Dan and the Bottle Ch. 15

BJ and Missy were in the kitchen, making the first of several pizzas for the 'little get-together' when the younger girl started questioning things.

"BJ, do you really think I'll fit in with your friends?"

"Honey, just relax... if I didn't think you were ready for this, I wouldn't have set it up. They'll love you. Don't worry so much, okay?"

"But... will I have to have sex with them?"

BJ took her by the shoulders and swung the young girl around to face her.

"Missy, listen to me: you are a free woman now. You don't Have to do Anything you don't want to do. If any guy tried to force you to do something you weren't comfortable with, I'd throw him out. We're just going to have dinner and drinks and a little smoke with a few friends, watch a few concerts, and then we'll go from there. Everyone who's coming is single, so don't worry about making anyone else jealous... just go with the flow, babe."

Missy raised an eyebrow. "What are 'concerts'?"

BJ smiled. "Something from a long time ago, hun... they're something you've never seen before, but I promise you, you'll like them... Jeff is partial to something they used to call 'hard rock', so that's what we'll be seeing tonight. It's basically groups of people on a stage, making music. Kinda like the movies we watch, most nights."

"Okay... that sounds nice."

An hour later, the first two pizzas were out on the counter and Jeff was opening the door to their few guests.

First through the door was Tony Mendoza, junior, and his girlfriend Veronica Hale, followed by Shandra and Mark, who had pretty much become an item, and Mark Miller, who was a distant cousin of Mickey. Barbie Vincent, who was a transplant from one of the villages that had been freed from the tyranny of the Chinese, and her occasional girlfriend, Karla Willis, another refugee, brought up the rear.

For the first few hours, talk centered on who was working where, new discoveries made by some of the scouting teams, who was seeing who, and general gossip from around the Cave and the several towns that were, once again, sprouting up in different places around the area near the Cave.

Tony was basically plugged in to everything his father worked on; he informed them that one of the scouting teams had recently found an old 'bottling plant' which had once specialized in something called '7UP', among others. It had, apparently, been a popular drink before the war, and he, along with a few other of his dad's students, were reading through the mountains of paperwork that had been retrieved from there. The goal was to get the place back up and working again, another step towards bringing some of the normal, pre-war world back to them.

Mark, meanwhile, was on the team that was learning, from the paperwork retrieved from the old refinery, how to work all the equipment at that ancient facility. They had already set new well heads on a few of the capped wells nearby, with a fair amount of difficulty, and had found that Colonel Archer's assumptions had been correct. There were indeed, substantial amounts of crude oil available in the ancient wells. They were currently pumping it into huge storage tanks, but Mark estimated that they could well be refining new fuels in a matter of a year or less.

Mark Miller had just come back from an expedition with another team, disconnecting a small town to their north from the centuries-old power grid and setting the small community up to be self sufficient.

Between the two small diesel generators, the relatively large bank of solar panels, and the half-dozen wind generators, the little town had more power than it really needed.

Veronica and BJ gossiped a bit about the daycare where they both worked, with Barbie and Karla occasionally chiming in.

By six P.M.. they'd finished off four pizzas and two pans of cheesebread, most of the case of beer, and several rounds of cocktails, and several joints were making the rounds.

A Dio concert played across the plasma screen in the background, Ronnie James belting out a song called 'Man on the silver mountain'.

Barbie made the first move, on BJ, while Karla moved over to settle next to Jeff. Missy watched in fascinated immobility as the two couples began kissing and fondling each other, until Shandra and Mark scooted over to sit on either side of her. Shandra slid an arm around her and whispered in her ear "BJ said you've had a rough time, hun."

Missy nodded. "I... I'm not sure I'm ready for this."

Shandra smiled gently at the young woman, then reached over and kissed her gently on the neck, just below her ear, several times.

Mark followed suit on the opposite side, and Missy flinched a little, but he drew back and looked into her eyes.

"Don't worry, hun... Shandra, here, went through the same thing."

Missy turned to look at the chocolate skinned beauty next to her. "Really? You were a prisoner too?"

Shandra pulled back to look into her eyes. "For about six months. I hated those bastards. You're lucky, hun... you're in a place now where the men are nothin' like them."

Missy looked over at Mark nervously; he nodded, reaching over to kiss her on the cheek.

"Relax, dear. We aren't all punks like those soldier bastards. They think they own us... that's why we're fighting to push them out of the country."

"So you won't try to have sex with me?"

He smiled gently at her. "Sweetheart, my lady and I may try to seduce you... but we would never try to force you. It always has to be your decision. May we try, at least? You'll enjoy it, I promise you. Shandra, here, is a Superb lover."

Missy shot a look at the woman beside her. "You like girls?"

"I like being with other women, dear... and men." Shandra corrected her, as she reached up and began to fondle one of Missy's breasts.

"And you are a very attractive young woman. You've only seen the wrong side of sex... I would love to show you the other side, and so would my man, here. We both just want to help you get through this, just like BJ and Jeff helped me."

Missy was feeling better, as Shandra's hand on her breast began to feel good, much to her surprise. She nodded nervously.

Shandra reached up to kiss her lightly, just brief meetings of the lips. Soon, her tongue was insinuating itself between her lips, and Shandra's hand on her breast was becoming a bit more aggressive, while Mark's hand was massaging her thigh, just below her groin. Her nipples hardened into little spikes, while she began to feel a flood of warmth between her thighs.

Mark reached for one of her hands, bringing it to his own lap and laying it gently on his hardening cock. Much to her own surprise, she didn't pull away, instead taking a light grip on his hardening tool and squeezing it, just a bit. He returned his hand to her thigh and moved it upwards, under the short skirt she'd worn at BJ's suggestion; soon, his fingers were caressing her naked clit and she was feeling herself becoming wet between the thighs. This was a far cry from a soldier, coming in the barracks, dropping his pants and forcing himself upon her dry.

Shandra was still kissing her passionately, while Tony had moved up behind her, pulling down Shandra's shorts and was sawing two fingers in and out of her open pussy, while his girlfriend, Veronica, was between his thighs, slowly sucking on his cock. Across the room, BJ was laying back, running her finger's through Barbie's hair as the young blond diligently licked at her pussy, while Karla was happily bouncing on Jeff's lap.

Mark moved his hand between her thighs, sliding a finger into her slowly, seeking and finding her G-spot and massaging it lightly even as his thumb continued to stimulate her clit, which soon had her moaning into Shandra's mouth.

Shandra, in turn, pulled back a bit, pulling Missy's shirt from the skirt and over her head, freeing her breasts, which the young black woman soon reached for with her mouth, nibbling and sucking at first one, then the other.

Missy couldn't believe how good she was feeling; the two gentle people were causing stirrings in her body, reactions she'd never had before. She felt the build-up deep in her core, and didn't know quite how to describe it; she knew only that it felt better than anything she'd ever experienced, even when she had lain in bed, slowly masturbating to the sounds of her roommate's lovemaking.

Mark withdrew his fingers from the young woman and unbuttoned her skirt, drawing it down her legs, then pulled her legs apart and kissed her squarely on her wide-open muff, licking lightly at her unfurled labia and drilling his tongue into her open hole, licking upwards to her fully exposed clit. This, finally, drove her to her first moaning orgasm, and she finally knew what Mrs. Davidson had meant. It felt better than anything she'd ever known.

Jeff rolled over, putting Karla on her back and began pounding into her in earnest, while Barbie moved around, straddling her girlfriend's face.

Mark pulled away for a moment, stripping off his pants, and moved up between her thighs, fitted a rubber to his hardness, then slid just the head into Missy's open pussy.

"Are you ready for this, sweetheart?"

She nodded, nervously, and he pushed into her slowly until he was buried in her to the hilt; she moaned, feeling more full than she ever had before, moaning again as he slowly started to stroke in and out of her, taking his time, feeling her instinctively start to hump her groin back against him.

BJ, meanwhile, came over and pushed Shandra to her back, burying her face between her thighs, licking away at the exposed brown/pink clit, sending the chocolate brown woman over the edge herself.

Later that night, after the guests had left and the apartment had been cleaned up, BJ and Jeff weren't truly surprised when Missy crawled into bed with them.

Jeff got out of bed for a moment, so BJ could move to the far side, pulling Missy with her, then laid back down so that the younger woman was between them.

He rolled to his side, spooning up to the young woman between them, and even as BJ began kissing her, reaching down between them to fondle the young woman's hardening clit, Missy felt his lips at her neck, his hands caressing her sides and buttocks, one hand reaching around to fondle a firm breast.

Missy responded by cocking one leg up, giving BJ plenty of room, which she took full advantage of, sliding two fingers into Missy's still flooded pussy, gently sawing them in and out of her, feeling for the spongy bit of tissue inside of her, finding her G-spot and rubbing it lightly.

Jeff's middle finger joined hers for a few moments, but he was only getting it lubricated; moments later, he withdrew it and she felt it lightly rubbing against the tight little rosebud of her anus.

Missy shuddered, not sure if she was quite ready for That, but he went very slow, gently opening her asshole with first one, then two fingers, finally pushing in to the second knuckle, then withdrawing, finger fucking her ass as his cock once again grew to full hardness and slid between her thighs.

BJ felt the head of his dick slap against the back of her hand, and pulled back, fitting the head to Missy's sopping cunt and withdrawing as he slid as much of his thick shaft as he could into her from the awkward position, beginning a slow thrust into her, hearing her moan deep in her throat as the two of them languidly made love to her.

John Corcoran sat back in his office, looking over the preliminary reports from a scouting party, which had been looking over the next Chinese base on their list, northwest of the Cave, in southeastern Idaho. It was the last obstacle between them and the research facility in Idaho.

This one was smaller than the last one they'd hit, but, according to the locals in the nearby villages and towns, the Base Commander was a particularly vicious punk who was well known for the cruelty he and his troops indulged in. Some of the scouting parties that went into that area found themselves herding groups of refugees back into their free zone; soon they had to establish several more towns, stretching themselves even further.

People from the first three villages they had freed moved in, and soon had the new towns organized, bringing along tons of supplies to last through the coming winter, while technical teams moved in, setting up power, water, and sewage systems. Teams of the refugees, aided and guided by the Cave-trained villagers, cleared land for crops and a large compost pile.

Several of the descendants of the original Cavedwellers moved in, as well, taking over the duties of teaching the new people to read, write, do basic math, and started training them in military skills.

Their 'boot camp' would continue for the entire winter and well into spring, and would be well worth it; by the following fall, they would boast over a thousand trained fighters. A fair number of them even went on to become decent snipers.

John Corcoran spent long minutes looking over the map as he waited for the council to join him. The newest town they'd rebuilt, from what had once, long ago, been a small suburban community, brought the total to well over a dozen new towns.

This one incorporated one of the conquered Chinese bases, and he knew it was still vulnerable, even with the truckloads of equipment he'd had sent there.

Leeanne and Gar showed up for the meeting, followed by Jim and Jan Archer, Bob Gunderson, and Herb Dixon.

Tony Mendoza came in next, followed by Karl Mitchell, who had moved to the Cave as a permanent liaison from the rebel base.

After everyone had gotten something to drink from the table against the wall, Corcoran called for order.

"Okay, folks... I called you all here to talk about something that's becoming a bigger problem with every new town we set up. I know, we're finding more old trucks and cars, hidden inside old 'showroom' buildings all the time; they're the only ones that are salvagable. The current problem is a bit more pressing, I'm afraid. We need more heavy farm equipment."

Jim caught his eye.

"We need to find more of the old businesses that dealt in those things."

John nodded. "Exactly... the problem is, you don't find those on every street corner, like we do with the old car dealerships. They're more specialized. And the equipment we're finding in old barns and whatnot are usually too far gone to salvage. We need to find equipment that's been inside, out of the weather and the humidity."

"So we need to send out more scouting teams... with more specific instructions. What all do we need?"

"Bulldozers and excavators, to clear land... plows and harrows and such, for prepping the cleared topsoil... cultivators and seeders. Harvesting equipment. Hay balers... wagons we can build, so those aren't that big a deal. Some big dump trucks, manure spreaders, and loaders... what else?"

"Can we get the woodshop working on more of those crate-baskets? We could use a few hundred more of those, at least." Leeanne suggested.

Archer nodded. "We need to get a few guys out with chainsaws for that... and a portable sawmill. The shop is running low on wood."

Tony looked up at this. "We could get some of those small, garden type tractors, too... I know some of the soil around here is rocky as hell. We can use a few of those, towing trailers, and put the kids to work, collecting the rocks and hauling them off to one specific spot. Maybe set them up with some kind of frame faced with a screen, quarter inch holes, to run the dirt through, get all of the big rocks out and leave the dirt and smallest stones behind."

Corcoran looked at him for a moment, waiting for the other shoe to drop.

Tony shrugged. "We can use 'em in the road repair project we've got going... they'll make a good foundation to lay the new concrete on."

"Speaking of that... is that old concrete plant up and running yet?"

"Not quite... we're trying to get the mix right... we need something that can stand up to the winters here."

Jan Archer looked up at this. "You know, I remember reading something about that, years ago in the library... one of the northern states was having trouble with their roads... something about seasonal expansion leaving cracks and such."

Jim glanced at his wife. "So? What did they do about it?"

"They shredded old tires, mixed them into the concrete mix... about a fifteen percent mix, I think it was."

"The rubber would allow the road to expand and contract with the temperature changes without cracking." Jim replied, nodding to himself. "It just might work."

"What do we use to shred the tires, though?" Corcoran asked.

"Maybe send 'em through a big wood chipper, several times, to chew 'em into little pieces?" Jim replied.

Frank Bergen looked up at that. "You do realize that'll tear up the blades pretty bad, right? Those old tires have steel belts in 'em... they'll dull those blades in a heartbeat."

Corcoran shot him a look. "Do we have any spares?"

Bergen shook his head. "Not enough... nowhere near."

"OK... could you send some of the spare parts to a couple of the machine shops, use them as patterns to have some extras made?"

Bergen's eyes went out of focus for a moment; he was considering how much steel stock he had left.

"If we could get some big blocks of stainless steel, maybe... although it's a cast iron bitch to work with. Nothing else I can think of will hold an edge long enough to do any good."

Jim Archer nodded, mentally cursing... so much of the old tech had been lost. Most of the major metal suppliers had been in the big cities, and the last time a patrol had approached one of those, even now, over a hundred years after the war, the rad counts had started to climb before they got within two miles of it. Major metropolitan areas were out of the question.

Phil Huett mentally cursed as he studied the small Chinese base. What the place lacked in size, it made up for in vigilance, and this one had a dozen guard towers, heavily armed. Guard patrols were frequent, day and night, and didn't seem to fit any set pattern.

The land surrounding the small base was cleared out to a distance of about four hundred yards, and appeared to have buried motion detectors; one night, he watched as a small deer wandered into the cleared area.

It was still a good two hundred yards from the fences when bright parachute flares popped into the air above it and it was cut nearly in half by a burst of machine gun fire. One or more of the rounds tore completely through the deer; it apparently hit a buried mine, as the explosion caught the attention of guards in other towers, and three searchlight beams converged on the spot where the deer had been, moments ago. What they'd revealed had looked like remnants from the world's worst butcher shop.

He and the four ten man squads under his command kept the place under surveillance for nearly a week, taking numerous pictures through long lenses, and what they learned was disturbing, to say the least. It was set up for a strong defense; there were anti-aircraft emplacements all around, with radar systems controlling them, apparently. Some were set up with heavy machine guns, while others appeared to use some sort of small missiles.

To make matters worse, there was a large barracks full of women, set squarely in the middle of the small camp. Getting them out alive might well prove to be impossible.

On top of all of this, there were similar small encampments to the north and south, not quite as big, but almost as heavily defended, meaning that reinforcements were close by. The only way to take them on would be a three-pronged attack, simultaneously taking out all three camps at once. Splitting their forces would spread them dangerously thin, even with troops from both the Rebel base and Juniper, and the new towns that were even now training up troops of their own. This was going to take a lot of planning and a lot of practice. He was beginning to understand the term 'All hands on deck.'