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     Both Evan and Emmitt started running and we followed them,
as I yelled
over my shoulder, “The rest of you, go to the cave.”  I silently sent a message to Irene to meet them at the entrance but she telepathically told me she was there waiting.  I should have known.

CHAPTER 18

     They led us to a big old gray building that looked more like a prison than a medical facility.

    
There was no way we could blend in with hair in all colors.  We followed them around the back where they opened a door with a key that I hadn’t noticed before hanging around their necks.

     We went down some
stairs and ended up in the basement.
It looked like a storage room for a hardware store.  There were packages of nuts and bolts and screw
s
but there were also clear plastic containers of what Joe said were computer chips.

     We came to another room that resembled something from a horror movie.  There were big glass jars and, suspended in blue liquid, were
different
parts of
a brain
. 
They had hardware and computer chips from the other room attached.

     As we walked along I read the labels on the jars.  There were program names and underneath was a description of which
part of the brain was used and
what the program was supposed to have accomplished and what they learned from the experiment.

     It broke my heart to see into the future like this and see how, what started out as progress went too far and ended up
as crippling.  They had turned people into retards who could no longer think for themselves and they didn’t even realize it.

     It had happened so slowly over so many generations that no one knew any differently.  I began to cry and Joe put his arms around me, “I know,” he said.  “Don’t get discouraged, Ashley, you’ve already made a huge difference.”

     He led me farther along the room and what we saw next brought me to my knees.  There were babies of all stages of development in jars.  They had their heads cut open and their brains exposed.

     The same hardware was attached to them and there were labels on the jars with the steps that had been taken to use the babies as experimental tools.

     “My God!” said Joe, “They used infants to experiment on.  But they apparently don’t do that anymore.  The last one is dated over a century ago.”

     “I guess they saw that their
species were going to be extinct if they continued since no one can have any babies anymore.”  I put my hands over my abdomen.

     “Come on,” Joe said as he pulled me to my feet.  “Nothing is going to happen to our baby.”

     We reached the end of the horror show and started up some more stairs.  When we got to the top, Evan opened the door and peered out.

     He motioned us forward and we were in a hallway with stretchers along one side of the wall.  People were strapped to the stretchers, both men and women, and they looked terrified.

     They apparently hadn’t been given any kind of sedative and were wide awake.  As the men unstrapped them, I whispered in their ear, “Come to the cave and be healed.  The implants they have planned for you are bombs meant to destroy the cave.  Come with us befor
e
it’s too late.”

     The hall was long and curved and the men had gotten ahead of me and I could no longer see them.  I was bent over whispering into a small very young woman when someone grabbed me from behind.

     Before I had time to even think about calling for help or thinking for help, a cloth was placed over my mouth and I blacked out.

     When I came to, I was in a barber’s chair and my head was being shaved.  I couldn’t think straight.  I couldn’t remember where I was and what I had been doing.  They must have given me some sort of drug to confuse me.

     When I was completely bald, they strapped me to a stretcher and wheeled me to a room that looked like an operating room.  I fought as much as I was able as they placed a mask over my mouth and I knew I was going to be operated on.

    
On instinct, I
silently
cried out for Joe even though I couldn’t remember who he was.  I woke up in the city inside the cave.
I was in our house and Joe was bent over me smoothing my hair out of my eyes.  Hair!!  I had hair again.

     I felt my scalp and Joe said, “The cave removed them.  You were still drugged.  I’m sorry I didn’t find you until after the implants.  That place is like a maze.  They had already gotten you into a private room and there were two doctors there, and one was giving you a pelvic exam.

      “He was telling the other one that you were pregnant.  It made me so mad I went in there and knocked them both out before they had time to think or even for what was left of their brain to register that I was there.

     “As soon as I picked you up and thought about our house we were here.  They had given you so many drugs that, even though the cave healed you, we had to wait two days for you to wake up.”

    
I hadn’t noticed we weren’t alone but now I looked around and it looked like everyone living in the city had crowded into our house.

     Joe followed my eyes, “They all came.  They love you, Ashley.  You’ve saved their lives.  There are very few people left down the hill.

     “W
ord has gotten
around as far as sections Q and R.  They are coming here to be healed.”

     “Can the city hold all these people?” I asked.

     Joe laughed, “You won’t believe it, Ashley, but the city seems to grow as more people arrive.  It provides all we need.”

     “Well, right now I need some food.  I’m starving.”

    
“Irene and some of the other women have fixed a picnic outside.  It should be ready by now.”  He picked me up and carried me outside.

     Everyone was cheering and clapping.  We had a feast.  The women had gathered all kinds of vegetables and cooked them all different kinds of ways.  In the middle of the table was a pig, Joe said had been cooked on a spit over a fire all day.

     Some of the women had made dessert, cakes and pies mostly made from the fruit growing around us.
  I have never enjoyed a meal so much in my two lives.

     I had always been shy in my other life and had very few friends, but here I had tons of friends.
  I had also become more outgoing.  In my other life I could have never spoken before a crowd but here it felt natural.

     Evan and Emmitt came and sat down beside me.  “Emmitt and I have been trying to figure out what the authority’s next move will be now that we put a stop to their plans.”

     “What have you come up with?” I asked.

     “We think they will try to come into the cave at night and try tossing the bombs they were planning on implanting in the brain.  They will have to modify them so we should have time to try and figure out what to do.”

     After they walked off I found Joe, “Let’s go exploring.  I want to see what changes have taken place since I was gone.”

     He laughed, “You’re going to be surprised.
”

    
The countryside was even more beautiful than before.  Everything was lush and green.  Everything you could possibly think about growing was growing from fruits and vegetables and flowers and trees.

     There were rolling hills and pools of water.  There were waterfalls and streams rippling over rocks.

     Then we came upon something I didn’t expect to find.  It was a small isolated village nestled in a valley.  There were five families living in houses there.

     “They didn’t want to live in the city,” Joe said, “And suddenly this place was here.”

     I walked over and introduced myself to them and they knew who I was.  As we walked off I said, “Joe this place is amazing.  Is there any limit to what it can provide?  If it provides everything then how are we supposed to grow and learn from the bad times?”

     “Maybe you don’t really have to have bad times to grow.  Maybe, if you’re not concentrated on earning a living or other problems, maybe you can devote all your energies on improving and growing.”

     “Maybe, but I like to have some challenges.  There are things I want to learn to do.”

     “Like what, Ashley?”

     “I always wanted to design clothes, or become an interior designer, learn to paint landscapes.  Where am I going to get the materials for all that?”

     Joe laughed, “Where do you think?  Actually, I always wanted to learn to play a musical instrument.”

     When we got back to our house there were boxes stacked in the middle of the living room.  The first one we opened had a guitar and a flute.  Another had a small sewing machine and several bolts of material.  I had never seen any like it.

     The material was so soft I couldn’t wait to make something and get it on my body.
  If I could get more I could make so
mething for every woman
.  I needed to get some material for men’s cloth
e
s also, I was thinking.

     I opened another box as Joe was trying out the guitar.  In it were paints, brushes and an easel.  In the last box was material that resembled canvas but was much softer.  I decided to make the men some pants and shirts out of it.

     I wanted more material so that any of the other women who wanted to learn to sew could do so.
  But for right now, I had enough to keep me busy.

CHAPTER 19

     We didn’t worry about the authorities for awhile but concentrated on making a life for ourselves.  We didn’t think they could hurt us anymore.  There were very few people left down the hill.

     Ever
y
few days someone from down the hill came into the entrance of the cave and Irene was there to meet them.  When they came into the city and were healed, we questioned them about what was going on down below.

     We learned that there were no more implants planned but that the scientists were working on bombs to try to destroy the cave.  I thought they were stupid and should give up.  They could never make things back the way they were.

     We operated on the barter system and everyone seemed to enjoy what they were doing.  Joe learned to play both the flute and the guitar and some of the other men and women learned to play other instruments and we soon had entertainment.

     It was amazing how quick
ly
everyone learned to do what they wanted to do. 
One woman wanted to weave silk material and soon there were mulberry trees with plenty of mulberries for all of us and the silk worms to feed on.

     She wove beautiful silks of different colors and traded it for clothes made by some of the other women.

     One man had always wanted to be a farmer and was soon growing the best vegetables I had ever tasted.  Although fruits and vegetables grew in great number we were all willing to trade whatever we had to the farmer for his produce.
  It was all a matter of pride.

     The clothes I made were simple, pants and shirts for the men and simple shifts for women.  I didn’t bother with zippers or buttons but ties out of the same material.  None of us were interested in shoes.

     Our lives were simple,
serene
,
and fertile.  Then one day Joe brought up marriage.  “You know what we need, Ashley?  Some form of marriage.  We don’t have anyone in authority to marry anyone, though.”

    
“Well, we’re forming our own society and we can do anything we want.  Why don’t we ask Irene if she wants to perform marriages?
  Should we hold a town meeting and see what everyone thinks?”

     “Let’s do that.”

     So that’s how so many couples, including Joe and I, came to be married.  By then I was almost eight months pregnant and several other women were pregnant also at different stages.

     It was an exciting time for us all and we had pretty much decided that the authorities had given up on us.  Most of us didn’t even think about them anymore.  That was a mistake.

CHAPTER 20

     One day we realized that it had been almost a week since anyone new had come into the cave to join us.

     “I’m going to go down and see what’s happening,” Joe said.

     We had just made love and I started getting dressed, “I’ll go with you,” I said.

     “I would rather you didn’t, Ashley.  You could go into labor any minute and they could grab you and/or the baby to experiment on.  Please stay here, honey.”

     I stayed behind but was extremely worried about Joe until Emmitt came and told me that he and Evan were going with Joe.  Irene had made some more fake bald heads for them.

     They had
hardly left
before they came back.  Everyone gathered around to see what they had to say.
  We all gathered around a table we kept outside tha
t was big enough for everyone. 
We always had some sort of refreshments and today we had wine and cheese.