Secrets of Liberty Mountain (Final)

"The poor sister was a naked, bloody mess with two black eyes, and a split lip. Blood was running down the inside of the girl's legs. She was scared shitless. Literally." Seraina wrinkled her nose and continued.

"She said she had a gig to entertain a work crew. Open bar, too much booze, the men started fighting. One guy tried to rape her, others intervened, she was in the middle of a brawl, took off running, couple of men gave chase, she saw our door open, and the rest is history," Seraina said with a shudder as she squeezed Darlene's shoulder.

"Next thing, police are everywhere, someone pulled the fire alarm; it was bedlam. Then there was pounding on our door. It was the cops; a witness told them a nude girl had been seen running into our room." Darlene returned her partner's grip.

"Anyway, they shove their way into our room, and when they do, one of the police sergeants spots our open satchel. It was filled with cash. Then he sees our 'Shopping List' for explosives, weapons, and ammunition: along with your name, Sheila Carson, and all the codes we need for wire transfers, that and assorted financial information." Darlene gave Sheila a 'shit-happens' shrug of apology.

"The fuzz got uber excited like they had just busted a terrorist cell or a drug cartel. Since we had broken no laws, they ended up taking us into custody as material witnesses. We were in a holding cell talking to the Sheriff when the shit hit the fan. The poor man keeled over dead. It was horrible. He's stiff on the floor, and outside the cell, it looked like the Goddamn world was ending. Transformers exploding, people screaming, and fires burning everywhere" Seraina said with a shiver. "Turns out his pacemaker got zapped."

Seraina held her hands together in an attitude of prayer and respect and paused for a second before proceeding. "His deputies took his body away and left us in alone in the dark for two days. It was terrifying. We thought we would burn to death. At one point, the jail filled with smoke, we could hear them fighting the fire, and from between the bars on the cell's tiny window, we saw several buildings in flames. It took forty-eight hours before the fires burned themselves out."

On the third day, we were introduced to the deceased Marshal's replacement. Mister Fitzwater managed to have himself appointed Acting Sheriff. He saw the incident report and our 'To-Do' list with your name on it. It was all he needed to link us to Liberty Mountain. Then, he..." Her voice faded into silence as Darlene completed the sentence.

"Then he raped us," she said in a monotone voice devoid of emotion. "Because he could."

Our eyes met as she turned to face the assembly. It was if I was looking into the center of a hurricane: deceptively calm in a sea of pain. I nodded, 'I love you.'

Sheila moved to take the arm of each of them and pulled them against her body. "Can you tell us what happened?" the Commander inquired in a whisper, almost too soft to hear.

Darlene and Seraina exchanged glances, then nodded before Darlene spoke. "Fitzwater's deputies stripped me and held me while he put his fingers in me. Searching for contraband, he told me."

"They did the same to me, and they took our clothes and left us bare-ass and spread eagle, handcuffed to the cell bars. Exposed for all to see: no blanket, no privacy, no nothing. He and his men took turns watching us like we were in a zoo, until this morning. He ordered to get dressed and lead the way to Liberty Mountain. And you rescued us," Seraina said.

Together she and her comrade scanned the faces of everyone in the room; slowly and deliberately they exchanged gazes with each of us, in an "Eye of the Tiger" moment. My two friends and lovers sent scrambled singles of affection and distance; smiles invited me to come closer while troubled eyes warned me to keep away.

"Thank you." Seraina bowed to the sisterhood as she placed her right hand over her breast, to show that she was speaking from the heart. "We are family. Thank you, my dear sisters. And brother," she added as an afterthought.

"Thank you for being our family," Darlene clasped her hands and intertwined her fingers in a sign of unity as she repeated her partner's bow.

"Do you need a break?" Sheila, ever the protective mother, stood between the grateful pair and her arms, like a shroud of angel wings, wrapped around each as she held them to her bosom.

"Fear not my darlings, you are safe at home." The leader's eyes misted as she kissed a tear on Seraina's cheek.

"Your sisters will shield you." The Commander took a moment to look about the room and gather the ladies together with a smile. "And your brother will protect you," Sheila nodded in my direction and stared into my eyes, her thin lips an unreadable line.

I tried not to flinch as I returned her laser stare with an uneasy and neutral smile. My abdomen tightened. The teardrops in the leader's eyes sparkled as she blinked and she parted her lips and grinned the easy smile of the kindred. All eyes were upon her as, with the grace of a ballerina and the passion of a preacher, her musical voice rose in joyful strength. She turned on her toes and raised her arms wide to embrace the room;

"We are our sister's and brother's keepers," she looked directly at me as she sang, "We are one family."

I remembered to breathe.

~~~

"Hey! Give me one of those!"

Sheila reached over my shoulder and slipped the pack of cigarettes from my breast pocket.

"Be my guest," I sighed after the fact as I reached for my lighter.

The commander had nothing but the habit. Instead of carrying all the accessories of smoking, like any self-respecting addict, she pretended to be 'tobacco-free' except for an occasional cigarette, "just for old times sake."

"That makes ten today." I held the flame of my Bic aloft as she cupped her hands to keep out the wind. The ember at the end was glowing nicely after a quick puff. "You look like you just ran a marathon."

I extended my hand and offered her the second chair at the small cafe' style table. We had a grand view of the western horizon. The sky was a black blend of the blazing Milky Way which merged with distant lightning flashes to the north and west of our location. The unsettled atmosphere of the day had become a dark-sky festival of stars dancing to distant thunder.

"Today's been a hike-and-a-half for everyone. The debriefing was hard, their testimony was awful to tell and difficult to hear, but necessary." The Commander's smile was grim as she turned and looked westward into the void. "We all need to recall what they can never forget." Her jaws tightened as she gripped the railing.

I shook my head and wrinkled my eyebrows. Her words were without meaning.

"A person can not forget or erase the memory of rape or sexual assault. It's burned into the brain like no other memory or trauma. We can forget lovers and nights of passion, but we can never un-remember being violated. It will be in our heads until the day we die." She smiled sadly and blew a smoke ring to the applause of an unseen army of crickets. "I know," she closed her eyes and whispered.

I got it and nodded with understanding. My memories of sexual abuse were forever at the edge of my thoughts.

"It's weird, but the lack of light seems to have brightened the night," I mused as I stood next to her and tried to shift the subject as I leaned against one of the porch's support beams.

One of the women had crafted the hand-hewn log-pillar to appear as if was growing from the railing. Art supported the steel roof overhang and the railing of the wrap-around farmers' porch. Carved into the face of each beam were countless whimsical lizards, spiders and other creatures of the forest.

"I'm not following you," Sheila said with a look of puzzled concern.

"SkyFire has swept light pollution from the heavens. Humanity's mindless mist of stray protons no longer corrodes the night. I've never seen so many stars. The sky is brilliant." I polished the lenses of my eye-glasses and looked through at the sky beyond. "Absolutely unforgettable."

~~~

"Thank you, Martha. Dinner was delicious," the leader said as she tapped her gavel and called the meeting of the sisterhood to order.

"This will be a short session, a few items of old business, and one thing of new. First up are Sky Wolf's six-month review, performance evaluation, and duty assignment. As you recall, I was in the process of relieving him as my administrative assistant when the lights went out. We got cut short and never voted my recommendation. Until we do, he's technically unemployed," Sheila said with an awkward smile as she adjusted her pencil to align with the top of the notepad on the podium.

"What do you suggest?" Martha invited the commander to elaborate.

"The world has fundamentally changed. This much we know," Sheila stepped away from the speaker's stand and walked to center stage. "We see it in the black sky of the night and the clear skies of the day, no aircraft or contrails since the first event. Radio communications remain smothered in static. All we have are fragments, shortwave mostly. Cities are in turmoil, countries are in confusion, and chaos rules the land."

The Commander's arms moved with her voice. Some folks talk with their hands. The boss's entire body danced to the music of ideas.

"For the last decade, we've been prepping for something like this with secrecy as our primary shield," she said as she brushed a few stray strands of hair from her eyes. "This morning we learned we've been compromised. The shield is shattered. The Society of Sisters is in the system. We and our location are known to the authorities." Sheila paused for a moment and took a deep breath.

"If we are going to stay alive, we gotta be smart, clever, and careful" The Chief interlocked the digits of her hands and placed two index fingers against her lips in a thoughtful moment of reflection. "Especially careful. Caution counts." She closed her eyes in a long slow blink. "We, and by that I mean I, me." She opened her eyes and pressed the palms of her hands to her chest before spreading her arms to wide. "You, and I, and all of us must evolve if we are to survive."

The Commander took her time as she slowly surveyed the silent faces within the hall. After several moments of cricket chatter, I cleared my throat as I stood to speak.

"Charles Darwin said it best. It ain't the strongest of the species that live, nor the smartest, but the guys most responsive to change. Right?" I resisted a smile as Sheila's eyes widened and she gave me a sharp stare before her features relaxed.

"Exactly," she said with an amused look of surprise.

I gave her a slight nod and soundlessly moved my lips 'I trust you,' as I returned to my seat. I had just spent my last brownie point. Can't hurt, might help.

"We're no longer prepping," the leader said as she surveyed the gathering.

Save for the occasional rustle of fabric; the room was whisper quiet and fully engaged. The ladies of Liberty Mountain leaned forward in their seats and listened intently to Sheila's thoughts.

"We are operational and tactical. This is the real deal, and we're gonna need to modify our procedures. We need to stop depending upon my leadership to see our way clear. If we are to survive, we need to work and think as a team. There are too many moving parts and unknown variables for me to do this alone. I need a twenty-four-seven situation team to analyze, plan, and manage our response to this crisis. I can't do it alone. Therefore I propose the council becomes that team. To that end, I'm adding Darlene and Alice to the task force; you've had the most post-event contact," she grinned. "Welcome."

"I've also reassigned Mister Wolf to serve as committee staff. Sky's role is to provide continuity. He will attend all department and unit meeting, take notes, keep us apprised, and offer whatever thoughts and suggestions he thinks appropriate. We are under no compulsion to follow his advice, only to listen."

The Commander concluded and stood in the easy posture of parade rest, he hands clasped behind her back and her face pleasantly relaxed as she waited. "What is the pleasure of the assembly?" she asked with an innocent grin of anticipation.

Chapter 41

"With all due respect, do we have any idea how ridiculous we look?"

I stepped over the long picnic bench next to the community dining table as I stood to speak. My rear end protested. After several long hours of note taking, my fanny was in no mood for a new session. My flat ass had a bad case of meeting butt. My hand was cramped, and after a day of biking thru the mountains, I hurt in places the sun didn't shine.

"This does not bode well," I said as I closed my notepad and set it to one side; no point of recording a train-wreck. "We're supposed to be the new day crew."

I smiled and tapped the rounded point of my number two pencil on my half-filled pad of paper. Lead and cedar were my tools for taking minutes. I liked the effortless feel of graphite sliding across the yellow legal pad.

"Our mission," I said, "is to figure out how to survive this disaster and we can't even agree on something easy like what to call ourselves." I rubbed my forehead as I stretched and tried to return circulation to my restless legs.

"Sheila has a sick sense of humor," I said with a grin as I examined my scribbles. "She calls for to be the..." I cleared my throat and suppressed a chuckle and did air-quotes with my fingers, "...the Sisterhood's Holistic Intelligence Team, or SHIT for short. Seriously?"

I burst out laughing and shook my head as the commander answered my remarks with a smirk and a shrug.

"You're no fun. I didn't intend for you to spell it out," she said in a playful stage-whisper.

"Belinda prefers we be called the Crisis Management Committee, and Darlene wishes us to remain nameless." I scanned my notes before continuing. "Our quartermaster does not have an opinion, and Alice wants us to be some sort of tribal council with a Cherokee name I can't even begin to pronounce."

I scratched my head. I shouldn't have skipped the post-mission shower. "We don't need a fancy name. We're just a group of folks doing the best we can. Let's keep it simple. Okay?" I returned to my seat and prepared to write.

"Group it is. It's as good a name as any. Are there any objections?" Sheila paused for a moment and waited for the silent sisters to speak.

"Fine, hearing no opposition, I so affirm. We are the Group!" Sheila declared with a tap of her gavel. "It's been a long day, let's start fresh in the morning, zero-seven-thirty."

"Thank God!" I groaned under my breath as I checked my watch and slashed a line across the page and scribbled '22:17-all' beneath it; my shorthand for adjournment by unanimous vote. "Bedtime for Bonzo, I need sleep," I groaned to Sheila with a yawn as I gathered my rough draft.

"Sky, we've gotta talk, there's been a change in sleeping arrangements, honey," Darlene said as she rested her hand on my shoulder.

"Join us in your quarters; we'll explain over brandy. Or weed if you wish," Seraina added as she placed her hand on my other shoulder.

"Both," I replied with a shiver as I reached for my pack of cigarettes. "Little rest for the weary and none for the wicked," I said with a humorless laugh as I lit up and followed my two lovers to my bedroom.

It was my grandmother's favorite saying when duty demanded more than she was able to give.

~~~

"It's good to be back home," Darlene sighed as she spread her arms and flopped down on her back in the bed we had shared since our arrival.

"Oh, crap! There are cobwebs in the corners and dust bunnies on the ceiling. Didn't you clean anything while I was gone?" my companion complained as she wrinkled her nose.

"Sorry; I was too busy missing you to mind the mess. By the way, I did the laundry. Your stuff is in the closet." I smiled and tried to kept my voice neutral and soothing. Something besides sloppy housekeeping was stroking her anger. "What's on your mind?"

I studied Darlene's troubled eyes as we sat together on our bed. "You guys mentioned something about sleeping arrangements," I said to Seraina as she set an antique silver serving tray on the nightstand. "Care to elaborate?" I licked my lips and tried to ignore the uneasy feeling growing in my gut.

"Brandy?" Seraina asked as she tilted the ancient crystal flask and filled my glass with amber spirits. The bouquet smelled like the sweet memories of yesterday.

"My darling Sky, tonight I'll be sharing my bed with Alice. I'm not ready to be that way with you, not for a while. Please give me space." Darlene searched my eyes for understanding. "I love you." She kissed my cheek in a sad whisper.

"Take all the time you need." I took a sip from the glass and mirrored her gaze with a slight bow of my head. "I can sleep on the floor." I pointed to the black bear rug at the foot of the bed. "Or I can go downstairs by the fireplace if you two need privacy." I took another sip and raised my glass. "What is your pleasure?"

"That is unnecessary, my love. You can rest in my bed. My daughter and I have separate rooms." Seraina smiled apologetically as she kissed my lips in a strange blend of affection and distance.

"What does Starshine think of that arrangement?" I asked.

"It was her idea," she replied.

~~~

"Come on in, Wolfie. I've been expecting you," Seraina's daughter said as she pulled open the door and beckoned me to enter the smoky, dim candlelit quarters she shared with her mother.

"Mom's room is over there," she pointed, "and mine is over here," she said with a flourish of her arm.

For a moment I was stunned as the folds of her translucent silk garment parted to reveal a fleeting glimpse of her bare chest. For the ladies of Liberty, nudity was normal and not usually naughty, nothing personal. Star's nudity clothed the darkened room with unspoken desire.

"Do you like it, Wolfie?" she blushed as she wiggled and giggled beneath a sheer mist of rainbow fabric.

"No," I lied and tried not to smile as I set my kit by the entrance to Seraina's slumber chamber.

"You're not my type," I said in a stern voice as I looked into her eyes.

"And if you were," I paused to allow my gaze to follow the contours of her body from her nose to her toes. "I would expect you to wear something, er, less, you know? Uhh, provocative."

I averted my stare and searched instead for cobwebs on the ceiling.

"We were au naturel when we played in the shower," Star reminded me with a twinkle in her eye as she kissed my cheek and took my arm. "Thank you for helping my mother to get back home. You were quite brave," she whispered as she guided me to an old fashion style leather wingback reading chair by the flickering fireplace.

Whatever modesty remained in her clothing vanished as she passed between me and the flame.

"No I wasn't, and you're welcome. I'm glad they're back," I said as I settled into the leather seat and sighed with relief. The old chair was wise to the ways of people, and its cushions conformed to the contours of comfort.

"Danger Will Robinson," I warned myself. "Be careful what you wish for."

"Care for a drink?" Star asked as reached her hands behind her head and undid the braids in her waist-length hair.

"Yes, please," I replied, not out of thirst but out of a desire to gain some space, regain control, and establish some boundaries.

"I'll be right back."

She turned and headed into her bedroom with streaming blond hair flowing behind her like a gossamer cloak. Almost but not quite hiding the rounded cheeks of her pantieless bottom.

"Much more comfortable. Don't you agree?" Starshine smiled as she returned from her quest, crystal goblets in one hand and a dark green ceramic brandy flask in the other. Although she had shed her cloak of visibility in favor of air and woodsmoke, sheets of blond hair and several shadows partially obscured her bare torso. She was stunning. I avoided my eyes and reached for a smoke.