The day after: An apocalyptic morning (80 page)

              "Men," he told them, "today you embark upon yet another great mission for this town, the greatest one yet. You will be conquering a poorly defended, though heavily armed, walled encampment after a march of nearly two weeks. Now this will be the furthest that we've extended our reach to this point, and this will also be the largest scale expedition that we've mounted. I know you are not equipped with as many automatic weapons as you usually are on such a trip, nor as much personal ammunition, but the trade-off is greater numbers. I have seen Acting Captain Bracken's attack plans and they are good ones. I couldn't have done it better myself. If the residents of Garden Hill do not surrender peacefully and agree to join our ranks as we hope they will do, you will easily prevail in this fight, most likely without taking casualties.

              "Before you go, let me remind you one more time of our mission. Strength through numbers and firepower and unity of the California region under the laws of God and man. God willing - and I'm sure he is - we will prevail in this battle and all that follow and we will be in a position of strength when civilization begins to rebuild. Always remember that. It is our job to be the strongest during the rebuilding for it will be the strongest that will reshape human society for thousands of years to come. We are the founding fathers men. Take that with you, and my God bless you on your trip. That is all."

              The men seemed heartened by this speech, liking the idea that they were founding fathers, the conquerors of the world. Barnes gave them a stiff salute and dismissed them for their mission. Bracken took over at that point and ordered them into marching formation facing towards the east.

              "Forward, MARCH!" he yelled.

              In perfect step, they began to move, their weapons clanking smartly upon their backs.

              Jean Doleman and Anna Hampton watched them go from a second floor window of one of the classrooms in the school. Jean and Anna, both of whom were wives of Bracken, were part of the cleaning staff for the main building. They were responsible for keeping the top floor of the building up to military specifications and they spent at least ten hours of any given day mopping, dusting, and wiping in order to accomplish this goal. For a woman in Auburn, this was actually considered a favorable assignment and it had been bestowed upon them because of their husband's high rank in the militia.

              "Thank God he's gone," Jean whispered softly to her co-wife. "We're safe for at least another three weeks."

              "Yeah," Anna, the older of the two replied sourly, "but while we're safe from his hands pawing at us he's going out to kill our only hope for salvation."

              The two women were from vastly different backgrounds. Anna, who was twenty-eight, had been a loan officer at the Auburn branch of the Bank of America before the comet. A pre-comet divorcee, she had been chosen early in the aftermath as Bracken's wife because of her classy beauty. Bracken had had his eye on her since long before the collapse of civilization. He had been a frequent visitor to the bank and had asked her out weekly, getting turned down just as regular as clockwork. She had sustained her share of beatings in the beginning before she had learned that there was no point in resisting him. At least he hadn't traded her to Stu or one of his men, a fate that was the worst nightmare of any Auburn woman.

              Jean, on the other hand, was not from Auburn at all. A nineteen-year-old high school dropout, she had lived in Meadow Vista, the first town the militia had attacked in force. In pre-comet life she had worked full time in a small, family owned bait shop on the outskirts of town. Her father and mother had been down in Sacramento for the day when the comet had hit and had died down there. Her brother had been one of the leaders of the defense that the Meadow Vistans had put up when the militia came to town and he had been gunned down in the streets for his efforts. Jean's small-town-girl good looks and healthy breasts had attracted the leader of the invading forces - Lieutenant Corban - and she had spent nearly three weeks as his wife before being traded to Bracken just before the recon trip to Garden Hill. She could not count the number of times she had been raped and beaten by both of her "husbands" since then.

              Though Bracken had two other wives currently, neither Anna nor Jean liked or trusted them. Kelly, the beautiful blonde he had picked up in Colfax, had decided long ago that the way to keep in her husband's favor was by informing on the other wives when she observed them breaking the rules. More than one beating had been attributed to her tattletale behaviors. And Sharon, another Auburn acquisition from early in the aftermath, was just plain insane, her mind apparently broken from the strain of life these days. Kelly spent much of her time caring for Sharon and it was only because no one else had offered a trade for her that she was still around at all.

              Jean and Anna had gotten along well with each other since the very first day that Jean had been traded into "the family" as Bracken called it. Anna had been the one to explain to her on that first night, after Bracken had "broken her in", how to best avoid future beatings and other forms of punishment. She had shared with her various tips on how best to get Bracken to orgasm as quickly as possible during sexual encounters in order to get it over with for the night ("call him Lieutenant while he's fucking you," she'd advised, "it does it every time"). She'd explained about Bracken's fetish for suddenly sticking his penis into an anus during intercourse and how best to avoid pain during such times ("lube yourself up with Vaseline beforehand and don't clench down - relax").

              As the days went by and the weeks went on the two women had grown closer and closer to each other, sharing their secrets during moments of solitude on work detail or when Bracken was off on a mission. This closeness and friendship was enhanced by the reality that there was really no one else in town that they could confide in or get close to. For a woman living in Auburn, life was very much like Nazi Germany during World War II or Oceania in Orwell's 1984. So cowered were the women in town that there was no way of telling who you could trust and who would inform, who had been pushed over the edge and who still had the spark of rebellion within them. Undoubtedly the majority of the women were miserable with their lot in life and would be sympathetic ears to others that shared their fate. But the men of Auburn feared organization of any kind by the women as much as plantation owners in the south had once feared slave organization. It was well known that many of the town's women had adapted the defense that Kelly had; that of garnering favors with the men by informing on their own kind.

              Anna and Jean had naturally talked of escaping from Auburn from time to time - there was hardly a woman in town who had not thought of such a thing. It sounded so liberating to discuss slipping out during the night and disappearing forever, never to see Auburn or its men again. Like many such fantasies, the harsh realities of the situation put a damper on it. Five women had tried to escape from their captivity at various times in the past and of those five, there was only one that had possibly made it. Two had been captured trying to slip out past the defenses and had been hung the next day. Two others had made it out only to be dragged back the next morning and hung later that afternoon. Only Marla Brown had managed to both get out and avoid capture by the pursuing troops. And what had become of Marla? Nobody knew for sure of course but Jean remembered what it had looked like on the march from Meadow Vista to Auburn and both of the women heard their husband talk to others about the sights he'd seen on his missions. There was nothing out there to live on - nothing at all - and there were no indications that Marla had smuggled any food out with her. And there was nowhere for her to go where she could expect to be taken in, nowhere until Garden Hill anyway. As much as they wanted to believe that she had made it to safety and was even now living in comfort and freedom, the odds were that Marla was lying dead out there somewhere, her corpse eaten by the scavengers that remained.

              "But she could have made it to Garden Hill," Jean had said on more than one occasion, the words sounding like a lie told to children. "She could have." Even Anna, who's educated mind was a little sharper than her younger companion's, found slight comfort in these words. The news that there was a functioning community in Garden Hill had served to electrify many of the town's women, especially after the first recon mission when eyewitness accounts revealed that the community consisted mostly of women and that these women were being used as soldiers. Women who were packing guns and helping defend their town were not women who were being treated as property by the men. Could there be hope in Garden Hill? Could there be a new way of life there?

              Perhaps there could have been but that hope was now within two weeks or so of being destroyed. Though Bracken did not discuss the layout of forces in Garden Hill with his wives he had no problem discussing these things around them when other men were present. Both Anna and Jean had heard many times over that Garden Hill consisted of only about thirty men and two hundred or so women and children. They had heard about the poor defenses being utilized to defend themselves and they had personally seen one hundred and sixty armed men heading off to take the town. Jean could testify in intimate detail how efficient the militia was at what they did. If they were going to take the town, they would take it, more than likely without firing a shot.

              "Well," Anna said now as she watched the line of soldiers disappear in the distance, "it was a nice fantasy while it lasted. Goodbye to Garden Hill."

              "Yeah," Jean said softly. "I only hope now that Marla didn't make it there. Can you imagine what they'll do to her if they find her?"

              "They'll make an example out of her," Anna told her, turning from the window. "But at least we have a few weeks without Asshole around."

              "There's always that," Jean smiled, stepping closer. She put her arms around her co-wife, pulling her body against her. "It'll be nice to sleep in peace with you again, without worrying about him catching us. All we'll have to worry about is Kelly, and she sleeps like the dead."

              "Yes," Anna agreed, smiling back, feeling her breasts touching Jean's through their shirts. "I have missed that while he's been home."

              Though neither of the two women had ever had lesbian tendencies before the comet, the realities of the aftermath and their mutual need of tenderness and affection in a world where such things were rare, had driven them into each others arms early in their relationship. The first night had been while Bracken had been off on his recon mission to Garden Hill. They had stayed up late that night doing the family laundry while Kelly and Sharon had been sleeping and their talk had turned to masturbation. Soon they had found themselves touching each other and kissing. Soon after that they had been licking each other to orgasm. After that first night they had been together many times - always in secret, either late at night or during their workday - since Bracken would have beaten them severely and probably traded one of them had he known what was going on. Homosexuality was strictly forbidden in Auburn.

              "I have a surprise for you tonight," Anna said to her lover as her lips reached out to kiss her softly.

              "What is it?" Jean asked, licking at the protruding tongue that slid out at her.

              "It's something I made out of that deodorant container and some nylon straps," she told her, sucking her lower lip into her mouth. "We'll play with it tonight after the bitch goes to bed."

              "I can't wait," Jean replied, letting her head fall back on her shoulders as Anna slid her mouth down to her neck.

              "I think you'll like it," she told her, tasting the much-loved flesh. "But for now, why don't we have a little warm-up?"

              "Oh yes," Jean breathed, her hands dropping down to Anna's breasts.

              Slowly Anna sank to her knees, so her face was right in line with the buttons of Jean's pants. She unbuttoned and unzipped them, pulling them down to her ankles and revealing the white cotton panties beneath. The crotch of the panties was already starting to get damp. She pulled them down, baring the hairy bush of black hair that covered Jean's sex and releasing the odor of musk into the air.

              Since they were in the very building that served as the administration center for Auburn and since they were committing a crime against the laws of Auburn, they could not afford the luxury of actually removing their clothing. They had long since learned to live with this. She pushed the clothing as far down Jean's legs as possible, so they were puddled up around her shoes. This allowed her to bring her knees and thighs apart far enough for Anna to put her face in there.

              Jean sighed softly as Anna's tongue slipped between her wet lips and stabbed into her body. She let her hands fall to her hair where she began twisting and turning her fingers in it.

              Anna licked at her expertly, lapping up and down the length of her slit for several minutes before attacking the swollen clit with lips and tongue. She sucked gently on the clit at first and then with more force, drawing a leg-wobbling orgasm from her that nearly made her fall down.

              And then it was Jean's turn. She pulled her pants back up and fastened them carefully before kneeling down before Anna and unfastening hers. Anna's pubic hair was dark brown and naturally sparse, her odor sharp and excitingly biting. Jean buried her face between those slender thighs and went to work, her tongue probing into the depths like a small penis. Anna's hands played with Jean's large breasts through her sweater as she was ministered to. Soon the lapping and probing did its work and she was coming, her pelvis gyrating back and forth uncontrollably, wetting her lover's face.