Earth's Survivors: box set

by Wendell Sweet

  Angel was pregnant, but not by The Dog. The Dog had no fear when it came to chasing off the Wolves and Coy dogs that came down into the valley on occasion. Even the occasional mountain lion. They usually came for the deer, the cows were too large for them. But the calves were not. And they had lost five calves to them. The Dog may have had no fear but at fifty pounds he had been no match for the wolves. The smallest coy dogs were close to eighty pounds, the smaller wolves closer to a hundred, and the larger ones bigger by far. Most often The Dog ended up on the bad end of things. Torn up, but still game for the next fight. The problem, as Sharon saw it, was that they needed a much bigger dog.

  Angel was also a mix, but a much bigger dog. Some sort of Saint Bernard mixed in, Sharon thought, and then crossed with either a Malamute or a wolf. Malamutes were close to wolves in size, some even bigger. They had been bred as freight dogs in Alaska back in the early 1950's, and had actually come from breeding domestic dog breeds back to wolves.

  Sharon had not come up with the solution, Cindy had.

  They had both been present when one of the larger male wolves had tried to take down one of the nearly full grown calves they had bought into the valley with them. They were nowhere near as big as a full grown cow, but they were very nearly.

  The wolf had been no match for the calf or the calf's mother who had been nearby. The mother had hit the wolf from the side and broken its spine. She had also delivered a few well placed kicks before herding the calf off. They had checked the calf over and used some antiseptic cream on it's belly where the wolf had tried to rip it open, and then let it return to its anxious mother. That was when Cindy had noticed that the wolf was still breathing. Very shallowly, probably not for much longer, but it was alive.

  They had, had Angel tied up to keep her away from The Dog who was making a general pest of himself because she was in heat.

  “Too bad,” Cindy had said, “We didn't get him to mate with Angel first.”

  Sharon had smiled. “Cindy, you're a frickin' genius!”

  “How so,” Cindy asked.

  “Well. He's not dead. Everything is working... We can make it work.” Sharon had said.

  Cindy looked down at the wolf. “Hold him up?” She was trying to imagine how it might work.

  Sharon laughed. “Okay, I take it back. You're not a genius... How did I show you to do it with the bulls?”

  “Oh...” Cindy smiled as it came to her. “You think it will work,” she asked.

  Sharon shrugged her shoulders, but continued to smile. “Go get the gloves. Let's find out.”

  “Eww,” Cindy said. “I'm not too good with that part.”

  “Time to get better, my dear,” Sharon laughed.

  As it turned out it did work, an unconscious wolf or not. A little help from a turkey baster and a few weeks later Angel was pregnant.

  The lions were another problem. Sharon had no doubt that a few more crossbreedings would produce dogs big enough to keep the wolves at bay, but they would be no match for the mountain lion, or lions, whichever it turned out to be. James had done some tracking and he was convinced it was at least three different lions they were dealing with.

  And the problem with that was the children. The lions seemed only to come around at night, but that didn't mean it couldn't come around during the day. So they had set a trap, leaving the fresh remains of a beef cow, and Katie along with Dustin had sat up most of two nights in a row. The second night had been the payoff.

  Two of the big cats had come down to feed on the cow's carcass. The cats had been nervous and so they had let them both settle in for a few minutes before they had brought both of them down. They had had no other trouble since then. The furs along with all the other game they shot went up to the cave to be cleaned, stretched and turned into usable leather and fur.

  Janna had both Tom and David learning how to prepare and tan the hides. She herself had only ever done it on a small scale, so it was somewhat of a learning process for her too. But there were already some wearing leather vests, pants. Janna herself wore nothing but leather now. Tom and Lilly both had begun to wear only leather, and that had convinced Annie, who was very close to Lilly to try it too. Arlene had already been wearing leather and Janna opinioned that in a few years they would all probably be wearing leather.

  Katie and Amy were hoping to build a loom or a spinning wheel long before that. Or have someone build it for them if they couldn't do it themselves. But both of them had already begun wearing leather. In all truth, Katie told Amy, she liked the way the leather felt on her. It was completely different from cotton, and she wasn't so sure that Janna was not right. Amy had laughed, but a few days later she had been wearing a leather shirt top that Janna had made for her, and extolling the virtues of leather herself.

  In a little over five months they had made the valley into a home. All the prejudices that some had had about living off the land, going back to nature, or simply staying alive, had gone by the wayside. The fields they had cultivated would be ready to harvest in just a few weeks. Corn, beans and other vegetables. And there were acres upon acres of wheat fields to harvest.

  The power station, although doing nothing more than powering a few lights right now, would soon be powering their homes and the main meeting area in the cave. Lights along the pathways. Once they had wire they could make it work for what they needed. The hard work to wire it all would willingly be given as it had been to build what they had so far built. They were all behind what they were doing. They were behind each other.

  They had found that the gradual slope of the stream down to the pool made an excellent water slide. Children and adults alike enjoyed it. It had been used daily through the long, hot summer months.

  Katie and Dustin, along with Molly, Lilly and Cindy had put together a little band. Guitars and hand built drums as well as a flute that Lilly had gotten Arron to make for her from a pattern in a book. They got together a few times a week and provided music for the shared evening meals on Saturday and Sunday.

  The shared weekend meals had been organized by Lilly. She had also set apart an hour on Sunday morning for a church service. It had started with just she and Annie, and now encompassed most of the people. It was like no service in the old world. Lilly would simply read something from her bible or something from some other spiritual book she had. James, Sandy and Janna would speak a little about the Creator and the Great spirit. Arron explained a little about the Qua-ran and the Muslim faith. Not really sermons, they would point out, just food for thought.

  Janna would make a huge group breakfast that just happened to coincide with the end of their service. That had been the beginning of their day together. And it turned into a weekly service.

  From there it had seemed natural to Lilly to plan an afternoon community meal together. It was simply easier for everyone than planning many separate meals. Everyone was so busy throughout the week that they rarely had time to sit down together and talk. Sometimes they didn't see each at all.

  Not everyone made it to the community gathering every week, but no one missed more than one week unless something unusual was going on. It was the one time where no one had to do anything except relax and talk. Enjoy each other's company. Catch up on projects and ideas.

  The musicians played, or sometimes Annie, Lilly and Dustin would play music they had collected and bought with them. But with the power as yet not hooked up and batteries getting scarcer and scarcer, most often it was live music.

  A dozen groups of people had found their way to the valley and joined them. They monitored the CB, FM and VHF bands and spoke with other groups on a nearly daily basis. They also kept up with the news in the outside world. How bad the cities had gotten. The plagues that seemed to be popping up in the cities. Small now, but something they would have to keep up on. It made them grateful for their growing community and the safety they had within the stone ridges of their valley.

  Time was flowing by, and everyone was beginning to find their place in tha
t flow once more. The community they had envisioned was becoming a reality and evolving as it grew.

  ~

  Conner and Katie lay in the big bed in their bedroom. He had one ear up against her stomach listening, trailing his fingers lightly across the swell of her stomach he did.

  He had felt the baby move a few times in the last couple of weeks. It was something that choked him up inside. So much emotion he didn't know how to express it. But that was only his thoughts. Katie could see the love spread across his face and color his eyes. It showed in his smile, in the way he touched her, in the way his eyes misted over.

  The baby kicked him in the ear.

  “Holy cow,” he said lifting his head up quickly. “Did you feel that?”

  “Yeah, Baby, I did.” She laughed and smoothed one hand across his hair as he lowered his head back down to her stomach again.

  “That was so... Cool... This is one of those times, Baby, that you never forget,” he told her in a voice that was hushed and filled with awe. He went back to lightly trailing his fingers across her belly, over the swell and back down the other side. It was something Katie had told him relaxed her. And it did this time too. She fell asleep stroking his hair.

  ~

  Nellie lay with her head on Molly's shoulder. She rubbed her flat stomach with her palm as one finger drew imaginary circles around her belly button. “I'm trying to imagine this with a bump,” she told her.

  “Well it will be soon, Honey” Molly told her.

  “Are you afraid? … Nervous?,” Nellie asked.

  “A bit. They say you forget the pain right after. So...” Molly said.

  “I'll bet it was a man who said that,” Nellie said.

  Molly laughed. “Janna says it's like that. But you want to kill every man in the world for a little while... While it's happening,” she said.

  “She said that,” Nellie asked.

  “Yeah. Just like that. Said she would have kicked herself in the ass for letting James do it, but she wouldn't have been able to get up to do it.” Molly told her. They both laughed. “But afterward? She didn't care. Like right afterward too. She saw her daughter and she said the rest just didn't matter anymore. You know?”

  “I can guess... I can't get pregnant... Or, I never did,” Nellie said.

  “It's our last night alone,” Molly said. Her hand slid down the length of Nellie’s body.

  Nellie let her own hand trail off of Molly's flat stomach and onto the bed. She pushed herself up, straddled Molly's stomach and kissed her slowly.

  “I love you so much,” Nellie told her. She kissed her again.

  ~

  Arron pulled Amy to him and held her as they both allowed their breathing to slow and their hearts to quit pounding.

  “I don't think pregnant ladies are supposed to be... Uh... To be that... Active,” Arron said.

  Amy smacked him on one arm. “You... This one is,” she said.

  “Are you going to miss me… Really miss me,” he asked.

  She smacked him again, leaned her head down and bit him lightly on the chest. “Do you want me to show you again,” she asked.

  “Jesus! You'll kill me, Amy,” Arron told her.

  She rolled off him and curled into his side. “How did you feel about becoming a daddy?” She asked him. His hand was tracing patterns across her stomach.

  “Babe, you know how I feel.”

  “No, you... The other child that will be yours... Molly's?”

  “Oh... I... I guess I feel kind of weird. I don't know exactly how I should feel. When they asked I wasn’t sure, but when you were okay with it, I was okay with it. But it was an abstract, you know? It wasn't really real until I did the thing for Sandy and she did whatever she did with it... Then... Then it was different... That's part of me, Babe. I mean really part of me. I don't know how I feel... Proud? Nervous times two? Looking forward to it? Wondering how I will feel when I see that child and know that it is part of me,” he finished quietly.

  Amy rubbed one hand across his stomach. “They said the baby will know,” she said. “It probably won't feel so weird once you're used to it.”

  He nodded and touched her belly. “But this baby? This one will be spoiled rotten... A man who had nothing just a short time ago, and now, soon, I'll have two little people who are part of me to love and be loved by.”

  “The babies,” Amy said.

  “That makes three. I was talking about you and our baby. We're one, you're part of me and I'm a part of you. Old testament, New Testament, Qua-ran, they all say the same thing. We become one. So, there's you, a part of me... And the baby, a part of us... And the other baby that is part of us as well... A lot of love for a man who had nothing at all.” He let one hand travel over the swell of her stomach and downward.

  “And what exactly are you doing now,” Amy asked.

  His mouth planted little kisses on her stomach as he worked his way down.

  ~

  Arlene’s Journal

  It's the night before the six will leave to go back to the outside. I think of it that way... The outside. This place is something I have never had. So much love, so much caring, it overwhelmed me for the first little while. That and the other. Having to kill a man. But it was worse for those who stayed behind when we made our way to this place, if they had not stayed to fight the rest of us would not have been able to get away. David told me what it had been like for them. They had to kill too. They had to kill children that were controlled like puppets. Deadly puppets to be sure, but a puppet is a puppet... a slave.

  And now we're sending them back out again into a world that can't be any better than it was. It's worse in some ways. We didn't have to deal with the plague. The radio tells us they have seen it in most of the bigger cities. I just can't imagine it. But We're sending them out tomorrow, and all so that we can live a little better. Nothing that we absolutely have to have. We have everything we could ever need right here, but to live better.

  To live better we need other things. It makes me wonder if we have changed all that much after all. I hope it is not a move toward the old society. I really hope not. Enough negativity though. They're going. I voted yes too, and there are thing's they will bring back that I asked for too.

  On a lighter note I think almost every woman in the Nation is pregnant. I guess that's a bit of an exaggeration, but not much. Me, Amy, Katie, Lilly, Annie. Jane, Alice and Amber are pretty sure. There are so many more people here. It seems almost like we grow every week. Maybe we do, come to think of it. Oh, and now Molly too, and I wonder who the father is? But how would I ask Molly without sounding too nosy or even insensitive? Babies and more Babies, and thank God for them. They are our real crop. We joke about that, how in a few weeks it will be time to bring in the corn and that's our crop, but our real business, our real crop, is babies.

  Sandy and Susan are thinking about it too, only they both want to get pregnant. They're trying to decide who goes first. God bless them.

  Some times I think I am a long way from my roots. In another respect it seems to me that I have spent my entire life trying to get to this place... This condition... And I am so glad that I am here.

  May God go with ours tomorrow as they go back to the outside. Keep them safe. Bring them right back to us.

  ~

  Lilly's Journal.

  I am as big as a house. Seven months, two to go and I can not really believe it because I am so big. How much bigger can I get?

  Tom dotes on me bad. I mean he waits on me hand and foot. I am still teaching day times, but I take it easy late afternoon and evenings.

  I would have never believed that anyone would want to leave this and go back into the world. I think of this place as set apart. Out there is the other world... The old world with all of our garbage still there. I only hope and pray they have a safe trip.

  Ouch! This kid kicks like a football player!

  Our life here is good. So good. Thank you, God.

  ~

  Se
ptember 15th: Evening

  The Nation

  Katie let her fingers trail along the flat plane of Conner's stomach. “I had a flat stomach once,” she said.

  Conner shifted, and his own hand traced the heavy swell of Katie's stomach “I'm pretty happy with the remodeling job you had done.”

  Katie laughed. “You are a smart ass. I think you had quite a lot to do with this remodeling job.”

  “Hmm, I vaguely remember it.”

  Katie gave him a shot in the arm. “Vaguely?”

  “I'm going to miss you when we go tomorrow,” Conner said, suddenly serious.

  Katie said nothing for a second. “I could say, then don't go, but that wouldn't make you stay; so I don't want to talk about tomorrow morning. That's tomorrow. I'll deal with it then. This is tonight. Tonight you're right here, so am I.” She looked up at him. Her fingers went back to trailing across his stomach.

  ~

  “And you tell Conner that if you come back messed up, he's dead,” Amy said.

  “Conner is not responsible for me,” Arron said.

  “Yes, he is. I told him. He knows. If he brings you back messed up, I'm going to kick his ass.”

  Arron laughed.

  “Oh, that's laughable? You find the idea of me kicking Conner's ass laughable?”

  “No, I find the idea of someone as pregnant as you are right now kicking anyone’s ass funny.”

  She punched him in the arm.

  “Ouch. Son of gun... Damn you punch hard, Babe,” Arron complained. He rubbed at his arm.

  “Oh? But I thought you said it was laughable?”

  “Okay... Okay... Christ. Conner better watch out, I guess.”

  “Exactly. He better. Now... you said something about spending time with me?”

  “Yes,” Arron agreed.

  “Well, here I am,” Amy said.

  EARTH'S SURVIVOR'S: HOME IN THE VALLEY

  PUBLISHED BY: Dell Sweet

  Earth's Survivors: Home In The Valley is © Copyright 2015 Wendell Sweet, all rights reserved.

  Additional Copyrights © 2010 – 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015 by Wendell Sweet, All rights reserved