Pandemic Pt. 02 Ch. 06-10

There was no sign of Missy. The front passenger seat had no sign of blood or damage. Nor could she have been in the back of the car as it was full of other equipment and supplies. We collected his rifle, ammunition and the few useful possessions he had in the car. There was not a lot, some tools, a basic medical kit, some containers of water and spare fuel. We left the rolled up mattress and their clothes.

We explored where we thought it safe looking for Missy. Then we drove slowly back to Beechamel, still scanning the road sides and surrounds for Missy or danger. There was no sign of either.

Dinner was quiet as we digested the information. Someone or a group who shot to kill. Another unknown and deadly danger. In the lounge we discussed it. While most of the enraged were damaged and unlikely to use firearms, some were cunning and likely could use them. The cunning and able ones were also the most likely of the enraged to survive and could organise other enraged to support them. Why had Brian been shot? Had there been a fight with other survivors over resources? Was it an accidental incident or perhaps Brian had let sexual desire get the better of him again and assaulted a survivor? Perhaps a dangerous group were moving out of Callanup as food got consumed in their local area. Our conversations could only be speculation. All sorts of scenarios were possible and we had nothing really to go on other than speculation.

Sleep was difficult, I woke early in the morning when the dogs barked and went to the tower to find Maddy there. We had a look on the surveillance equipment but nothing showed other than grazing kangaroos. We walked over to the wall and looked from each of the towers, but the dogs were now quiet and there was no unusual sound or disturbance.

At breakfast the next morning another discussion of what we could do about the new threat. We decided we definitely wanted to keep track of what was happening at the bridge, and the property with the lake by the bridge was valuable with its grazing cattle. There was not enough of us to keep an observer there but we did have the drone and Michael said it could fly out to 1500 metres. Thankfully we still had power, for now anyway. That day we set up discrete, but drone observable markers to show any disturbances along the road at kilometre intervals and at the bridge.

We also started clearing a new trail down to Linda's parent's property that was through the forest and away from the road. When we completed that, we would extend the trail to the bed and breakfast where we found Tiffany and link it to the property with the cattle and lake. If we used the horses we could travel quietly and so I continued my horse riding lessons.

Clearing the track to Linda's property was easy. We followed the track they used when they escaped in the quad until we got near the homestead. We cleared a route out of sight of the house with the tractor. Next we used the drone to identify a route to the bed and breakfast. It took Michael and Maddy the next week to create a rough track, making sure it was safe rather than direct. They were able to use the tractor for the first 1200 metres, but then many sections were steep and rocky. They created a good path, but it was too narrow for the tractor. Using the tractor to work their way back from the bed and breakfast, they connected up the trails. The trail on to the lake farm was longer, but it was easier terrain to clear a rough trail. Each week we also travelled back to Beechamel, but there were no signs of changes, no signs of people and no sign of Missy. Over the weeks our initial fear decreased, but we were still much more cautious when travelling.

* *** *

Late-November and the fruit trees were producing well, we transferred some more cattle to the lake farm using the horse trailer. Food at least was working out well. We had several meals of freshwater crayfish from the dam too, now that Maddy and Michael had worked out how to catch them.

Today I was having a longer ride on the horses, a five to six kilometre ride to the lake farm. It was my first ride on the new trail and Eliza and Annelise were riding with me. Annelise at least had been with Michael and Maddy to check the crayfish traps. We left after breakfast and first stop was the ridge near the cemetery. There we stopped and scanned the route downslope with the binoculars. We rode to the next ridge and repeated our observations. The route was designed with some concealed doglegs where a rise in the terrain gave a good view ahead.

Then we rode further along the trail until we left the track at the bypass around the homestead. I rode next to Eliza and chatted while Annelise rode ahead. Now we followed the steep narrow path down the range. Moving through dense thickets of shrubs with a moderately tall forest canopy of rough barked jarrah eucalyptus. It was pretty, with purple flowering sprawling vines and yellow flowering shrubs scattered through the understory. The trail curved around large granite boulders and between rough laterite ridges. We rode slowly down the paths, dismounting in steeper portions where the loose spherical gravel made riding risky. Well, I probably dismounted twice as often as Annelise or Eliza would have, but we got down to the lower slopes safely. The trees got taller and the understorey denser. The tractor had created a meandering trail between the massive tree trunks.

We approached the edge of the meadow and paused to view the cattle and house. The cows and calves grazed contentedly. Annelise counted them and said none had been lost. All seemed quiet and calm. We dismounted and watched the house and the vegetation along the river. All was quiet.

It was warm once we left the shade of the trees. We checked the fence and let the horses graze and drink at the stream after closing the gate to the house and orchard. Next stop was the bridge, to check for any disturbance and footprints. We could see no signs of disturbance through the binoculars and returned to collect dinner. Annelise showed us how to lift the marron traps from the water. However the first time I pulled up a rope I tipped the wire and shadecloth cylinder the wrong way. I got to see two beautiful large blue crayfish flick themselves back into the water. In spite of my efforts, we collected twenty four marron from twenty five traps and decided that was enough.

On the way to the orchard Annelise pointed to the pool where the stream left the forest and nudged Eliza.

"Want to have a swim Eliza?"

Eliza looked at me and lowered her eyes.

"Let's have a swim and then something to eat?" I suggested.

"Anything particular? Annelise asked, wriggling her bottom in front of me, then slapping Eliza's.

From the sound and protest, she hit harder than she intended.

"Sorry ... cold water will make it better. Bet I did not even leave a mark."

We had reached the pool. Annelise helped Eliza from her jeans and panties and did find a red mark. Then she was sort of apologetic, between giggles. After fun inspecting Eliza's ass and kissing it better we all stripped off and entered the cool waters. Where it was in the sun and shallow it was warm but the centre had not warmed today. The girls found that out with a shriek while I was lazing in the sun. It did result in two sets of beautifully perky nipples. I stood up to embrace the two cool bodies and suckled each nipple in turn to warm it up.

"You better not stand over there." Annelise warned.

She tugged my cock, which was semi-erect after pressing against their smooth bodies and my fun warming their breasts.

"We want it warm and hard." She giggled.

She pressed the tip of my cock against Eliza's pudendal cleft sliding it down. Eliza stood there breathing faster and opened her legs slightly. Eliza lent forward and kissed me while I felt her hand covering Annelise's pressing my rapidly hardening cock against her. Their hands pressed my cock firmly over her clitoris and lower, then back again. She squirmed against me while Eliza's fingers explored. My cock entered her wet tight enveloping vagina. Annelise put her arms around us, holding us together as she sought our lips with her open lips and tongue. We kissed her as we fucked. Annelise's breasts pressed against our flanks and I reached down roughly rubbing her pussy. Wet from the water and even wetter from her sticky secretions. I massaged her swollen delicate lips and hard nub as I fucked Eliza, our breath gasping, her nipples hard against me.

Annelise pulled me out of Eliza and bent over in front of me, pushing back onto my slippery cock, bouncing against me. She caressed Eliza's ass, pressing her pussy against my thigh. I pulled out of Eliza, rocking her against my thigh as I pushed into Annelise. After a few minutes she was beautifully slick against me. She grasped my cock pulling me towards Eliza and fondled her bottom as she pushed me back into her. She left her hand there, massaging Eliza's lips and clit around my cock, and then back to her tight little rectum. Eliza jerked at her touch.

"You like that don't you Eliza?"

Then Eliza jerked and moaned again as I slid into her.

"Annelise, no, not in there."

"I will just touch, I won't put my finger inside."

Annelise kissed her neck and shoulder.

"Though you have a beautiful silky smooth arsehole."

Annelise pulled me out of Eliza and slipped her sopping wet vagina over my cock again. She squeezed Eliza and me against her with her arms around our shoulders. We fucked vigorously, her face and chest flushing.

Eliza pulled me out and pushed my cock into her own vagina. She kissed Annelise's cheek as she did.

Annelise kissed her back on the lips, teasing her lightly with her tongue. I pushed hard into Eliza and she moaned into Annelise's tongue.

Annelise firmly grasped Eliza's breast, then squeezed her nipple lightly between thumb and finger.

"How hard do you like?"

"Gentle with my nipples, squeezing my breast was nice."

Annelise grasped her breast again and bent to gently lick and kiss her hard brown nipple.

"Yes" Eliza gasped.

I felt her muscles squeeze around my cock.

Our three bodies were all hot and slippery with a sheen of sweat from the heat of the day and the heat of sex. I held their two slick bodies firmly. Fucking one and then the other. Annelise ducked away and grasped Eliza's and my hand.

"Come up on the bank."

She searched her jeans and pulled out a condom.

"Eliza is probably alright today, but I'm maybe not."

She enlisted Eliza's help in rolling it down over my slippery wet cock.

"Oh, it is a little loose." She tested it moving it against the head of my cock.

"Better stop that", I moaned.

"I have an idea, I heard that Eliza likes this."

She drew Eliza next to her, put her arm over her back and bent over with her other hand on her knee.

"Though I heard Eliza is more flexible than this." She giggled.

Beautiful smooth contrasting asses, one beside the other. I kissed each buttock and then licked and sucked their exposed wet engorged lips, slick open vaginas and swollen clits. When each were gasping and squirming against my tongue I pressed my cock against each, sliding it against wet lips and clit.

Then I held the condom on and thrust first into one and then the other. Vigorously a few strokes in one sopping vagina and then the other while they squirmed against my thrusts and each other.

Annelise came first then Eliza and I soon after. We fell asleep in the grass.

* *** *

In December we did our first journey beyond Beechamel since finding Brian's body. We aimed to reach the hotel as there was still fuel at the service station there. Our food supplies were high and other necessary tasks had been completed so it was a chance to get more fuel while it was available. Linda stayed back with Karen and Tiffany. I missed having Linda with us, but she had been giving first aid lessons on Saturday afternoons to make up for it. And well... first aid lessons were a nice break on these warmer Saturday afternoons. Tiffany meanwhile loved feeling Linda's stomach for baby kicks.

We took the G-wagon, Hilux and truck. Ahead Michael flew the larger drone to avoid any surprises, pleasant or otherwise. Sand had been spread in a band across the road approaching the bridge near the lake farm. It was unmarked, except for footprints of birds, cats, dogs and a snake track. A vine we had positioned still reached across the road. We slowly drove onwards and arrived at the edge of the forest near Beechamel. From the drone above the hamlet we could see no signs of movement or humans. A couple of tins were missing among the ones we had positioned on the bridge, but they could have been blown away. As Annelise drove I watched through the binoculars, all seemed normal. We parked at the service station. The door had not been touched, the tape at the bottom still had cotton attached to the door frame. Michael flew the drone further east as Eliza drove him up in the G-wagon. Maddy followed with the truck.

Travel for the next ten kilometres towards Callanup was equally slow and cautious. We passed the Landcruiser and Brian, nothing had changed. A couple of the farms on the way that were further from the road had not been investigated. While Michael was investigating the route ahead along the road with the drone, Maddy and I checked one out. The usual, some tins and dry food in a pantry, some toiletries. Also a pair of good binoculars and some spirits. No bodies, vehicles or weapons, presumably they had headed off for medical treatment when first sick. A small tractor remained in the shed if we came to need one, along with a monster one. Other tillage, seeding and irrigation equipment too, but that equipment was all too large scale for us to use. There was some good quality grain in a sealed silo which was in good condition, but other bags of grain had been turned to powder by beetles and weevils. We picked a bucket of lemons and tried a few plums. The plums though were full of fruit fly larvae. We would make a special trip back for the grain later.

Onward again and finally we approached the service station and hotel. Once again it was quiet. Michael flew the drone through a broken window into the hotel, still nothing to see. Nor anything to see through the windows of the service station or the couple of other houses. We drove up and posted lookouts where they could see across the paddocks beyond the buildings. I parked near the hotel and Michael started fuelling up the vehicles and then the empty drums on the truck.

Three quarters of an hour of scanning the edges of the paddocks a kilometre or so away and looking up towards the vet surgery. I was getting tired and put the binoculars down.

"Anything over your way Maddy?" I called.

"Just birds and I saw a rabbit. Too far away for dinner though."

We continued our watch. Eliza came over to tell us that Michael would be about ten minutes more, then returned.

Five minutes later a rifle shot jolted me fully alert. It was in the distance, but I thought it was from the direction of Callanup, up the road ahead.

"Maddy did you hear that?" I called.

"Yes, want me to check if Michael heard?"

"Yes and perhaps he could fly the drone up ahead too."

I carefully scanned the road, taking care to keep concealed in the foliage of the garden. Through the binoculars there was no sign of any people or vehicles. Michael came up with the drone controller and screen. He flew the smaller drone out towards a grove of trees. I watched the screen as he edged through the trees. Once he had reached the edge of the grove he used the camera to look beyond.

Two kilometres further on, across several more paddocks there seemed to be some movement of humans and cattle. But the drone lacked the control range to get there. Michael and I drove across to the grove of trees in the G-wagon, keeping the grove between us and the humans beyond. It was a bumpy drive through grass covered furrows as we slowly edged forward along the fence line and across the paddock but soon he could fly the drone further forward. Visually protected in the grove I watched as he flew the drone closer to the humans.

A dozen people, eight males and four females, had shot a cow. Three had rifles and stood around, one clearly in charge, directing the others. Two others with axes slashed into the fallen cow. Others had started to eat, or gathered hunks of meat into baskets while six other cows cowered against the fence a hundred metres away. From their manner and tattered assorted clothes, it seemed likely they were enraged.

Suddenly one of the henchmen evidently got upset, threatening those butchering the cow. The boss man pushed the henchman to the side. On the screen we could see him shouting and threatening. Very faintly we could hear yelling across the paddock. The upset subordinate with the rifle then turned his attention to the cattle, shooting three until the herd ran past the enraged. They headed to the further side of the paddock. More shots and the cattle crashed against the fence, one perhaps breaking its leg but breaking the fence. The other two pushed through and onward into the next paddock.

Michael spoke, "Bastards."

I nodded, "Yes if they just killed what they needed to eat and ignored us we could coexist."

"If they come across the bridge at the lake farm we need to kill them."

"Even to Beechamel Hamlet is too close I think." I agreed.

We watched five of them pick up the meat and together with the three with the rifles they moved off, heading towards a house perhaps a kilometre further towards Callanup. As they walked to the house, another six passed them, heading towards the fallen carcass. So at least 18 of them and probably more in the house.

We retrieved the drone and drove back across the field to the hotel, then back to Beechamel. On the way we shot the first cow we saw. I felt sad after seeing how the enraged had treated them, but depriving them of the cow in this direction might mean they go in another direction. The four of us hauled it onto the back of the truck with the help of the winch while Eliza kept watch towards Callanup. Then off back home, setting our markers to detect disturbance on the way.

Tiffany appeared at the gate and let us in. She had been busy with Karen feeding and watering the animals. Maddy, Annelise and I butchered the cow while Michael and Eliza went to put the fuel drums in the front storage dump. While cutting the skin from the meat and bones we were closely watched. All four dogs watched with rapt attention, afterwards they would get most of the bones. Except the ones we kept for soup.

"Maddy and Annelise, do either of you know about tanning?' I asked.

Annelise grinned, "Yeah, you laze in the sun. Next time there is work to be done I can show you if you like?"

"Not that sort of tanning."

Maddy grinned and responded "I have tanned rabbit skins. You need salt to preserve them and we got plenty. But don't you think I am sitting there chewing it for you so you have nice soft slippers."

I laughed. "Oh I could just imagine the two of you making me a slipper each."

Maddy added, "We don't really need skins or leather at the moment, we have plenty of clothes and rugs, blankets, rope. That stuff keeps and tanning a cowhide would be a lot of work."

I nodded and cut into the knee joint of the cow we were butchering.

Linda was in the kitchen when we arrived. We had washed with the hose after feeding the dogs.

However she waved us off to shower with "Go please and wash, I don't want to smell blood or cow."

As I stood under the shower, warm water rinsing through my hair. I had used a small amount of soap and shampoo. One of the bedrooms was a storeroom full of soaps, shampoo and toothpaste, but we were being careful not to use more than we needed. One day we would run out or have to find out how to make more. Once buying a piece of soap as the supermarket was barely a thought but no doubt making a batch would take days of work. That is if we could get what we needed and make it all work. One day perhaps I would only be able to dream of warm solar heated showers too maybe. Annelise ducked in and turned off my shower, she was hungry even if I wasn't.