by Eric Vall
“That sounds great,” I said. “Do we have the hardware for that?”
“Yeah, I can go grab what we will need,” he said with a smile before he jogged off towards his shed.
“Good thing Anna said something,” Paige said with a grin.
“Any one of you could have stopped me at any point,” I said.
“I thought you had a plan,” Tara said after she shrugged.
“I did,” I grinned.
“Is there something we can do in the meantime?” Paige asked.
I thought about it for a moment before I nodded. “Yeah, I think there is.”
“Cool, what’s the plan?”
“A couple of you can start wrapping three of the sides in our black plastic. The other two can make a door to fit in the front of the frame, wrap that in plastic, and use the hinges I grabbed to get it in place.”
“Sweet, I’m making the door,” Paige said as she pulled out a tape measure and started to gather up the lumber.
“I’ll help,” Bailey said as she rushed to the brunette’s side.
“Looks like we are on plastic duty then,” Tara said as she looked to Anna.
“Seems so,” Anna nodded as she hefted up the roll of plastic. “Wanna grab the staple gun? I’ll cut it and hold it in place if you want to get it stapled down.”
“Deal,” Tara said quickly as she scooped up the partially rusted silver tool.
“What are you going to do?” Bailey asked me as she held some lumber in place while Paige sawed it to the correct length.
“I think I am going to see if I can find a good place to start a greenhouse,” I said as I studied the courtyard.
“Oh sweet,” the blonde hippie said. “You think we will get that started soon?”
“Our shower is going well,” I said as I looked back at her. “I am thinking maybe we can get it started today, or at the very least maybe we can get our dimensions planned.”
“I love the smell inside of greenhouses,” Anna said as she held a piece of plastic in place while Tara struggled to work the staple gun.
Rolly ran back with a plastic bag full of hardware, rubber seal, and what looked to be a small manual rivet device.
“You need any help?” I asked as the handyman pulled the jugs off the shower structure.
“Nope, I think I got this,” he said.
“Alright, then give me a shout when you are finished,” I said.
“Will do,” he said as he set about cutting the top from the first blue jug.
I wandered out into the courtyard as the group worked behind me. There was not much I could help with until the jugs were done as, at the moment, I would simply get in the way. After a few minutes though I found a nice flat patch of ground with plenty of sunlight that would be a good spot for a medium sized greenhouse.
I made a quick run to the shed to grab some wood scraps and some twine, and then I returned to the future site of our greenhouse. I turned the scraps into small wooden stakes and used my tape measure to measure out a twelve by twenty area. I then marked each of the four corners with a wooden stake and then ran twine between them to give me a footprint. I took a step back and looked at the rectangle I created and nodded in satisfaction. Our courtyard was very quickly starting to fill up with useful outbuildings.
I returned to the group to find the girls were all busy working to hang the door to the little shower. It fit nicely, and they had even built a latch and pull handle. Our shower stall looked pretty nice covered in taut black plastic. I watched as Rolly poured a load of water into the top of the jugs he had prepared and smiled. It wasn’t fancy, but we had a shower.
“Nice job, guys,” I said.
“Thanks,” Paige said before she wiped the sweat from her brow and then cleaned off her glasses.
“I think it’s officially ready for a test run,” Rolly said as he latched the full jug of water closed.
“Oh, I volunteer,” Tara said as she stuck her hand up into the air.
“Don’t get too excited just yet,” I chuckled. “That water is not going to be warm, at least not yet. Right now we just have to turn it on and make sure it flows.” I stepped past the girls and pulled the door open. It swung out nicely without catching on any of the sides. I wondered if Rolly had given them any tips of how they should properly hang a door. Then I stepped in, pressed myself up against the side, and released the valve. Water rushed out of the spout and splattered loudly on the plastic floor. The water pressure wasn’t anything spectacular, but it was more than sufficient for scrubbing yourself clean.
“Oh my god, it works!” Tara squealed.
“Okay, take it down a notch,” Anna said.
“Sorry,” Tara said as she blushed bright red.
I turned off the shower and stepped back into the courtyard.
“So when can we use it?” Paige asked?
“Tomorrow,” I said. “Really, it is ready now, but you might want to give it all of tomorrow morning to really heat up.”
“Did you get the greenhouse started?” Bailey asked.
“I have a spot that I think will work,” I said. “I think we will need to do some inventory before we get started though. Would hate to start it only to realize we don’t have enough wood to finish it at this size.”
“Good call,” Rolly said. “We have been using up quite a bit of good timbers here lately.”
“Nothing we can’t fix,” I said. “After all, we are setup right by a nice sized forest. If we need to, we could get real old school and make our own lumber.”
“I have always enjoyed the rustic look,” Anna said with a shrug.
“Yeah, but you might enjoy it less when you have to work all that wood yourself,” Paige said.
“I’m always up for a little woodworking,” Tara said as she winked at me.
“You’re good at it too,” I replied as I shot her a grin.
“I would tell you two to get a room, but we all share one now,” Bailey said with a smile.
“Well then they can get a different room,” Anna said. “At least while they are playing lumberjack anyway.”
“Ohh, that sounds fun,” Tara purred as she looked at me and licked her lips. “I could definitely fell some wood right about now.”
“You know what, it’s getting late,” Rolly interjected. “Suddenly seems like I should go make some dinner.”
“Aw, you scared off poor Rolly with your flirting, Tara,” Paige teased.
“I won’t complain,” Anna said. “I am actually getting pretty hungry, and that man knows how to cook some tasty food.”
“True,” I said with a nod. “But since we are the ones who drove him away, it seems only fair that we should be the ones to clean up the area. Return all tools, nails, and extra hardware to the shed. Any lumber can he moved out to the spot I marked for our greenhouse.”
“What about this plastic?” Anna asked as she shook the black roll at me.
“Toss that in the shed too,” I said. “After we get everything put away wash up and head for the fire pit.”
“So, is that it for today then?” Paige asked
“Yep,” I said with a nod. “We got a lot done, and we had a solid start to our defensive strategy. I’d say that is enough progress for one day.”
“Yeah,” Tara said as she started to fill the plastic bag Rolly had brought with parts. “Plus, the sooner we sleep the sooner we can use this shower.”
“Wow, you are really obsessed with this shower,” Anna chuckled and shook her head.
“Hey, I really like hot water, and not all of us got to spend time in a hot tub recently,” Tara replied.
“Okay, sorry for saying anything,” Anna said as she shook her head.
I grinned at them, shook my head, and then turned to haul some of our extra lumber over to the greenhouse. If the girls were nervous about the coming fight, they were doing a damn fine job of keeping their spirits up.
We cleaned up the area and took a moment to admire our simple black plastic sho
wer stall. It really wasn’t the prettiest of projects, but I was pretty sure no one was going to care as long as it did the job.
We retired to the fire pit for the evening as the first streaks of orange started to color the sky. A slab of deer sizzled on the skillet sitting over the fire, and a can of beans bubbled in a pot beside it.
“Smells good,” Anna said as she took a seat.
“Thanks,” Rolly said. “It’s nothing fancy, but I figured two nights of wolf meat might be a little much.”
“Maybe we haven't found the best way to cook it yet,” Bailey suggested.
“Maybe,” I said. “We have plenty of meat to experiment with.”
“Yeah, plus we have enough spices to make anything at least palatable,” Paige said.
“Especially if Tara is using them,” Bailey said as she smiled at the platinum blonde.
“Oh, hey, did you want to hear about what we found out about water purification systems?” Paige asked.
“Sure,” I said. “Lay it on me.”
Paige shifted to give me her full attention, brushed a stray brunette hair out of her face, and started in on what she had learned. “Well, modern systems make use of stuff like chlorine gas to purify water and ensure it is safe for human consumption. Obviously we don’t have access to chlorine gas so an entirely modern solution won’t work for us. However, even a lot of large water purification and filtration systems use what we might think of as old school methods.”
“Yeah, it’s, like, kinda crazy how simple a lot of the process is,” Tara added with a nod.
“She’s right,” Paige said. “Some stuff you do in more primitive systems, such as running the water through stones and sand, is still used to help filter out particulates. Just on a much larger scale.”
“So, have you come up with a plan?” I asked
“Kinda,” Paige said. “I don’t think we have all we need yet.”
“What do we need?” Rolly asked.
“We need some large tanks to run the water though. We can set up each tank with a different filtration layer that then feeds into one large reservoir.”
“What do we need to form the layers?” Anna chimed in.
“Really it looks like all we really need is a layer of gravel, a second layer of sand, and a final layer of charcoal.”
“Where are we going to get enough charcoal to filter water with?” Bailey asked.
“We can make that,” I said. “We just need to burn some wood down into charcoal, and thankfully wood is in no short supply around here.” I motioned to the trees around us.
“Sweet,” Tara said. “I was worried about the charcoal thing too.”
“Well, it has to be activated charcoal,” Paige was quick to point out. “We can still make it, but it will take a little more work. Basically we need to bake the charcoal until we can break it down into a powder. Also I think if we can get some cheese cloth or some other form of porous cloth we could add that to each layer as just an extra method of particulate filtration.”
“I like this plan,” I said. “We can build it close to our pump so that we can pump water directly into the top of the system and let it drip through the layers. We just need to find some good sized tanks so we can process large quantities of water.”
“We will also need to build it so that we can get to the different layers and replace the materials as needed,” Tara said. She then looked at Anna and grinned. “See, I was paying attention.”
“Seems so,” Anna smiled and gave her friend a high five.. “Nice job.”
“We will make sure we have access to the system,” I said with a nod. “We have that water tank we picked up in Lanceton a couple weeks back that I intended to use as a reservoir. I think we will bury that in the ground a little to help regulate the temperature of the water and keep it out of direct sunlight.”
“How will we get the water out of it then?” Bailey asked
“We have that second pump,” I explained. “We can hook a hose up to the tank and pump out fresh clean water.”
“Oh God, that sounds soooo nice,” Tara said.
“Yeah, I am getting tired of boiling water,” Anna agreed with a nod.
“Well, if we need to we could probably rip some hot water heaters out of the houses down in town,” I said. “It won’t be a fun job, and the things are usually heavy as hell, but they would provide us at least something to get started with.”
“You know, there are a couple farms bout a half day out from this place,” Rolly said. “There is a chance we could find something a little bigger at one of those. We would have to make sure we could get the truck there to pick them up, but it might be a better alternative.”
“That would be perfect,” I said. “They would probably have stuff more the size I would like to use, and we might be able to score some more lumber to help us with our greenhouse.”
“What if we there are some animals, like horses or cows there?” Tara asked.
“Well then we might have a close source of meat,” I said. “We don’t exactly have a place to keep animals yet.”
“That’s true,” Bailey muttered. “Is that something we could work on?”
“Yeah, but not right now,” I said. “We need to stay focused on our more immediate needs and our defense plan. I also think we should actually see what we can find at these farms first anyway.”
“I’ll mark them on your map if you want,” Rolly said as he started to cut up and plate the deer. He added a large spoonful of steaming baked beans to each plate before he passed them around.
“That would be appreciated,” I said with a smirk. I took the plate of food from the handyman and looked down at the hot food. Everything the old man did came out good, but I was thinking it was time he took a little break. That’s why I decided that tomorrow I would take him with me and head out to one of these farms. A map was nice, but a guide was better. Plus, I had not had the chance to spend much one-on-one time with Rolly since arriving at the school.
We ate our food, cleaned up, and sat around the fire while the sun sank below the horizon, and as I looked around at my unusually quiet group, I could tell they were tired. Anna stifled a yawn, and Tara fought to keep her eyes open as she stared at the flickering flames.
“Hey, how about we get some sleep?” I said quietly.
“I think that’s a good plan,” Rolly said as he pushed himself to his feet and started to collect the dishes.
We took care of the fire pit together, dropped all the dishes off in the kitchen, and headed to bed.
“See you in the morning, Rolly,” I said as I waved to the man.
“Night, all,” he replied before he slipped into his room down the hall from the common room.
“Are you going to stay out here with us again tonight?” Tara asked.
“I think that’s going to become the new normal,” I said. “Unless you guys object, that is.”
Everyone quickly assured me that I was welcome and started to adjust the room so that the five of us could sleep comfortably. Together we set up what was essentially a sleeping pit in the center of the room. We put down a layer of fresh sheets and piled some fluffy comforters on top for padding before we added in more pillows than I had ever expected to see in one place. Then we settled into the fluffy pile. I stripped to my briefs and placed myself in the center facing the stairs.
As I settled in the girls nestled in around me. Each of them found a way to sleep so that at least part of themselves was touching me in some way.
“Good night, Tav,” Tara said softly before she leaned over and kissed me.
The rest of the girls followed suit, each one saying good night and then giving me a kiss before they shifted and got truly comfortable. Then, only a couple minutes later, all four of them were sound asleep around me.
I chuckled and shook my head as I stared at the ceiling. I certainly never saw my life going in this direction, but I knew better than to complain about a good thing, so I closed my eyes, enjoyed the warmth
of the women around me, and slipped off to sleep.
Chapter 7
I woke up the next morning in the middle of a pile of women. I looked down and chuckled because the girls were all wrapped around me in a labyrinth of limbs and hair. They were all still sound asleep as I started to untangle myself from them.
“Is it time to get up already?” Bailey groaned.
“You can sleep a bit longer if you want,” I whispered. “I just want to get an early start on the day.”
“Mmkay, night-night,” Bailey said as she nodded slowly and shifted to wrap herself around a pillow.
I managed to free myself from the four women without disturbing them much, and then I slipped back into the dorm room I had been using since my arrival. I pulled on a fresh pair of brown cargo pants, and a plain green T-shirt. It was starting to get hotter outside, and the time for flannels was almost over. I strapped my pistol to my hip, tucked my knife into my waistband, and headed outside.
The sky had just started to lighten as I trekked out into the courtyard. It was earlier than I usually got up, but I felt that it was about time I started a workout routine. I was getting more than enough protein to justify putting on a little mass, so I took a second to stretch out, and took off in a sprint.
Since it was my first day working out for a while, I started with three laps around the campus, forty pushups, forty sit-ups, and a couple dozen burpees. My shirt was soaked through by the time I finished, and the sun had just crept up over the trees, so I made my way over to the water pump, stripped off my shirt, and cleaned myself off with the cool stream water.
“Have fun out there?” Rolly called out to me as he emerged from the treeline.
“Yeah, it was a good way to start the morning,” I said before I splashed my face with water. “What were you doing in there?” I nodded towards the forest.
“Took care of some morning business,” he said as he smiled and wiggled a roll of toilet paper.
“Say no more,” I chuckled.
“Oh my, what a way to start the day,” Tara said as she came around the corner, stared at my exposed chest, and licked her lips.
