Future Rebuilt: A Post-Apocalyptic Harem (Future Reborn Book 2)

by Daniel Pierce

  “Kitty. There’s a word I didn’t expect to hear in The Empty, but yes.” She adjusted, clamping down on my entire length. “They’re not the only ones trained to please.”

  “They’re welcome here, but do you even know if they’re on the way?”

  “Hannah is smart. Hannah Too is even smarter. They’ll be here, if they don’t get taken by the desert,” she said, her voice thick with lust.

  I felt myself begin to lose control under the force of her motion, speeding up as care and caution fell by the wayside. We were both close again, and secrets were for people who weren’t us. “Then they can live here in peace. I won’t turn them away because of their talents. We need talent.”

  “You have my talent to spare. And Mira’s.” Her tongue flashed over my lips, warm and elusive.

  “And you have mine,” I said, raising the pressure on her hip. I slid further in, the angle pure connection as we both reached an unspoken agreement about the moment, the future, and other things. Shaking, she kissed me, and I kissed her back.

  Building a world was hard. It would be easier with Silk, and I told her without saying a thing.

  When the sun rose, I was already up, washed, and waiting to greet the day’s work. Derin and Lasser joined me at the eastern edge of the oasis, and after a few moments, I heard the tumult of Natif and the Harlings bringing the fire back from coals.

  “Where are your women?” Derin asked.

  My women. I paused at the phrase, then realized it was true. I had a commitment just as real as anything that existed in my time; perhaps even more serious because their lives depended on me. “If I know them, they’re doing pre-dawn hunting. Mira saw snake tracks, and even though we have plenty of pork, she’s got a plan for using their hides to make shoes and such.”

  “Snakes? How big?” Derin asked.

  “Three meters and up. Big enough to eat, and big enough to kill if they bite. Their hide is tough and water-resistant. It’s time we took more from The Empty than it takes from us,” I said.

  Mira called out across the dunes.

  “Seems you’re right,” Lasser said.

  She carried a swinging shape that could only be a huge rattler, the inert form looped twice over her shoulder.

  “A successful hunt, and before the sun’s even up. I think you’ve got the right people here, Jack,” Derin said. “Which reminds me. Today, I begin my work, and that snake will come in handy. Every scrap of skin you find or provide will go to armor, belts, shoes, and other things we need. I can work with many different materials, but I’m not even certain what we have on hand.”

  “Everything we kill, we skin. All skins go to you, and Natif and Scoot can be assigned to your forge as a work detail. You okay with them?” I asked, more for his opinion of Natif.

  “More than okay. Are you sure Natif isn’t better used somewhere else? The kid’s smart. He would make an excellent . . . well, anything, really, and Scoot and I are already a team,” Derin said, shrugging.

  “Fair enough. Would it be okay if he dropped in on a casual basis? I need no less than three people to know a skill. We need backups to backups if we’re going to thrive out here,” I said.

  “You mean survive?” Derin asked.

  “Nope. Thrive. I don’t want us scraping by. We’re going to build something permanent, not a settlement that can dry up and blow away after a single bad harvest. We’re going all in on this place, Derin. Roads. A government, fair but small, and an end to this lawless bullshit that Wetterick seems to think is civilized. I won’t tolerate that kind of thing, and my people won’t either. We’re going to be free. We’re going to bring the best parts of my world back, even if it means reshaping this flyblown desert one square meter at a time,” I said.

  Derin grunted, pleased at my intentions. “That’s a lot for one lifetime, Jack.”

  “I’ve got more than a lifetime to work. The ‘bots in my blood—I expect to be here for a while. How long, I don’t know, but I survived 2000 years in a metal coffin, and it’s better that I start planning for a long life now, if I can avoid getting killed.” I shook my head, thinking of the amount of work that lay ahead.

  “Sounds lonely,” Derin said.

  “It might be. I have Mira and Silk now, and everyone else to care for. I think it’s mutual, but I understand what you mean. While my people get old, I won’t, at least not at the same rate. That’s going to be hard for everyone,” I admitted.

  “At least you’re aware of it.” He stretched his huge shoulders and smiled. “Time to do some lifting. Does your sense of duty stop you from grunt work?”

  “Not at all. I was always good at breaking things,” I told him.

  “You better not. This is how we arm for the future,” he said, waving me toward his wagon. When we arrived, he opened the back doors to reveal an orderly space packed to the roof with gear.

  “Did you bring the whole post with you?” I asked.

  “Seems like it. Tools and the forge, things we can’t replicate without help—or a working forge. We’ll be self-sufficient once this is up and running, if we can find materials,” he said, hefting a large stone block. It was numbered, and I saw he had every piece of the forge in order for easy reassembly. Smart. I grabbed a pair of blocks in sequence and followed him, placing them where he wanted. In a few minutes, the forge began to take shape, leaning inward as the stones got incrementally smaller.

  “Not today, but down the road we’re going to need an identity as a people, a place,” I said, handing him a bundle of metal rods. He began sliding them into small holes, and I saw they were support struts for a rack of some kind.

  “A uniform?” he asked.

  “More an identifying item, like a color, or a shape, something like that. My nation’s colors were red, white, and blue, but I don’t know if those are easy to produce. We already have a flag, and the stars would be easy to make. As to the blue background, I don’t know.” I kicked at the gravel, making a groove where his security wall would rise once we began bringing in outside material.

  “Why have an—what did you call it? An identity?” Derin asked. He was confused by the concept, and I realized that statehood was an alien concept.

  “Because people want to belong, and we will eventually grow beyond a simple group with common interests. To be honest, those interests are mine, for now, but in the future we’re going to be a functioning state, with some of the problems that come about from that. Mostly it’s just a numbers game, and not everyone who comes here will work out. Those who don’t will have to go, but I don’t think it’s going to be as great an issue as it was in my time,” I said.

  “Why? People are still people, right?” Derin asked. He was sorting an array of hammers that looked like he’d gone to Thor’s yard sale.

  “They are, but The Empty made them hard. It made people—it took the soft edges away, and what’s left are the kind of people who fought a flying dragon without asking why, they just did it because the alternative was to be eaten. Those are the kind of people I need to rebuild. We can make life good again, Derin. Good for you, but more importantly, a world that Scoot can live in without as much fear for her survival.”

  “I’d like that,” Derin said, squinting up into the sun. “Did your people really go to the stars?”

  “I don’t know. I don’t think so, but I haven’t made it through all the drives that Silk saved. There’s a lot of history to cover, but since my upgrades were part of a plan to send people to the stars, I don’t think it happened. I think the virus happened first, and shot that dream to shit,” I said. “There’s a lot more of my world left than meets the eye. We found messages down under in the hallways, and they tell of things that could be the difference between life and death for us. Things like a power plant, much larger than what we’ve built here, and a lot more sites where tech might have survived. Based on that alone, I’ll be going out into The Empty whenever I can, because our job isn’t just here. It’s out there, too.”

  “A p
ower plant would change this world forever. I wonder if it could make enough energy to send us to the stars, even all these years after the virus. That would go a long way toward me forgiving your people for leaving me with this as my home,” he said, waving at the vast Empty around us.

  “I know we were close to freedom. Real freedom, but like I said, the virus torched that hope,” I spat.

  “Keeping people on a world where they feared their leaders. I didn’t understand how cruel your world could be, but now I do,” Derin said, his eyes dark with anger.

  “Why would you think we hated our leaders?” I asked him.

  “I saw the way you looked at Wetterick. I know a man who sees something he knows. You recognized his cruelty, didn’t you?” he asked.

  “True. Didn’t know it was that obvious, but, yeah. Our leaders were—I think I’m glad I woke up here, Derin. We have a chance to reboot the planet, and we can start right here, at your forge. You don’t know how glad I am that you’re here,” I told him.

  “Yes, I do. I’ve seen you fight, more or less, and I think that while you may be very good at building things for a while, you will have to break them, too. That means I’ll be quite busy,” he said, laughing as he threw a timber over his shoulder. He was incredibly strong, and I grunted when I grabbed a similar timber to carry the pair with him. He put them down a few feet apart. They would be the foundation for a raised platform, and with each passing minute, his work area began to take shape.

  “I plan on breaking only the things that fight back against a free world. Other than that, I think this place has seen enough violence,” I said.

  “You have a gift for it, Jack. Don’t hold back just because the stones are tired of blood. There are slaves, and pain, and all of it might have to come down before you can build it up. I know. I make things, remember?” His smile was easy, but the truth he’d spoken was bitter. I thanked him and moved off, mired in my own thoughts of what was next.

  Silk was waiting, a slow smile on her lips as she watched me move from tree to tree. “Are you stalking me?”

  “Now why would I do that?” I asked her. I could feel my smile return despite the conversation with Derin. Silk was beautiful in ways the world didn’t deserve, just like Mira, and I knew that at the core of my purpose was finding a way to protect them from whatever lay outside the edge of our little Eden.

  “Good answer. Are we planting today?” she asked. Her eyes were brilliant in the sun.

  “We are. About forty, I’d say. I think we come out to around Derin’s location, should give him shade in a couple years, and we can leave a space for him to expand. Like a living border,” I said.

  “I like that we have a future. I’ll rally the troops and start,” she said, walking away to find Scoot and Natif and whoever else could be corralled for digging.

  That left me alone, looking to the east, my thoughts sifting through possible outcomes of each action I considered. “The Hannahs,” I found myself mumbling. I knew they were on the way because I’d seen their intelligence, and smart people knew to leave a collapsing empire like Wetterick’s little fiefdom.

  That meant they were out there, somewhere, and a greeting party made good sense. I could go alone, but in The Empty, that was dumb, even for someone like me. Better to take Mira and hedge my bets. Her desert instincts were excellent, and she hated planting trees.

  “Mira,” I called, seeing her bent over a small hole in the ground, her glare of disgust nearly physical as the walls collapsed. “Feel like a walk in the sand?”

  She threw her shovel down next to Natif, who laughed with good nature at her frustration. “At this point, I’d rather go fight one of those giant pigs. I hate farming.”

  “It’s not farming. It’s digging little holes,” Natif replied, helpfully. His grin was wicked as he hollowed out a hole with minimal effort, dropping a young oak in and pushing the dirt back.

  “Hush, you. It’s farming, and you know it,” she said, leaning down to pat Natif on the shoulder. “We’re looking for the Hannahs, I take it?”

  “Good guess. They’re out there. Might as well guide them in,” I said. “Derin can work on his forge. Everyone else can plant. When we find the Hannahs, we’ll add some people to our ranks and then spend some time down under, in the facility. We can show everyone what we’re doing here, the water, the gardens, and then we can get serious about expansion, especially if I find that power plant. This is the catalyst we needed to get out there and take a leap forward.” The Hannahs might not be alone, which meant more hands than I hoped for. We could use the help.

  “Natif, tell Silk and the Harlings. We’re grabbing our packs and heading—” She raised a brow to me, shrugging. “—west and then north?”

  “Exactly. Let everyone know. We’ll be back by nightfall,” I told him.

  “Got it, boss. Need anything?” he asked.

  “Nope. We’ve got out packs, ammo, guns, knives—”

  “I’ve got dried pork rations, three skins as backup, and medical. We’re good with my pack and yours. We sleep rough, if we have to overnight, but we don’t go past fifteen clicks out, by my call,” she said, walking away to grab her gear. Mira didn’t waste time, and I knew we would be in motion before the next tree was planted.

  “Natif, stay here and work. We’ll tell Silk about our mission,” I said, amending my order. The Empty was an ocean of sand, and you didn’t dive without a plan. And a buddy. I would use both, even for a day trip.

  I sketched the idea to Silk, then the Harlings, and in minutes Mira and I were on our way to the north, alert for any sign of wagons or corpses. I peered up at the sun and came to the realization that I was getting used to The Empty.

  That, or my ‘bots were evolving.

  “If she was following the route south, we could intersect her by taking a diagonal track. Save time that way,” Mira said. She knew The Empty in ways that I was still learning, but my augmented body was more forgiving about mistakes made in the desert. I had to adjust my actions accordingly.

  “Easier going to the north. Let’s go two klicks and drift west. If there’s anyone out here, we’ll see signs. If they get past us, they won’t be able to miss Alatus and anything that Taksa left behind,” I said. “You have glasses?”

  “Got them,” she said, flashing a small pair of binoculars. They would extend our view and give us the ability to cover even more ground. She put them away, but not before rewrapping them in a cloth. It was no longer a disposable world, and she took care of her things. I felt the same way about people. With the virus taking so many and leaving a husk of a planet, people had more value. Life had more value than when I was put in the tube, even though the world was far less forgiving.

  We walked for an hour at a good pace. Mira was lean and tough despite her feminine exterior. When she smiled at me, there was a lightness to her that hadn’t been around after Bel died, and I knew that inside she was healing. Her smile faded to mild confusion as she titled her head, eyes narrowed to ward off the sun.

  I followed her gaze due north to a smudge on the horizon. “Not a wagon,” I said as my eyes focused on the distinct shape of two figures, then four as they walked up a low crest. They wore light colored clothes and carried weapons.

  “Armed. Four of them.” I stared again, and the weapons resolved into two guns and two leaf-bladed short spears. “Two women, two men—wait.” More shapes lifted over the rise. “Make that at least seven people in all. Two are not armed.”

  “It’s the Hannahs,” Mira said with certainty. Her eyes were excellent, and nearly as good as mine.

  “How do you know?” I asked.

  “They walk like women, they’re not armed, and they’re in the middle. Those people are bringing them to us,” she said.

  “Or making them lead them to the Oasis,” I said with a touch of cynicism. Being negative could keep my people alive, and I wasn’t averse to the idea of assuming the worst.

  “Could be. Only one way to know. Do we fire over th
eir heads, or would you like to chat first?” Mira grinned, lifting her rifle to hip.

  “I’m nothing if not reasonable. Let’s talk first, kick ass only if we have to.” I considered the women, and their height difference sold me on their identity. “I’ll be damned. They did come from the north.” I shrugged and started walking as Mira waved. My shotgun was up but not pointed at the approaching party, who were no less than 200 meters away. Anyone with a brain knew my gun was useless at that range, but Mira’s was another story, especially with her gift as a hunter. Her skills were honed in the hardest lands I’d ever seen, and I knew she carried herself with the air of a survivor. That would be evident to the other people even at this range, so we approached with cautious optimism before the Hannahs saw us and broke into a run, waving and laughing as they slid down the dune to greet us. None of the others tried to stop them, which was an excellent sign that diplomacy and friendship might win the day over sniping skills.

  “Jack!” Hannah yelled, rushing to hug me. Her body was light, but her smile was bright, and she looked healthy despite a day or two on walkabout. I flicked my eyes back and forth to the women, who were in their early twenties but still young enough to be joyful. How they managed that after life in a whorehouse was a question I would ask Silk later, but for now, we exchanged a tumult of greetings as they turned to introduce their companions.

  In my mind, I’d already sorted them as Hannah and Hannah Too the shorter being Too on the basis of her smaller stature. Hannah was a brunette with brown eyes and freckles, full lips, and an elfin look. She was four inches taller than Hannah Too, who was a blue-eyed blonde with a small nose and legs that looked impossibly long for her smaller frame. They were both beautiful, and I could see why Silk trusted them to bring in customers. The intelligent look they both gave me confirmed that Silk was very good at judging people, and I draped an arm around Hannah Too as she murmured in my ear.

  “Safe, but quite interested in who you are,” she said before breaking into a winning smile. “These people found us after our wagon fell through the roof of an underground washout. Only three meters down, but a hard enough fall that it smashed everything we had and killed Edgar.”