Eden Reset

"I live out here if that is what you mean. Are you going to turn me in?"

She blinked a few times, looked him up and down.

"I never met one of you before, you really can live out here without government, can't you? I thought that was just a rumor. But...? Where? I don't see anyplace.....?" She looked around, all there was to see was rock and desert.

"I just want to be left alone, you aren't going to say anything, are you?"

"No. It's all right, I won't tell."

"Not even to....those others?" Dan waved his arm towards the canyon she had pointed out.

She shook her head.

Dan looked at her, he was unsure of this and didn't like the idea of being found one bit. He began to move away down the hill, the opposite direction of his cave entrance. She stood there and watched him for awhile.

"I'm Mary!" She called out, just as Dan stepped behind a big boulder. He didn't answer, instead slipped into some nearby brush and waited.

It was about a half hour later when he looked out and saw the woman working her way down the mountain, then she turned and headed up the far canyon. She stopped just before she went out of sight, looked back up towards his direction, lifting her arm in a wave before she continued on.

Dan skinned out the Rabbit, scraped the hide. Then he went back up the mountain to the cave entrance, slid around the huge boulder that hid the entrance. Once inside, he worked his way through the familiar passages to his camp.

The next day he worked his way back outside. There was no sign of anyone, so he gathered some bits and pieces of debris and rocks, hid the marks his movements in and out had left. Over time, he had gotten careless about that.

Then he climbed the nearby pinnacle, sat hidden and watched for most of the day. In the early afternoon, he saw a tow vehicle pull out of the canyon and head away across the desert floor. It had a trailer with several bikes and ATV's on behind, there were people inside the big van. Right behind was another big 4 wheel drive, he was sure it was the same woman sitting on the passenger side. Her hand came up above the window and she waved in his direction again.

Dan turned and went back inside his cave, still worried. Every day he slipped outside and looked around, but he never saw anything. Finally after several months had gone by with no more incidents, he began to feel comfortable again.

Then one day while he was fishing, he felt a tremble in the rocks. The fish suddenly scattered in the pool, that was different. Then there was another tremble, followed by what was a rather large shock. A piece of the cave wall nearby broke off and fell into the pool.

There was nothing to do but wait, Dan figured he was safer in the large cavern than in the narrow passageways, so he just sat down. The trembling stopped after about an hour.

It was apparently an earthquake. He got up and started down the cave to the outside, checking as he went. Other than a few chunks of rock that had jarred loose, everything was normal.

A few hours later, he went outside and climbed the pinnacle. He scanned the horizon, there was what seemed to be a storm cloud far to the North, it was very dark. Then Dan noticed the trails of dust way off across the desert floor. At first, he thought it was just the wind kicking up dust, but it grew oddly. Finally he realized it was vehicles, and they were moving very fast, headed South.

"Now what the hell?" He thought. He could see they were going to pass by about 4 or 5 miles away, they seemed to be running from that dark cloud. It also seemed to be quickly gaining on them.

Then halfway back in the pack of vehicles he saw a lone rider. It turned off and headed his way. As it got closer, he realized there were two of them on the one machine, it was a solar off road bike. The bike proceeded up the hill towards the pinnacle, finally it reached a point where it just could not go any more. He could hear the tiny electric motor whine and stop. Then it whined, stopped again. The two people got off, began to push the machine. Dan looked out across the desert, the dark cloud had overtaken many of the vehicles, he could no longer make most of them out. It was also spreading his way.

He didn't like the looks of this at all. The little bike was now lying on it's side down below, Dan stepped farther out to try and see what the two people were doing. He didn't see them, so he worked his way back down off the pinnacle.

That ugly dark cloud was getting too close for comfort, Dan decided it might just be best if he retreated to his cave. He had just started the short walk from the base of the pinnacle when a woman stepped into view about a hundred yards away.

"Hello!!" She called out, waving her arms furiously, looking up towards the hill Dan had just walked down.

It was that same woman, Mary she had said her name was. Against his better judgment, Dan lifted his arms, waved back. She spotted the motion, broke into a run with another person a few steps behind her. He realized that it was another young woman, perhaps about the same age, smaller.

"Help us, please!" The woman was yelling as she got within earshot.

"Help you with what?" Dan asked her, confused.

"That!" She pointed at the black roiling clouds, now just a mile or so away and coming fast.

"What the hell is that?" He asked, confused.

"Poison! We have to get away from it!" She was in a total state of panic.

Dan looked at the cloud and back at the two women, then he decided.

"Come on!" He turned and ran towards the cave entrance. By the time they reached the entrance he smelled an odd smell in the air, his nostrils started to sting. They got inside, Dan tripped his solar light and they began to work their way down the narrow passage.

The air began to clear as they got inside, but his nostrils were still stinging. He reached up to wipe his nose, sweat was running in his eyes. He wiped his eyes and instantly regretted that, they felt like fire. Now he was almost blinded, and he was feeling his way along the rocks.

Finally the first pool was just a hundred yards, Dan knew they had to make it to it. Once there, he felt around and found the solar lamp he kept stored there for emergencies. It lit the small room up nicely.

"Wash off in the pool." He told them, kneeling down himself to splash water on his burning face. They quickly joined him, the smaller woman climbed completely into the water. She had been bringing up the rear and seemed to have gotten the worst of whatever that was. In the dim light, Dan could see her face was bright red, and she was laboring to breathe.

The cool water offered quick relief, so after a few minutes they sat and rested on the rocks.

"We need to move deeper, there is airflow through this cave. Stay out of the next pool though." Dan told them. They all got up and proceeded on.

They weren't familiar with the twists and turns, at one point Dan lost track of the younger woman. He told Mary to wait, went back and found the other girl sitting, whimpering in fear and shivering, soaked from the water.

"Come on, you are all right. I got you." He told her. Her tear streaked face looked at him in the dim light from his solar headlamp. Finally she nodded, and took his hand. He led her on to where Mary was, then they proceeded on again. It took over two hours to work their way to the main cavern that Dan called home, the women were having a real struggle.

They sat and rested after washing again in the pool of water. Dan realized that his outer clothing had whatever was in the cloud on it, so he tugged off his jacket and washed that out, too. He washed his fur lined boots, then slid off his shabby blue jeans and washed them. He had a spare set of clothes that he got from some shelves he had built, dressed and hung the others to dry.

The two women just sat there watching, they could barely see him in the dim light. Dan wanted to shut the light off, he only had four batteries up at the moment, the other four were outside recharging. Each battery would light the cave for about one day or so and he had no idea how long it might be before he could retrieve any more.

Dan didn't want to go outside right now, to be honest.

"You women need to wash out your clothes, we are going to lose our light real soon." He told them.

They looked at each other, hesitated. Mary stood up and stripped off her clothes, walked to the edge of the water and knelt down to rinse them.

"Stay out of the deeper water in this pool." He warned them again.

The other woman looked at Dan, then she did the same, although her clothing was soaked and probably all right.

Dan didn't bother to look away, for one thing he hadn't seen a naked female in several years, for the other thing he could barely make them out anyway. He did notice that after wringing out their clothing, the smaller woman turned towards him, and he could see that she had no pubic hair. She was very slender, with just tiny buds for breasts. He doubted she was more than 18, maybe 19, very young. Mary was older, in her late 20's easily.

Mary stood up and walked towards the shelf to lay her clothes to dry, she had a large mass of pubic hair, and her breasts were heavy. Dan hadn't noticed that when he saw her months before, the riding suit she had on seemed to hide her figure.

"What was that outside?" Dan asked, finally breaking the silence.

"There is a war going on, everyone is caught in the middle of it, it is horrible." Her voice was almost a wail.

"A war? How can that be, I thought the government had ended all of that?"

"They thought so too. They banned all wars, government got control of everything. The President met with the terrorists and got an agreement for peace, that was in all the papers and on the news."

"So what the hell is going on?" Dan asked.

"I am not real sure, but they apparently put some kind of weapons in space. Our government even helped them, it was supposed to be for better communications. Once they got them in position, they attacked. Our government hit them back with nuclear, but it's like they don't care, they just kept raining the poison down. It's like clouds and it kills everything."

"I saw that, we can't breathe that shit. Does it wear off?"

"I don't know, I think so." Mary scooted closer to Dan, he realized that she was sitting there naked, the other woman was too.

"Hey, I don't have much but we can share." Dan got up and went to his pile of skins. He had collected a lot of them. He handed several of them that he had roughly stitched together to the women, who gratefully wrapped them around themselves.

"I need to shut the light off or we will lose the batteries." He told them.

"OK."

Dan reached out and turned off the light, the room became pitch black.

"Stay close and don't move around too much, we can hunker down and maybe wait this out. Once the air clears and I can get outside for my spare batteries, we can use light again. I could build a small fire but I don't think that is a good idea right now. It does draw some air in, and we don't want any more moving than has to.

They all sat huddled together on the pile of branches and hides that served as Dan's bed. Finally Dan heard first Mary, then the other woman's breathing settle into sleep. It hit him he didn't know the other one's name yet, but he figured there was time. Then he dozed off himself.

Dan woke up with something pressed against him, at first he thought he was dreaming but then he realized one of the women was almost on top of him. Dan was leaned back against the cavern wall. He felt around and found the other woman, his hand touched her naked breast and it was large so he assumed that was Mary.

Dan carefully removed his hand, but the other woman was still partly on top of him and she was naked, too. She had the skins he had lightly stitched together snugged around her for a blanket. It was a struggle but he finally managed to get free. He was hungry, he knew they would be also.

But until he knew what the conditions were outside, he didn't dare build a fire. Dan turned on the light, walked over and gently shook Mary awake.

She sat up and looked at him. She was still nude of course, but seemed to be unconcerned about that.

"I need to go up as far as I dare, see what is going on." He told her.

"Do you want us to go with you?" She stood up.

"No, that will slow me down. But I do need to leave you here in the dark, we have to save the batteries. Go ahead and get dressed quickly, wake up your friend too, please."

"Sara! Wake up!" Mary shook the other woman. She opened her eyes, saw Dan and held one of the skins over her tiny breasts.

Dan walked away a short distance, waited. They both dressed quickly.

"These are still damp." Mary complained.

"It will have to do, things don't dry out very fast down here." He told her. He got them sat back down on his makeshift cot, turned out the light and began to work his way outside using just his head lamp.

As Dan got closer to the outside entrance, he sniffed the air carefully, but there seemed to be nothing. When he reached the outside, the air did not sting but the sky had a funny dark cast to it, it looked almost like late dusk out, even though it was around noon.

Dan retrieved the batteries, reset the ones he had carried out with him. He knew if he had to he could raid the packs from his ATV, plus the woman's bike was also just a few hundred yards down the hill. He walked to the edge of the West cliff and looked out across the desert. There was nothing in sight, but visibility was poor.

Whatever had come at them was still in the air, although he couldn't smell it and there was no stinging sensation. But it made him nervous, he went back to the cave.

Dan hurried back to where the women still sat. He turned on the tiny lamp and light filled the cavern with shadows, the two women were huddled up tightly to each other. Then he went over and built a small fire, gathering some of his precious stores he made a meal of Rabbit meat. He also had some Cactus wedges. They all sat and ate in silence.

"Thank you sir, for saving us." The woman he now knew was Sara told him. Dan just nodded.

"Yes, thank you." Mary said.

"I didn't have a lot of choice." He told them.

"How is it outside?" Mary asked.

"The air is still a haze and the sky is dark and strange. I am not sure what that was."

"The first reports were from back East, the explosions came from outer space. It was a surprise, but once the government realized where it was coming from they hit back with nuclear. Some of the satellites were destroyed too but not all of them. We need to find out what is left out there."

"Maybe we need to find out if more is coming, too." Dan said.

The next day the outside was the same, Dan worried when he saw his batteries were not coming up properly. The dark sky was blocking off the sunlight. The first thing he did was walk down the hillside and raid the packs from the solar bike, they were up pretty good. He packed those back to the cavern, that meant they had an extra day's light and he was hoping the sky would clear by tomorrow.

One thing the government did right was make all of the thin battery packs universal. They were very light, and stored quite a bit of energy.

Once again the women slept with him on the cot. Both of them stripped naked so they could leave their clothes out to dry more, they were still damp. For their modesty, Dan shut off the light while they gathered the skins around themselves.

He lay there for a long time thinking. He really had no plans on trying to support three people, it was tough enough getting food for himself.

He decided to get up and catch a few fish but the smaller woman had once more gravitated to his body heat and was almost on top of him again. Dan gave up, he could fish tomorrow, the fish weren't going anywhere.

He slept just like that, one woman on top of him and the other snuggled up tight at his side. Mary slipped one arm around his waist, in her sleep her hand was resting on his groin and it was all he could think of until sleep came.

It had been years since Dan had had a woman, now he had two of them and didn't know what to do about it for sure. Sex did pop into his mind a few times, but survival was an overwhelming urge at the moment.

Over the next few days, the sky cleared. The battery packs charged up normally, Dan moved the fresh ones inside and reset the spares. He also reset the ones he had raided from the solar bike.

He checked his snares, nothing. Not even a rat. Outside was strangely dead silent, he realized there were no birds, nothing moving.

Not even any wind. Up on the pinnacle, Dan could see the area down below where the water surfaced briefly in the lower canyon. It was green and still looked normal. But there was nothing normal about the stone dead silence.

"I don't think there is anything left alive out there." He told Mary, when he got back to the cavern. But there were still fish, a quick shine of his light into the deep clear pool showed that quickly.

"What are we going to do?" Sara asked him.

"I don't know, I just don't know. I think I will take my 4 wheeler tomorrow and check out across the valley, perhaps there is someone, something out there."

"Can we go outside?" Mary asked.

"I don't see any reason why not, I don't think there is anyone around."

"We can get our clothes aired out, gather some wood, things like that."

Dan nodded. He fixed a meal of fish, then they slept again. Once again the three of them huddled together.

The next day, Dan pulled the brush away from his ATV, and headed down the trail. It had been months since he rode the machine, there had been no need. The two women were sitting up above, sunning themselves. Their clothing was hung on some nearby brush, Mary was naked but Sara had one of the hides and had pulled it modestly over herself as he went by.

Dan rode for several miles, then in the distance he saw what seemed to be vehicles. As he got closer, he realized there were a lot of them. He slowed and pulled behind some brush and watched, thinking perhaps it was a camp.

Nothing moved. He could make out what seemed to be people in some of the machines, but there was no motion. Finally he went on, realizing what he was probably going to find.

Pulling up to the first machine, he could see a body behind the wheel. Another was on the passenger side, a third one was lying on the ground nearby. He went down the line checking, there was one vehicle after another.

Everyone was dead. After checking several dozen of the different vehicles, there was no point in moving on.

Dan gathered all of the battery packs and chargers he could carry and loaded them on the ATV. He found one vehicle that had several dead women in it, looking in a suitcase in the back he found it full of clothing. He threw that on the ATV, too. In another one of the rigs he found an illegal firearm. It was a pistol. He almost left it, then instead he stuffed it in his waistband. There was a full box of ammunition, he took that, too.

Most of the machines still had their battery lights on, Dan went down the line and turned them off. After awhile, he gave up with that, the faces began to get to him. All of them had gray skin, but oddly there was no sign of decay.

It was like they had all died and dried out on the spot.

He found a cell phone, turned it on. It lit up, there was no signal. One of the vehicles had a radio, he tried that. All it did was make a slight hum, there was no static at any point on the dial. Reaching in, he checked the global position sensor. The screen lit up but that was all.

There were some foodstuffs, he gathered what he could carry and headed back, after checking each bag and can to make sure it was sealed.