"Maybe they won't come looking for us," Alexa suggested. "You said that they sounded like a new era church."
"You mean like turn the other cheek kind of thing?" Jada asked.
"Yeah," Alexa responded. "Surely not everybody is bent on expanding their territory and crushing all opposition. We're not."
"When have we encountered a group like us since we've been together?" Jada asked.
It was true. Any clan that we came up against wanted to kill or capture everyone else. The Coalition wanted even more than that. Only Corinne and John's group was content to survive like us. Even the all-female cavalry that shared the skank cure with us had an agenda for changing the world. It was a time of great opportunity, like when an empire fell. Anyone with ambition could quickly gain control over a territory.
Sometimes I wondered if I should be doing something like that. When we had the compound on Apple Grove we were doing more in a way. We had become a haven for many. But we had no plans on forcing our will on others, taking out the bad guys to make the world a better place.
Since the individuals in my harem clan developed superpowers, one by one, we had encountered many mutants. Human and animal. I had assumed that would be the case all over the world. The report that I received from the few people that knew what was going on out there suggested otherwise. Our acquired skills weren't godlike by any means, but maybe we could rise up and take control over a large area, for the greater good even.
That line of thought quickly made me tired. We had already been through enough shit. But then again, after a week or two of calm civilization I would be looking for bigger projects. I'd get restless. Maybe not take over the world kind of projects, but definitely things that would make us more visible.
Jada, Bianka and I kept watch out the three sides of the house. The other girls could watch the backyard while they sat in the living room or kitchen. If I were this church group, I would use the houses with all their shrubs and trees for cover as I searched the neighborhood for signs of residence. But it was entirely possible that they would stroll right up the street like their patrollers did.
Thirty minutes came and went. No sign of activity. They were evidently doing things the slow and cautious way. We needed to stay diligent, man our posts. Be ready.
Two hours went by and still nothing. Just squirrels. One fox, and a beagle puppy that looked to be in bad shape. I never had a puppy growing up. Seeing one in need almost made me want to retrieve it. I was certain that Stella would take excellent care of it. But then it would bark and give us away, so I certainly couldn't allow that.
My eyes were getting tired, so Riley spelled me for a few minutes. That began a rotation that allowed everyone to get some rest as we sat and waited for the inevitable. This organization came across a guy with a gun that threatened them when they made demands. Surely there would be consequences.
"Maybe they are waiting for nightfall," Jada suggested.
"That doesn't match their behavior pattern," Bianka replied.
"We've only seen their patrol guys so far," Jada responded. "That was more like a neighborhood watch when you consider that they didn't have any weapons. I would expect their enforcers to be more military minded."
We took two hour shifts throughout the night, careful to limit our lantern activity. All the windows in the front of the house we made sure to block the view without making it look boarded up. Curtains and blinds were the only things that people would see from outside. The cardboard was behind those to block light from getting out. The back windows were so big that there was no way to conceal ourselves without tipping off anyone going around the back. They'd have to get inside the fence though to see us in the living area. Or climb a tree way back there.
We were all tired from a lack of sleep when Riley and Alexa started fixing something for breakfast. "Maybe nobody will come looking for us after all," Alexa proposed again. She was as frustrated from the interrupted sleep as the rest us, only more vocal about it.
"It seems that way," Riley supported her.
"No," I said stubbornly. "I don't believe that. And even if it were true, we need to be more cautious now. I already threatened them with a gun."
"So," Alexa said with disappointment. "That means we will have to continue with no power, right? No cooking either? Not even the fireplace?"
It was sad, but it looked like that was the best course of action. I wouldn’t be a good leader if I didn’t restrict our living conditions to prevent detection. At least for a while.
"I don't want to have to live like this," Alexa told me. She wasn't having a tantrum, just stating how she felt. We all felt that way. "Eating crackers and peanut butter, vegetables straight out of a can."
"If we extend our vantage point," Bianka suggested. She was becoming more defensive of Alexa as the two of them got closer. They were practically lovers now, though I was told they would only engage in sexual activity in my presence. "We could go about our lives until someone got close."
"How do we do that?" Riley asked my newest lover.
"Extend our perimeter," she answered. "Have two guards on duty outside where we could see more. One watching down Northwest while the other watches down Southwest."
"So, you and I would spend most of our time away from our new home," Jada said. "Even with a rotation, that is not the kind of life that we want to live. It might make Alexa happy, but I thought that we were all-for-one, one-for-all."
Each of us sighed and glanced around at the others. Stella was the only one currently watching out a window. She was in my bedroom where she had the best view. I could barely hear her voice when she called to us.
"Guys, come here. I see someone."
Riley remained in the kitchen as the rest of us hurried to the front of our new home. One man and two women were moving slowly through the front yard of a house across the street from us. Stealthy there were not entirely. But they weren't in the middle of the street at least. I wondered if they were even with the Children of the Phoenix church group.
"They are unarmed," Jada said.
We continued to watch as the three of them hunkered down behind a hedge near the concrete front porch. Then they spread out a little and focused their attention in three different directions.
"That's them," Alexa told us. "They are waiting for us to walk by or some other sign that we are here. I think they are prepared to sit there for a while. I believe one of them is thinking about when she should eat the food that she brought with her. It is also likely that they are not the only ones lying in wait for us in the neighborhood."
"You got all that from senses their emotions?" Jada asked. On many occasions I also doubted the professed limitations of Alexa’s ability.
"I've been doing this while," Alexa replied. "After I pick up a reading on someone, I then watch what they do. That's how I can predict what they are actually thinking."
"What am I about to do next?" Jada asked, in a challenge.
"It doesn't work like that," my first wife replied. "You know that I am reading you so your emotional state is different than it would be normally. All I can tell is that you are trying to shock me with what you plan to do."
"Huh," Jada replied with a friendly grin. "For the record I was debating on either goosing you or popping one of my titties out in your face."
"Well, I am glad..." Alexa started.
"Can we focus, please?" I asked in frustration. I was just beginning to think that maybe this new church was going to leave us alone, let us live and peace. Now I can see that they are just taking their time doing their recon before deciding what to do.
"Maybe we should go over there and talk to them," Bianka suggested. She may have been joking. Diplomacy wasn’t really her style. I hadn't even considered the option of negotiating with these scouts. And there was a reason why.
"Then they can call for help and we'll be out in the open where it is harder to defend ourselves," I answered. "Plus, we'll be giving away our position. Right now, I believe that the
y are still searching for us."
"I don't think these three expect to spot us," Alexa said. "They are not very concerned about a possible conflict. I think they believe that we probably already left the area. Or they are hoping that we did."
I released a heavy breath and said, "That is the best piece of intel so far, Alexa. Thank you. I say we just sit tight for a few days until this thing blows over. It doesn't look like they have a military force at their disposal. Otherwise, why would they be sending out these civilians to watch for us? After that we'll just have to watch for patrols. Maybe they follow an exact schedule. That will make it easy for us. Once it is clear I'll work on the solar panels again. We can continue with our plan soon enough. We just have to wait it out."
Everyone was agreeable to my proposal. Alexa wasn't fond of waiting a few days for our habitat to improve, but it was better than the other options. Stella was also disappointed when I told her to stop working on the farm as well.
We went back to a rotation of just one or two guards as we continued to get the interior of the house to our liking. We stowed the personal belongings of the previous family and stocked the kitchen cupboards with our supplies. It was a good thing that we had enough drinking water to last us. I didn't want to risk another trip to the river anytime soon. Fishing would have to wait, too.
"With this new plan," Jada said to me. "I think we should put a new gate in the fence in the middle of the back section. That way we can sneak out the back toward the river without having to worry about being spotted."
"That does sound like a good idea," I replied. "We'll have to do so quietly, though."
"And, if you don't mind, I'd like to skip my first turn in your bed tonight," Jada told me quietly.
"Having second thoughts?" I was actually looking forward to my most risqué lover advancing her role in my life.
"No, not really," Jada replied. "I just don't think that I'll be able to enjoy myself, or even do a good job for you with worrying about our current situation."
"I understand." A man’s hormones could sometimes kick in strong enough to block everything else out, enabling him to have sex at the most inappropriate times. But from what I had learned, women’s brains didn’t work quite the same way.
"I'll talk to Riley and let her know," Jada informed me. At least she wasn't avoiding the subject. "If things settle down, I'd like to spend the night with you soon. I haven't had anything like that for a long time."
"I look forward to it, Jada."
"Do you?"
"You know that I do," I smiled as I pulled her to me for a quick kiss on her cheek. She almost looked bashful as I did. Imagine that, Jada doing anything that resembled timid. "I've been wanting you in my bed ever since we left the old beer and wine store. I can't wait to hold you in my arms as we fall asleep."
Jada sighed and said, "That does sound nice."
CHAPTER TWELVE:
By lunch time the three peepers moved around the bend to another house on Northwest. Bianka went outside to watch exactly where they went and to check if there were more. She then reported that there was another group of three on the other side of the school doing the same. And a third farther to the south. Based on their pattern and technique it looked like we shouldn't expect to see them in our vicinity again for a while, if ever. Maybe the Children of the Phoenix would write us off as people just passing through. Or at least think that we bugged out after the incident with the two men on patrol. I certainly hoped that was the case.
I allowed Stella to return to the garden, but she still needed to be quiet. Riley joined her there since projects inside the house were nearly complete. There just wasn't much that had to be done indoors except to get the solar power working. The place was in pretty good shape, especially after the girls had been working so hard to make it their happy home.
By afternoon anyone that wasn't actively watching out the windows for trouble was joining the others in the backyard. Most of us were removing sod, digging furrows or transplanting small crop plants that Stella managed to find growing during our travels. She also had dozens of seed packets, but her focus was on things that could yield produce sooner than later.
I was itching to play cornhole, but I worried that the sound of the bags landing on the wooden boards would echo throughout the neighborhood. The days of white noise drowning out sounds in the city were long gone. You could hear a hammer hitting a nail from several blocks away.
Occasionally, we heard the noise of people down by the pike. Human voices that could easily be confused with a flock of geese if we didn't know any better. Sometimes there was metal on metal or the thud of wood, but not all that often. And never did we hear any gunshots. If this group had an arsenal of ballistic weapons, they weren't using them.
When we sat down for dinner that evening, I had high hopes that the next day would allow us to loosen some restrictions. I could go up on the roof before the sun broke the horizon. We could venture down to the river for more water and some fishing. The girls could go looking for wild berries in the woods. Just enough to keep us from getting cabin fever. Everyone was so eager to return to a civilized lifestyle.
We didn't spot any more groups doing surveillance during the night, thankfully. The moon and the stars lit up the neighborhood well enough that Bianka's cat vision wasn't required to deduce that. The lack of stealth we had witnessed thus far suggested that we didn’t need to worry about anyone hiding out nearby.
We broke away from Riley's scheduled rotation of bedroom companions for me since Jada wasn't ready. Instead of skipping her I requested to spend the night with just Alexa. She had graciously shared my affection with Bianka on her turn. As my first wife I believed that it was her right to get an extra night.
Alexa offered sex but I could see that she would rather just rest her head on my shoulder and talk until we both fell asleep. I was definitely fine with that. My mind was busy thinking about best and worse-case scenarios for our future anyway. I didn't want to rush through it and cheapen the experience for either of us.
The next morning after breakfast the same two men that I threatened previously strolled up the middle of the street again. Unarmed still, but the bigger guy had a walkie-talkie in his hand this time. They were a little more observant than the last time, but otherwise they appeared to trust that the area had been cleared of threats.
We had been trying to listen in on the group's conversations via the two-way radio that I made them leave on the road that day. However, the group was rotating through channels during the course of each day and there wasn't really that much chatter. Either they had other means of communication or they simply weren't spread out that much. Most of what we were able to catch was patrol reports. Diseased animals were still a problem, but the only mention of human threats were ones regarding us. Those using the radios were pretty tight-lipped in their conversations, too. They might not be militant, but they weren’t stupid.
There was no way of knowing if they would stick with their old patrol schedule. We had limited knowledge of it anyway. The best that we could figure was to expect a duo to walk the street in front of our house every four to six hours. Three to four times a day. But we weren't going to count on that just yet. As soon as they passed out of visual range, though, I considered it the best opportunity for me to head up to the roof.
It took me longer than I hoped to replace the damaged cables, but Bianka was convinced that we hadn't been spotted. I made sure we gathered all our supplies and the damaged pieces so their presence wouldn't give us away. Then I hurried to the utility room to work. The inverter that I had currently connected still didn't work. That was more than disappointing but it didn't quite crush my spirits entirely. I was determined to try everything that I could. I had plenty of time and little else to do. Anytime that I started getting impatient I stopped for some meditation to regain my focus.
When I swapped out the inverter for one from a different house, I was delighted to see the screen finally working. But that was becau
se of the new nine-volt battery I installed. It didn't mean that it was receiving power from the panels. In fact, it would get its long-term juice from the large battery pack once it charged up. That could take a while.
There were no error codes on the screen. I wasn't sure what that meant. There had to be an issue somewhere. Was it not connecting to where the problem lied? Was it not going to work at all? I rechecked all my connections in the room, but the screen remained the same. I was about to give up when the lone light bulb dangling above my head turned a dull yellow.
I jumped to my feet in my excitement, nearly busting the newborn light source with my thick skull. Then I spent the next few moments trying to remember if we had everything turned off. The thermostat for the air conditioner. The blender. Anything that could make enough noise to sound an alarm. I didn't hear anything powering up, but then again, the battery pack was just beginning to get a charge. It was also possible that several electrical breakers would need to be reset.
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