Mad World - Descent Ch. 03

"No," I replied with a shake of my head.

"Why not?" Paul growled.

"First off, Paul, I don't trust you that much yet," I answered honestly, "I don't want to wake up one day and find I am being killed or kicked out of my own home by your men. So, no. Secondly, the point of my home is that it is completely hidden. No one knows where we are or that we exist. To house a community the size you're hoping to have at my home, we would have to grow crops, keep animals, and do many other things that would give away our location. Third, I have enough guns and ammunition that me, my son, and our women would be a very formidable force indeed if such a need comes."

Paul looked at me for a long time like he had never seen a creature like me before. Then, finally, he held out his hand and said, "If this is going to work then I want you to take one of my daughters as one of your women."

"I will not take any dogs you are trying to offload," I said before nodding to the women behind me, "Look at them. Every one of them is beautiful. If your daughter is beautiful in form and personality then I will accept."

"Have Esmeralda and Gail do your picking for you again," Paul said confidently, "Only this time I will make sure my daughters are in the pool and one of them must be picked."

"Okay," I agreed, "However, if you insist on adding one of your daughters to my number, then it will be on top of the four you have already promised me."

"If you insist upon that," Paul countered with a chuckle and a shake of his head, "Then I insist that your son take one of my daughters as well!"

Leaning back I reeled at the prospect of having five more women dependent on me, and five more dependent on Nathan. Then, I looked over at Esmeralda and Gail and waved them over to me. Once they were beside me, I gave them their instructions, "Paul is going to add his daughters to the pool of women to pick from."

"About time," Gail grumbled to which she got a sharp look from Paul.

"He wants me to take one of his daughters," I said, "I want you to pick which one. Then, pick two more women to fill out the four that were promised initially to replace Ona and Bianca. Esmeralda. Gail. I know you will find women that are as beautiful inside as they are outside. I don't want drama, and I don't want queens. I want strong mature women. Mothers, with children. The more the better."

"We can do that," Gail said with a sharp nod of her head.

I smiled and nodded, and then continued, "Also, Nathan is a part of this now. To fulfill the contract one of Paul's daughters must be selected. Ona and Bianca are going to be his women, so all you need to do is find two more teenage girls to fill out the four promised to him."

Gail nodded, but it was Esmeralda who replied, "Yes, Jon," in such a warm and honeyed tone that both Paul and I clearly understood she was saying, "Yes, Master!"

"She is devoted to you, that one is," Paul said of Esmeralda as she and Gail walked away to speak with more of the townswomen.

"Amazingly so," I agreed.

"You have a deal," Paul said finally and held out his hand for a shake, "Old Mister Cuthord had a ham radio. He died a few years ago, so I will speak to his family about selling it to you. Do you have anything to barter?"

"With my new--acquisitions--I also expect that I have acquired their property as well," I said in an assuming tone.

"You have," Paul agreed, "Along with their debts."

"What would that be?" I asked.

"Four months of provisions and dining at the local tavern aside from personal debts," Paul answered.

"Then I expect Gail's car and house, as well as the houses and vehicles of the other women, to pay off all their debts and give us substantial credit," I replied.

"It would," Paul agreed.

"Then I want to use the rest of the credit to purchase as much fuel, food, and grain as possible. Also, a couple of cows and a few sheep," I said.

"I thought you didn't want livestock. However, that can all be arranged," Paul agreed.

"Good!," I said, "It's not that I don't want animals, it's just that I can't have the amounts necessary to support a village." Then, holding out my hand to shake, I added, "Long live the alliance!"

"Yes, exactly," Paul agreed with a smirk as he shook my hand before leaving to go gather the fuel, food, grain, livestock, and the ham radio.

It took half the day before Esmeralda and Gail finally returned with three women and three teenage girls. The first woman was a very beautiful blonde with her hair cut into a short pixie style. She had gray-green eyes, milk-white skin, and a pear-shaped body. She wore a tight flannel with nothing underneath highlighting that she had very small, very perky, 32 A-cup breasts. She had a 28-inch waist that then swept out to 45-inch hips, several inches wider than her shoulders, and an ass that was very, very large, and very, very round. It was a perfect upside-down heart, but here too for no other woman, not Eleanor, nor Esmeralda, nor Fernanda, nor Gail for that matter had hips as broad or as thick or as perfectly ample. Fernanda, with her pear-shaped body, her B-cup breasts, and her broad hips and very ample bottom was the closest to matching this new woman in shape at least.

"Jon," Esmeralda said, but my name uttered from her lips always had the ring of "Master" to it as she made introductions. Gesturing to the blonde she continued, "This is Frieda Wolf, Paul's oldest daughter. She was married but then divorced when she caught her husband with another woman. She's twenty-eight and had three children before D-day. They were with their father in Spokane when the nuke hit."

"My condolences on your loss Frieda," I said as I stood up and shook her hand.

Frieda took my hand and shook it firmly. Her gray-green eyes were hot with displeasure as she growled, "My dad thinks that he will have an ally, or spy, in me by giving me to you. He is wrong. This whole thing is wrong. I am no horse to be traded to the first man he finds that will take me! But, since he and the council members of this town seem to think they can trade me--trade us..." and she gestured to her other female companions now as she continued, "Well, if I am your property now, then that is what I am! Your property!" and she finished with a bitter sneer on her otherwise beautiful mouth.

"I understand," I told her sincerely, "And you all have my promise that I will not force myself upon any of you until you invite my attention just as Esmeralda, Fernanda, and Gail have."

There was a collective sigh of relief from the three, and in the intervening silence, Esmeralda continued her introductions. The next woman she gestured to had long curly brown hair, medium brown skin that made me think of my eldest daughter, Reagan, and golden-brown eyes. She was very very plump. Very plump! Not fat. Not obese. Plump!

Her breasts were the size of two long and oversized watermelons. They must have been at least J-cups in European sizing. She was also tall, almost as tall as me. Her waist was thick, 30 maybe 32 inches, while her hips and buttocks were a whopping 50 inches. Her thighs were thick and curvaceous. Hell! All of her was thick and curvaceous!

"This is Heidi Koch," Esmeralda said, "Heidi is thirty-five and was married until D-day. She is very friendly, strong, and supple. She has no children, but she just found out that she is pregnant from her husband. No one left in the Koch family wants to take on the responsibility of providing for Heidi since she's not technically family anymore. She's since then found herself in debt to the city and detained to be sold or traded to meet her debts."

"All of these women and girls are property of the city?" I asked, my voice laced heavily with shock.

"All of us," Heidi said as she held out her hand for me to shake.

"How many more are there?" I asked.

"A few more women. Mostly young widows with little children and older widows left by themselves after their teenage sons and daughters were married off," Frieda replied.

I could only shake my head as I looked at them and said, "I'm one man. There is no way I can save so many, at least, not yet, and even if I did, I couldn't support so many."

Frieda and Heidi both nodded but it was Heidi who replied, "We know. This thing, I fear it is going to be a part of this world from now on. Women are nothing. Just something to be used, sold, or passed around."

"The world has always been so," Esmeralda mumbled, "It was just hidden better."

"I can't save them," I said ignoring Esmeralda's cynicism, "But I can save you."

The next woman to walk up looked tired beyond belief. In her hips, she carried a baby, and in a stroller, she pushed a little boy and a little girl. As she stepped up Esmeralda introduced her, "This is Ilene Schmidt, and these are her children. Ilene is twenty-two. She married her husband at sixteen and a year later her Jaiden was born. She's 4 feet 8 inches tall and weighs roughly 97 pounds..."

"Please, sir!" Ilene broke in exhaustedly, "Please! I will do anything you ask, just get me out of this hellhole!"

"I will," I promised.

The next woman to walk up could have been Ilene's twin sister. However, she wasn't as I found out when Esmeralda introduced her, "This is Bethany Schmidt. Ilene is not her sister. They were married to brothers though. Bethany has two children, a boy and a girl, and is pregnant."

I nodded to them both, just as a woman with a look of extreme self-importance exuded from her in waves as she walked in. She stalked up to me and declared, "I'm Deloris Wolf. I'm the Mayor's wife."

"Nice to meet you," I said as I stood up and offered my hand.

She rebuffed my greeting with a glare before looking me up and down and saying, "Paul was an idiot to let you have your pick of the slave girls."

"And yet, he did," I replied evenly.

Deloris sneered, but then calmed and said, "You've pretty much stripped us of all our youngest and prettiest women and girls leaving us with nothing but old widows."

"So," I replied, "That's not my problem."

"Well, I'm making it your problem," Deloris growled, "I've already talked to Paul. On top of the ten girls you're taking, I want you to take five of our oldest widows and their children."

"Five more?!" I gasped as I quickly did the calculations of food consumption in my head. When I built and stocked the bunker, I had done so with the idea that my family could be as large as twenty individuals, plus Eleanor's mother and her daughter, plus her best friend and her family, and her best friend's sister and her family. It also included any spouses and children my oldest children might have. And so, I built a bunker to house and sustain sixty souls. However, I could not act like this would not affect me much as I asked in a shaken voice, "And who are these five widows you are forcing upon me?"

"Paola Muller, and her five and her four children," Deloris said as five more women walked into the tavern, "You already took her niece Louise Muller for your son's five women. The other four are Desiree Wolf. She's thirty-eight and has three pregnant daughters returned to her after their new husbands were killed in the marauder raid a few weeks ago. She also has four daughters ranging in ages from sixteen to ten."

"She's a Wolf," I remarked, "Your family. Shouldn't you take her I? To your own home?"

"She is no family to me!" Deloris growled, "And I am not going to let him move into my house and sidle up to my husband! Take her and her daughters, I don't care!" She finished with a venomous sneer.

"Then there is Helena Schmidt," Deloris continued as her sneer turned into an even more vicious smile, "She's forty-five but still prolific as you can see as she's already very pregnant. To sweeten the deal I'm adding her three oldest daughters who are also pregnant by their husbands who were killed in the raid. She also has six children from the ages of twelve to two."

Deloris was watching for a reaction, and I knew I should grimace, but I couldn't. Not for this mean ass bitch of a woman, so I cut her off, "Look! You know what! Fine! I will take them all if you want! If these women and children are such a burden to you folks, then I will take them--children and all. Now! Please leave, I find you to be a distressing personality and I truly hope I never see you again!"

Deloris gasped at the insult and then stomped out.

Turning to Esmeralda I looked at her to finish her introductions while Gail left to organize the new additions.

"The girls are Irma Bauer and Louise Muller," Esmeralda finished, "Irma is fifteen and the least silly of the girls I met there. Louise is seventeen and Gail's niece by marriage."

"What happened to her parents?" I asked.

"Hanford," Louise said, "They both work out at Hanford."

"Neither one was able to make it home?" I asked.

Louise simply shook her head.

I nodded that I understood.

"Well," I said to the both of them, "You have my condolences on your losses."

Then once Gail returned I said, "We need to talk."

Looking at everyone I added, "Stay together, and follow us to Gail's house. It's time we got out of here."

Gail and I took the lead, followed by Esmeralda and Fernanda, and then the rest of the tribe.

"You understand that you are mine now, right?" I asked just to make sure we were on the same page, "Whatever is going on here? Whatever debt you had that got you put on the slave block and sold to me, is done. You're mine, and so are all your possessions."

"I know," Gail replied in a low mumble, "After the power went out, everyone ate what food we had in our refrigerators and pantries. I think most of us thought that everything would be back to normal within a few days. We only had enough food to last a week or so. After a month of severe rationing, every household without a man or an experienced hunter and forager was completely out of food. Everyone except the town council that is. Some say they have access to the granaries. Others say they have a massive cellar full of food. What I do know is that they immediately took control of the grocery store. It is suggested that they have access to power from somewhere and can keep the food refrigerated. Either way, we had no food while Paul and the city council, which means Deloris mostly and her friends did, and so to get food most of us had to barter, leverage, prostitute, and then finally sign over our persons into the city's care. They would feed us, but now we were all owned property."

"Well," I said, "You're not going to have to worry about that anymore. It appears that when I acquired you, I acquired your property as well."

"Yes," Gail replied, "I refused to sell my car and home. I may be indentured, but by god, I was going to have a home!"

"Well, you have a home with me now," I said.

Gail stopped and looked at me for a second and then said, "You sold my car and house didn't you?"

I gave her a solemn nod.

"I will start packing," She said after a few seconds of thought, "I don't want to be here anymore anyway."

"Neither do we!" Came a chorus of agreeing voices from behind Esmeralda and Fernanda.

"Good," I said, "Good!"

To Gail, I added, "I will use the car and house and the other properties to square any debts you all have and use the rest as a credit to purchase fuel, food, and livestock for all of us."

"No doubt they will short you on what the value of our homes, cars, and other possessions truly is," Gail remarked bitterly.

"Doesn't matter," I said, "You're all with me now. You all have a home. And, we can always scavenge elsewhere. I want this alliance, but I am by no means reliant or beholden to this town."

"Good!" Gail purred viciously.

Still, I saw her wipe tears from her eyes as she packed her clothes and photos of her late husband in suitcases and then bags. Ona did as much herself of her possessions. There were a few things that Esmeralda said Gail had that would be needed like spices and more silverware and dishware for the extra mouths we were taking on. That was a common theme when I had Esmeralda and Fernanda go with all of the widows to help them organize their exodus from Kahlotus with me.

Many of Gail's possessions were packed into her car, one of the few late-models that survived the EMP because it didn't have a computer system in it. Then, I went out and hiked out of town until I came upon Nathan, Marisol, and Barbara. I was frankly surprised to see bruised-up Barbara and said as much to which she replied, "I was not going to be left in another home alone again. Your bunker is quite lavish by the way. Good job!"

"Thanks," I answered with a satisfied grin, then I explained what had happened, and everyone was thoroughly taken aback. I also explained that despite the women in town being given away like slaves the man in charge truly didn't seem to know anything about Barbara or her daughters' attack and kidnapping.

"It must have been a group of raiders from another town," I offered to which Barbara only nodded that she understood.

Then everyone hopped into the truck and I drove us into Kahlotus. There were more than a few stares at me as I drove by. When we arrived at Gail's house, I made introductions. I introduced Nathan to his girls. Ona. Bianca. Irma. Louise. And Elsa Wolf.

Marisol was strangely silent throughout the whole introduction. When Esmeralda noticed Marisol's demure appearance they spoke briefly. Afterward, Marisol went over and spoke with the younger girls and started lining them out on the harem hierarchy. It occurred to me then that nothing about having multiple women, whether they be wives or concubines or whatever, was going to be easy in the least.

Halfway through packing, Paul arrived with several of the remaining townsmen, mostly easily manipulated boys, carrying large bags of corn and flour, several five-gallon cans of gas, the ham radio, and a whole butchered cow.

"There are also two cows and four sheep. One male and female, and one male and three females," Paul said, "However, we will hold on to those until you come back with Gail's car."

"Good enough," I said, "Though, with the increase of women your wife has added to my burden, I think I will need two more cows and four more female sheep, and however much grain and flour you brought twice over."

"Am I to assume you are using the other women's husbands' estates as collateral?" Paul asked.

"Some of it, yes," I replied, "Though I expect that there should be a great deal of credit left over."

"It has been quite expensive to feed so many useless women and children," Paul said with a shrug, "I fear that the estimate of credit you think you should have maybe greatly overestimated."

"As long as it purchases the food and livestock, I don't care," I replied nonchalantly.

Paul smiled, and we shook hands. It was a good thing that at the moment women were a burden to this town. Otherwise, even if I had wanted them, acquiring fifteen women and an assortment of children would have been very expensive, and would be later for sure once Paul and Deloris figured out how badly they had screwed up. None of the women spoke to Paul even though he flashed a grin at them and made eye contact like he was their savior come again. He pulled his daughters aside. Spoke with them in an undertone, hugged them, and then he and his men left.

Once everything was packed into Gail's car and my truck, we left Kahlotus.

----(!)----

Journal Entry, November 4, 2030-

After making our alliance with Kahlotus we returned home, which was no easy process. It took many trips. The largest hurdle was the fact that the initial contract with Paul and the Town Council required taking ten women as slaves, or wives. Ten indentured slaves. This would have increased my household from five souls to fifteen. However, once Deloris had her say and added five of the older widows with their pregnant daughters and small children, I wound up leaving with eight women from the ages of twenty-five to forty-five, ten women from the ages of seventeen to twenty-four, ten children from the ages of nine to sixteen, and thirteen children from the ages of one to eight. Despite my earlier objections to acquiring an entire village of people in my compound, it has happened anyway.