raining the poison down. It's like clouds and it kills everything."

"I saw that, we can't breathe that shit. Does it wear off?"

"I don't know, I think so." Mary scooted closer to Dan, he realized that she was sitting there naked, the other woman was too.

"Hey, I don't have much but we can share." Dan got up and went to his pile of skins. He had collected a lot of them. He handed several of them that he had roughly stitched together to the women, who gratefully wrapped them around themselves.

"I need to shut the light off or we will lose the batteries." He told them.

"OK."

Dan reached out and turned off the light, the room became pitch black.

"Stay close and don't move around too much, we can hunker down and maybe wait this out. Once the air clears and I can get outside for my spare batteries, we can use light again. I could build a small fire but I don't think that is a good idea right now. It does draw some air in, and we don't want any more moving than has to.

They all sat huddled together on the pile of branches and hides that served as Dan's bed. Finally Dan heard first Mary, then the other woman's breathing settle into sleep. It hit him he didn't know the other one's name yet, but he figured there was time. Then he dozed off himself.

Dan woke up with something pressed against him, at first he thought he was dreaming but then he realized one of the women was almost on top of him. Dan was leaned back against the cavern wall. He felt around and found the other woman, his hand touched her naked breast and it was large so he assumed that was Mary.

Dan carefully removed his hand, but the other woman was still partly on top of him and she was naked, too. She had the skins he had lightly stitched together snugged around her for a blanket. It was a struggle but he finally managed to get free. He was hungry, he knew they would be also.

But until he knew what the conditions were outside, he didn't dare build a fire. Dan turned on the light, walked over and gently shook Mary awake.

She sat up and looked at him. She was still nude of course, but seemed to be unconcerned about that. 

"I need to go up as far as I dare, see what is going on." He told her.

"Do you want us to go with you?" She stood up.

"No, that will slow me down. But I do need to leave you here in the dark, we have to save the batteries. Go ahead and get dressed quickly, wake up your friend too, please."

"Sara! Wake up!" Mary shook the other woman. She opened her eyes, saw Dan and held one of the skins over her tiny breasts.

Dan walked away a short distance, waited. They both dressed quickly.

"These are still damp." Mary complained.

"It will have to do, things don't dry out very fast down here." He told her. He got them sat back down on his makeshift cot, turned out the light and began to work his way outside using just his head lamp. 

As Dan got closer to the outside entrance, he sniffed the air carefully, but there seemed to be nothing. When he reached the outside, the air did not sting but the sky had a funny dark cast to it, it looked almost like late dusk out, even though it was around noon.

Dan retrieved the batteries, reset the ones he had carried out with him. He knew if he had to he could raid the packs from his ATV, plus the woman's bike was also just a few hundred yards down the hill. He walked to the edge of the West cliff and looked out across the desert. There was nothing in sight, but visibility was poor.

Whatever had come at them was still in the air, although he couldn't smell it and there was no stinging sensation. But it made him nervous, he went back to the cave.

Dan hurried back to where the women still sat. He turned on the tiny lamp and light filled the cavern with shadows, the two women were huddled up tightly to each other. Then he went over and built a small fire, gathering some of his precious stores he made a meal of Rabbit meat. He also had some Cactus wedges. They all sat and ate in silence.

"Thank you sir, for saving us." The woman he now knew was Sara told him. Dan just nodded.

"Yes, thank you." Mary said.

"I didn't have a lot of choice." He told them.

"How is it outside?" Mary asked.

"The air is still a haze and the sky is dark and strange. I am not sure what that was."

"The first reports were from back East, the explosions came from outer space. It was a surprise, but once the government realized where it was coming from they hit back with nuclear. Some of the satellites were destroyed too but not all of them. We need to find out what is left out there."

"Maybe we need to find out if more is coming, too." Dan said.

The next day the outside was the same, Dan worried when he saw his batteries were not coming up properly. The dark sky was blocking off the sunlight. The first thing he did was walk down the hillside and raid the packs from the solar bike, they were up pretty good. He packed those back to the cavern, that meant they had an extra day's light and he was hoping the sky would clear by tomorrow.

One thing the government did right was make all of the thin battery packs universal. They were very light, and stored quite a bit of energy.

Once again the women slept with him on the cot. Both of them stripped naked so they could leave their clothes out to dry more, they were still damp. For their modesty, Dan shut off the light while they gathered the skins around themselves.

He lay there for a long time thinking. He really had no plans on trying to support three people, it was tough enough getting food for himself. 

He decided to get up and catch a few fish but the smaller woman had once more gravitated to his body heat and was almost on top of him again. Dan gave up, he could fish tomorrow, the fish weren't going anywhere.

He slept just like that, one woman on top of him and the other snuggled up tight at his side. Mary slipped one arm around his waist, in her sleep her hand was resting on his groin and it was all he could think of until sleep came.

It had been years since Dan had had a woman, now he had two of them and didn't know what to do about it for sure. Sex did pop into his mind a few times, but survival was an overwhelming urge at the moment.

Over the next few days, the sky cleared. The battery packs charged up normally, Dan moved the fresh ones inside and reset the spares. He also reset the ones he had raided from the solar bike.

He checked his snares, nothing. Not even a rat. Outside was strangely dead silent, he realized there were no birds, nothing moving.

Not even any wind. Up on the pinnacle, Dan could see the area down below where the water surfaced briefly in the lower canyon. It was green and still looked normal. But there was nothing normal about the stone dead silence.

"I don't think there is anything left alive out there." He told Mary, when he got back to the cavern. But there were still fish, a quick shine of his light into the deep clear pool showed that quickly.

"What are we going to do?" Sara asked him.

"I don't know, I just don't know. I think I will take my 4 wheeler tomorrow and check out across the valley, perhaps there is someone, something out there."

"Can we go outside?" Mary asked.

"I don't see any reason why not, I don't think there is anyone around."

"We can get our clothes aired out, gather some wood, things like that."

Dan nodded. He fixed a meal of fish, then they slept again. Once again the three of them huddled together.

The next day, Dan pulled the brush away from his ATV, and headed down the trail. It had been months since he rode the machine, there had been no need. The two women were sitting up above, sunning themselves. Their clothing was hung on some nearby brush, Mary was naked but Sara had one of the hides and had pulled it modestly over herself as he went by.

Dan rode for several miles, then in the distance he saw what seemed to be vehicles. As he got closer, he realized there were a lot of them. He slowed and pulled behind some brush and watched, thinking perhaps it was a camp.

Nothing moved. He could make out what seemed to be people in some of the machines, but there was no motion. Finally he went on, realizing what he was probably going to find.

Pulling up to the first machine, he could see a body behind the wheel. Another was on the passenger side, a third one was lying on the ground nearby. He went down the line checking, there was one vehicle after another.

Everyone was dead. After checking several dozen of the different vehicles, there was no point in moving on.

Dan gathered all of the battery packs and chargers he could carry and loaded them on the ATV. He found one vehicle that had several dead women in it, looking in a suitcase in the back he found it full of clothing. He threw that on the ATV, too. In another one of the rigs he found an illegal firearm. It was a pistol. He almost left it, then instead he stuffed it in his waistband. There was a full box of ammunition, he took that, too.

Most of the machines still had their battery lights on, Dan went down the line and turned them off. After awhile, he gave up with that, the faces began to get to him. All of them had gray skin, but oddly there was no sign of decay.

It was like they had all died and dried out on the spot.

He found a cell phone, turned it on. It lit up, there was no signal. One of the vehicles had a radio, he tried that. All it did was make a slight hum, there was no static at any point on the dial. Reaching in, he checked the global position sensor. The screen lit up but that was all.

There were some foodstuffs, he gathered what he could carry and headed back, after checking each bag and can to make sure it was sealed.




Eden Reset



Dan did feel slightly guilty about taking things but it didn't matter now, there was no one alive in any of the vehicles. There had to be over a hundred of them out there, too. It made him feel sick inside.

Back at the cavern entrance, the two women had quite a pile of firewood gathered and stacked. Normally Dan would have knocked the stack down and scattered it, it might mark his position.

But there was no need, he just left it. The three of them went inside, worked their way down to the cavern. Dan fixed a meal from some of the provisions he had gathered. There were some canned vegetables, a sack of snack crackers. The rest he had left outside, he hadn't bothered to hide the ATV.

"What did you find out there?" Mary finally broke the silence.

"Everyone is gone, there are a lot of them. I think the cloud overtook them."

He looked up at Mary in the dim light, she had tears in her eyes.

"There is no radio, no telephone, nothing. The packs all still work, the vehicles all work too. There are lots of provisions and gear, but I found no one alive at all."

"What are we going to do?" She asked.

"I don't know, just try to stay alive I guess."

A week later they moved down to the oasis in the lower canyon. With three of them, they just could not stay in the cavern. It took several days to complete the move, Dan took Mary with him to retrieve a second vehicle and gather things they would need. They had to move the bodies out, that was hard. There was still no sign of decay, no sign of wild animals or birds working the carcasses. There were several animals dead, too. He even found a Parrot still in it's cage, also dead.

Then he found a small little fish tank in the back of one vehicle, it had two tropical fish of some kind. Both were alive and swimming around. There was a little box of fish food, he trickled a bit into the tank and they ate happily. He took the fish with him, somehow that almost seemed like....hope?

He selected an ATV similar to his, then they went back and got a lighter machine for Sara. Neither one of them mentioned to her what they were finding out there, but Dan figured she had a pretty good idea.

Dan put up a shelter, and over the next few weeks he improved on it. He built a rock stove, a flat trunk lid off one of the vehicles made a perfect stove top. There were trees and brush in the canyon, and plenty of water. There were also fish, the ones in this section were not blind and they were much more wary of being caught. He had to make a few trips back up to the cavern to get enough, those were easy to catch.

A couple of months went by, Dan and Mary made several trips, gathering provisions. He had found some shovels and dug shallow graves for each person they pulled out. There was never any sign of decay at all, it was like everyone had just dried out and died.

Dan was actually grateful for that. Each time he stood quietly as Mary tipped her head and said a few words.

One of the vehicles was larger, the entire top of it was a solar panel. Dan decided to take it and try a run to the town about 60 miles away. He left the two women, who by now were able to fend for themselves pretty well.

Starting at daybreak, he was on the highway in just an hour. The going was slow, there were more vehicles on the main road. They were parked in all directions, it was like they all had come to a halt at once. Several times he had to get off his rig and move them out of the way.

He did pass one huge transport truck, stopped and checked it's cargo. It was all canned goods, about everything a person could imagine. Dan removed the large man that was behind the wheel, started the engine. It roared to life, it was a government diesel powered machine. He drove it back to the turnoff to the canyon and parked it. Then he took another small car that was nearby, and drove that back to his own vehicle.

It was early afternoon by the time he got to the city limits. There was no change, vehicles were everywhere, there was no sign of life at all. There wasn't much point in staying long, but Dan did go into a store and get some blankets and tarps. He also found some new clothing for the women, plus some new jeans for himself. There were some heavy work shirts, so he grabbed a half dozen of those. In the shoe section, he found some heavy boots. He got several pairs, guessing at the women's sizes.

All of the goods were new, Dan felt better about that than bringing back anything used.

He was loading the vehicle when he realized something he hadn't thought of. He went back inside, found the woman's section and got several packages of feminine products. He took his time on the way back, moving several of the vehicles off the roadway. That would speed up any future trips, and he knew they would have to make many more of them.

Arriving back at the camp, Dan found Mary all excited.

"I saw a Rabbit, a live one!" She told him. Then she took him over and showed him where she had seen it, it was far up the canyon near where the river flowed back under the rocks. Sure enough, the tracks were obvious.

"We will let them be, they have a struggle to live, too. The town has a lot of goods, we won't have any problem with food for a long time, I think." He told her.

Both Mary and Sara looked over the goods he had brought back, Mary smiled when she saw the feminine products. They exchanged a glance, Dan blushed. The two women busied themselves putting away everything while Dan made a meal.

Sitting at the table he had built, Mary asked him what they were going to do.

"I don't know, I really don't. Somewhere out there, there has to be someone else alive."

"Maybe, maybe not. But I think it's up to us now." She looked at him pointedly.

"Up to us to do what?"

"The human race, it's us. You know what I mean." 

"Oh. You mean...children?"

"Yes, I mean children. Sara and I are no relation, that means that each of us can split the gene pool."

"I see. You mean that you and I.....?"

"Yes, Danny. We can live here, and be all right. And I am...fertile." She blushed at that.

Dan looked at Sara, she turned bright red.

"What do you think we should do, Sara?" Dan asked her, almost teasing.

"Mary and I talked. It's what we need to do. The world we knew is gone, so we have to start over and see if we can do better!" Her eyes were downcast, but she had a small smile on her lips. That was the most Dan had ever heard Sara say so far, and she had a determined tone in her voice.

"Well...I guess..." Was as far as he got.

"I have never had to try and talk a man into wanting me before." Mary grinned at him. Then she looked at Sara.

"Let's wash him up." Sara turned bright red but went and got some water and a washcloth.

She put a pot of water on the fire, then gathered up some of the soap Dan had come back with. Next she began to undo his clothing. Sara knelt down at his feet and tugged off his shoes. In short order they had Dan stripped, he sat there waiting since the two women seemed to have it all planned out.

"Well, at least it's going to feel good!" Mary giggled, using her hands to wash off Dan's now burgeoning erection. Dan had no idea at all what Mary's experience was, but he also knew that as men went, he was larger than the norm by quite a bit. He didn't protest as Mary and Sara made him stand up, washing him carefully from top to bottom. Sara seemed fascinated with his hard member after she got over the initial shyness, reaching out repeatedly to touch it.

"You have never seen one of these before, have you?" Dan grinned at her.

Sara blushed and quickly pulled her hands back. Dan just laughed. Then Mary stood up, reached out her hand, led Dan over to the bed he had made of soft grasses gathered down by the stream. Dan looked down, the new blankets were spread out.

The women really did have this planned out.

She pressed Dan down onto the blankets, he complied with no resistance. Mary then stood and tugged her top over her head, quickly stripped her new jeans down and off. He drank in her beauty, she was even more slender than when he had first seen her naked. She slid up onto the blankets and turned to him. Dan glanced over in time to see Sara step outside, leaving them alone.

"We can't have you both pregnant at the same time, one of you needs to be able to care for the other if need be." He told her.

"Shush! We already have that figured out." Her hands came down to fondle him. Dan slid up into position, Mary simply opened her legs. Dan had never really seen her quite like this, he looked at her closely for a few seconds. Then he reached out to touch her, and was rewarded with a shudder. Sliding higher, he got between her legs. Her hand came down to grip his shaft, steering him towards her opening. Dan felt her wetness as he slipped part way inside, then her hips thrust powerfully and he was all the way in.

He began a slow steady stroke, Mary's knees came up high as her hips thrust back at him. It didn't last very long, he felt her body let go seconds before he did.

They collapsed, already covered in sweat from the exertion. Dan leaned down to lick her big breasts, in the rush he had almost forgotten them.

She giggled at the tickling sensation. In a few minutes, Dan was fully hard again, and now he took his sweet time. Dan wasn't very experienced with women, he had spent most of his life as a loner. All of this was amazing to him.

Mary was unhappy when her period started, then again a month later it started again.

"We will just have to try again." Dan told her.

"We have been trying every night now. It's Sara's turn, maybe it will take with her?"

Dan just shrugged. The women were being insistent, Mary had reached for him every single night for weeks. He couldn't say he minded that, though. But Sara? She was much more shy, or at least he thought so.

She did smile when at dinner that evening, Mary told her to go to Dan's bed that night. Mary said it in a matter of fact manner but her expression was one of mild upset. He could understand that. Society and all of that, no woman wants to give up her man because she can't breed normally.

But in the current situation, there was no society.

Sara came shyly to the bed that night. She stood there not sure of what to do, finally Dan told her to take off her clothes. Sara's breasts were small, capped with tiny button like nipples. The hairs on her groin had long since grown back, they formed a soft and silky down at the V between her legs. 

Dan pulled her down on top of him, lifted her slight hips and set her over him. His big erection was jutting upwards. Sara lowered herself, he felt his penis slip partly inside. Her face went into an instant grimace of pain.

"Does that hurt?" Dan asked her.

"Uh huh. Let's....just...wait a second." She managed.

Dan felt her take several deep breaths, then she pressed again. He slid inside even more, her face once again grimaced and she stopped. Dan just waited, she began again in a few seconds.

"God! That is so...damned big...oh! It won't fit!" Then she pushed again, something inside of her let go and he slid in all the way. She came to a stop, then tentatively lifted up and pressed down again. Her eyelids fluttered, her hips moved up and back down a second time.

Then she was thrashing away at him and squealing at the top of her lungs. She was so loud that for a second Dan started to lose his erection, but he managed to blank his mind and let the sensations take over.

Sara went wild, her motions were insane. Dan felt her orgasm, then she did it again until it was one long continuous spasm. He managed to hang on as long as possible, but when he could not hold back any longer he let his body blast off. Sara threw her head back and her upper body stiffened. Her mouth came open and she let out a howl.

Then she collapsed, pressing her tiny breasts flat against him. Dan felt himself softening, Sara reached down, trying desperately to hold him inside her. But he slipped out anyway, drawing a sigh from her.

That was a wild session, Dan had not expected that. Sara slid off of him, then looked down.

Both of their lower bodies were covered in blood.

"Sara, were you...." Dan asked, his voice trailing off. He already knew. Sara jumped up, still naked, and ran outside to the stream, leaving Dan there wondering just what in the hell had happened.

Tiny little Sara, she had gone from painfully shy to a total animal, then right back to painfully shy again.

Mary came in, she saw the situation and just went and got some water and a cloth. She knelt down at his side and began to wash him. Sara came back in minutes later, she was fully dressed.

Their lives became one day after another, Dan found some fruit trees in town at one of the big outlet stores, they still showed signs of life. He found a larger pickup, used that to haul the trees and other gear back to their oasis. He also found some seed packs, he gathered all he could carry, then dug and planted a garden. That took some time, he must have made two dozen trips with the pickup loaded down with bags of soil. He moved all that the store had, and wished there was more since digging just inches into the ground around the oasis met solid rock.

He knew there was another city farther on down the road, but that would take more time than he wanted to be gone.

Sara skipped her period the second month, then she began to grow with child. A month before she was due, Mary returned to Dan's bed. 

The day that Sara delivered was frantic, Dan had no experience at all. But Mary helped, the boy was healthy and loud. From the first day, young Marty and Sara were never more than a few feet apart, even as she lay once again in his bed the child was in his just feet away. 

They called the next child Katey, it had taken months but finally Mary conceived. Both deliveries were easy, normal. Well, as easy as it is possible to be, and Dan was grateful for that. He headed off to the river to fish while all of that was going on, the women knew what to do.

They growled at him a little bit for that but soon realized it was for the best.

Things had changed, the leanto Dan had built had expanded into a fairly nice home. He had built the extra rooms from lumber he moved from the town. There was no end to resources, it seemed. He had even built a small dam at the upper end of the canyon, and ran some pipes down into the house. They had running water and even a flush toilet. He was installing battery packs to heat water, too, he had found a nice setup in a plumbing store in the town.

He also had the highway into town cleared by now, once on the pavement he ran at top speed all the way in and back. The big 4 wheel drive he had found would run at an easy 140 kilometers per hour, so he ran many trips wide open. That saved a lot of time.

Dan had given up the long and impossible practice of burying each body he found, it didn't matter. They didn't decay, they simply became skeletons with what looked like gray hide over them. Dan had become almost immune to the sight of them.

Vehicles were no problem, there were thousands to choose from. He had made one twenty mile trip South, finding nothing but the same thing, vehicles everywhere, in the ditches, on the roads. He had also located two more of the huge transport trucks and moved one of them back closer to camp. It was loaded down with snack food, they all became snack food junkies for awhile until Mary put her foot down.

Back at the oasis, the trees now flowered in the Spring, the garden was doing well. Dan had made the long 200 mile run to a nearby major city, located a large garden supply center. He used one of the big diesel transports to move the soil and fertilizers he needed. There were several government fuel stations, all solar powered and he had no trouble figuring out how to get the pumps to work.

He left the big truck parked down in the desert after unloading everything.

Mary and Sara had talked with Dan about moving into the city, thinking it would be easier. But one trip with Sara had ended the idea of that, when she saw all of the remains of what had been a bustling community, she had simply freaked out, ending up with an Asthma attack so bad they thought they were going to lose her.

After that, they all remained content with being right where they were at.

Dan's trips into the city became less and less, they had all they really needed by now. But one day he realized he needed a few small tools. He hopped in the pickup to make the run to town.

On the highway, he passed the spot where he had left one of the big government transport rigs, he was a half mile past there when it hit him that it was gone. He pulled off to the side to turn around and go back to look when he saw a motion in the distance.

Dan shut off the machine and ducked down. A very large military machine went by at a high rate of speed, they didn't notice him since there were still vehicles pulled off the roadway everywhere.

Watching the machine move away, he saw two men sitting up high on it, one manning some kind of weapon. They were also hauling a huge trailer. 

Not liking the looks of that, Dan waited until they were well out of sight. Then he left the pickup and took one of the nearby ATV's. There was no body in it, looking around he saw none in any other nearby machines. 

He touched the button and the dash light came on, so he took off cross country towards his oasis.

Hiding the ATV, he went inside and told the women what he had seen.

"They won't hurt us, will they?" Sara asked.

"I don't know. But it is a matter of time before they find us. They have to know someone is around from our moving the vehicles and all." 

Marty was now 6 years old but fast becoming big, little Katey was 4. Sara was heavy with child, Mary for some reason just did not conceive easily.

With people showing up, military, this had all of the makings of being a real mess.

It was just two days later when Dan spotted the trail of dust across the valley floor, headed their way. He went inside and picked up the pistol, then he just put it back. There was probably no chance at fighting, he knew that, besides, he had never fired a pistol anyway.

He told Mary and Sara to take the children inside the house, then he walked out to meet whoever was coming.

The big machine came to a stop, two men looked at Dan in surprise as he walked out. One of them stepped down, stood there for a moment, then walked over to him. He said something to the other man, it made no sense. Dan looked closely at the man, he was oriental.

"Hello." He said.

The man turned and barked an order to the other one that had a weapon trained on Dan, the man lowered the weapon.

"Survivor, I see? How did you make it?" He said in English. 

"We got lucky, I guess."

"We"?

"Yes, my family."

"Family? How many?"

"Two, and two children."

"Children? You have...children?" The man suddenly got excited.

"Yes, one boy and one girl." 

"That is wonderful! You are the first, that means...maybe there are more!"

"I don't understand."

"Everyone we have found so far is sterile."

"Who are you? Dan asked.

"People's Republic of China, we are searching for survivors."

"China?" That made Dan's head swim. Chinese in Nevada?

"You came all the way from...China?"

"Yes, when we found nothing there, six of us found a ship and traveled to America. We thought more might have survived here. We have one woman with us."

"Our Nation got hit hard. There are just a few that made it. Every Nation on Earth is...gone." The man got a sad look on his face.

Dan looked at him in shock.

"Every...Nation?"

"Yes. All we stopped at...so far. The gas rained down on every major city, it spread, began to encircle the entire planet. Governments realized too late that it was coming from the mid-east, one lunatic fringe group. They hit back first with Nuclear, then with those dirty bombs. The gas spread, it kills everything above ground, or above water."




Eden Reset



"Every single Nation?" 

"Yes."

"How many have you found so far?"

"About three hundred, all in small groups. There is one group living back East near what was Virginia, they were miners. There were 40 of them, just two women."

"Three hundred? All told?" Dan couldn't fathom that, billions were now...three hundred?

"We keep finding a few here and there, not very many. Anyone underground for some reason made it, but anyone exposed even slightly are sterile."

"But? All of us were exposed, Sara the most of all of us?"

"Really? That means there is hope, you are the only ones so far that have children. A boy..and a girl, you say?" He turned and said something to the other man that Dan didn't understand.

"Yes." Dan was feeling nervous now. The man's tone had changed.

"We will need to move them, we need to find out why..and keep them protected."

"I have them protected." Dan told him.

"You can't, not like we can. We can move...all of you to our camp, take care of you."

"We are comfortable right here."

"I don't think you understand, it's too important. The entire human race could depend on it."

"No."

"Besides, you have two women, we have just one." 

"NO!"

The man got an angry look on his face, started to turn to say something to the other man sitting on the machine. He was too slow.

Dan reached out and grabbed him, getting instant resistance but years of hard labor made Dan very strong. He controlled the smaller man easily. The other man sitting on the machine reached for his weapon.

"Don't or I will break his neck!" Dan shouted.

The man hesitated, just then Mary appeared off to the side. She had Dan's pistol in her hand, the hammer cocked.

"Get down!" She ordered. The man looked first at her, then back at Dan.

He climbed down from the machine.

"Cover them, Mary." Dan told her. Then he climbed up on the machine, picked up the large gun. He had no idea how to work it but he knew he could figure it out. He searched the machine, found the canisters of ammunition, unloaded them and stacked them on the ground.

"Now go. If you come back out here, interfere with us in any way, we will fight. We are armed and you can't even shoot at us. We are all there is." Dan wasn't sure he was right on that point, but it was worth a try.

There was going to be trouble, he knew. Government, there always is. Another budding government, trying to force their ideas of what is right on everyone. It had only taken a few minutes, too.

The two men stood there, frightened.

"What are you going to do?" The man said.

"We are going to live, don't ever come back here and try to tell us what to do again. If you do, you will stay here. Do you understand what we mean?"

The man nodded. They got on the machine and drove away. Three hundred, the man had said. He knew this group was far less. Six of them, and one woman, he had said. Maybe they could handle them, maybe not. Maybe there was actually far more out there...maybe.

Dan put his arm around Mary as he watched the trail of dust vanish into the distance. Sara came out and cuddled up to him too. He looked over at their two children, both watching with big eyes.

"They will be back, or more like them."

"Yes, I think so." Mary answered.

The next day Dan checked carefully, there was nothing moving, no one in sight. He drove down to the turnoff, dug a hole and set a post. On the post he set a sign.

Stepping back, he looked at the sign. He was a bit proud of his handiwork.

"EDEN." The sign read. "DO NOT ENTER."

Mary waved as he drove past the area up in the rocks she had selected to place the heavy weapon. She had figured out how to work it in a few minutes. She had aimed and fired one round, smashing a rock she had set up as a target to tiny shards. Then she had grinned at him, and shown him how the thing worked.

There were weapons in town, too, He had seen a few in some of the houses, not many but they didn't need many. He would slip in carefully and gather more. 

It never ends, he thought. It just never ends.

To live, men fight. To live free, men must fight harder. The way it has always been.

Probably the way it would always be.

Dan smiled at Sara, she was fixing a meal when he walked in. Marty and Katey we already sitting at the table. Mary came in, checked the solar powered video screen Dan had set up, the remote camera gave a nice view of the only way in. She checked the volume on the warning buzzer he had hooked up to several motion detectors, just in case someone decided to pay a visit at night.

She grinned at Dan. Sara set the table, her swollen belly showed that she was close. Dan was looking forward to the next child, boy or girl, it didn't matter.

Tonight he and Mary would try again, although she told him that she was already late by over a week.

Dan glanced at the video screen, there was nothing there, no sign of anything at all. He could see the highway in the background, nothing moved there, either.

Dan knew that from now on, he would be checking that a lot.

Eden, they called this place. He also knew it wasn't quite an Eden.