When The Fault Breaks: Life Will Never Be The Same Read online

  I could not resist the perfect opportunity, I looked at the two of them then the bedroom then raised my eyebrows, smiled and motioned to the bedroom. The four of us laughed and Tammy replied, "Not now you horn dog, we need to wait until we are ovulating and what if I choose the turkey baster anyway. Our periods have been synced for a long time, so it should fall on the same time for both of us, but you never know, it might not."

  Ann looked at me with this evil look and said, "Do you think you are up to this Peter, or should I say Peter Rabbit."

  The three girls thought that was hilarious and couldn't stop laughing.

  "Why do you ask?"

  "Because when you are trying to get pregnant the guy, has to be ready to service their needs several times a day. In this case it could be twice as many times. Are you, pardon the pun, up to it?"

  Again the girls had a good laugh at my expense.

  "I guess we will see won't we."

  Over the next few month's life was a bit hard for me, or not as the case may be. Life in the village continued as normal and I spent many nights with the girls, but still only slept with my sweet wife. We only did it when either of them was ovulating so it was not too bad but it sure takes the fun out of it.

  Over that time Allen and Jordan had been working on the thresher and had completed it. It was just in time because harvest season was close upon us. Even though we were using a turn of the nineteenth century thresher and living in a mostly nineteenth century village we still had many of the twenty first century comforts.

  Allen and Jordan made sure that the thresher was no exception. I had been real busy on all the other everyday things so it had been some time since I was out in the barn. One day after a long day at work I heard Allen call out, "Hey Peter can you come out here?"

  I made my way out to the barn and the two of them had covered up the thresher with a tarp.

  "What's up guys?"

  Allen replied, "While you were busy doing whatever you have been doing that was more important than this, we finished the thresher Peter. Pull the cover off Jordan"

  Jordan pulled on a rope they had placed in the rafters and showed me their handy work.

  "Woo there is no way that is the same machine we brought back from Aztec."

  "Yes it is, besides getting the thresher they were smart enough to get plenty of paint for it and Alex and Doug had brought every nut and bolt and nail they could find from the mill, so we had everything we needed to completely rebuild the thing."

  "It looks like you did more than just rebuild it."

  Jordan proudly replied, "That is because we did do more than just simply restore it. We modified it to work even better than it did when it was built. We made it so we can reconfigure it to harvest all the grains grown in the valley. Before you had to walk behind it to control it, which would have been very hard work, but we designed a seat so two can ride it, one to steer and one to control the hoppers."

  "Holy shit you guys have really outdone yourselves."

  Allen smiled and replied, "Thanks Peter, so who is the first one to get to use this thing."

  "Well I guess that depends on whose field is ready to harvest first."

  Jorden asked, "Are we going to let just anyone use it?"

  "Well I think I will leave that up to the two of you. If you allow just anyone to use it, you may find yourselves fixing it again. If you are the only ones to use it, you will be very busy fools real soon."

  "Jordan asked, "So what should we do, because I don't want to have to be the only ones operating this and I sure as hell don't want to have to fix it all the time?"

  "Well you could teach a few good men or women to operate it."

  Allen responded to that, "I like that idea."

  "Good then I will leave that part up to you two."

  It was now harvest time and the thresher worked like a charm. It made it so easy to harvest the wheat and the corn that we decided to double both the fields next year. Before we were limited on how much to plant by how much we could harvest but not next year. That also meant we could bring in twice as much supplies to the swap meet.

  We already had several customers that we sold to that placed orders for next harvest and they had a shit load of ammo to trade. We made arrangements to meet most of them at their settlement instead of having to go to the swap meet to make our trades, only a couple wanted the safety of the meet to meet and trade. The fact that we had a gun ship to both escort our run and carry even more cargo made it very efficient.

  Things sure were looking good for us all. We were living the life our fore fathers lived. A simple life living by the land but yet we had many of the things we grew to love about our old lives. When the quake hit I don't think any of us could have ever thought that we could really have our cake and eat it to.

  There was no crime, no violence, no nothing to give us that stress that we were used to before the quake. Things were perfect… for a while.

  Chapter 49: Murder in Little Haven

  It was a Friday night right after harvest when Paula was walking home from her friend Kris's house. It was a hot Indian summer night and she was walking alone along the path between their houses when she heard a noise.

  "Is that you Robert?" Robert was her husband.

  In a deep angry voice, she heard, "Yea it's me, where the hell have ya been?"

  She replied, "I was with Kris, why?"

  "I don't think that was where ya were. I think ya were with that Craig fellow that you screwed last month supposedly trying to get pregnant."

  "Don't be silly Robert, I only went there once while I was ovulating and did not even do it. I did not like his smell, so I told him sorry and came home. I told you that, that night it was why I returned so soon."

  "Well I don't believe you."

  "If you don't believe me, you can go ask Kris and her friend Tim, he was there too."

  "Oh then you were doing them too I see."

  It was then that she smelt the booze on his breath.

  "How much have you been drinking Robert?"

  "That's none of ya damn business bitch."

  "That's it, you will not talk to me like that, I'm going back to Kris's and spending the night there while you sleep that rot gut you've been drinking off."

  "Oh no you are not, you are not going to sleep with that bitch or her husband."

  With that Paula turned to walk away and go to Kris's house. That was not something he could stand. Robert picked up a log he saw on the ground and hit her on the back of the head. It didn't knock her out and when he turned her over to check on her she scratched his face with four of her fingers and unbeknownst to Robert she ripped off his necklace.

  That infuriated him and he hit her with the log again, this time it killed her. The next day when Kris was heading to see Paula for their morning tea she found her friend lying dead on the forest floor. She screamed, Kris's friend Tim heard her scream and ran to see what it was. As Tim approached Kris he saw her kneeling on the forest floor with her friend Paula in her arms.

  Tim asked, "What happened Kris?"

  "It's Paula, she's dead."

  She could not believe that her friend, who had been with her the night before, was now lying dead in her arms. Others heard her scream and had come running to see what was up and they were all shocked. Tim turned to Roger and told him to go get me, and Mark to get Brandon.

  It did not take me long to get there and Brandon was already there checking out the scene when we heard a noise in the brush next to us. It was Robert, Paula's husband, waking up from a drunken stupor. He was covered with blood and stinking of booze. We had already seen the blood under Kris's fingernails and there were large scratches on his face. It did not look good for him.

  In a still drunken angry voice Robert yelled, "What's going on here?"

  "It's Paula, Robert, she's dead."

  None of us could believe our ears when he replied, "She sure is, I smashed in that cheating bitch's head last night with that log over there."


  I looked at where he pointed and sure enough there was a bloody log lying on the ground not far from his wife's body.

  "So let me get this straight Robert, you're telling me you killed her with that log?"

  "You're damn right I did. That bitch was cheating on me with that other bitch Kris over there and her boyfriend. And look she even scratched my face."

  Kris just about came unglued over that, she started screaming, "How dare you call me a bitch you piece of shit drunken murderer, Paula and I were just friends. You killed her, now I'll kill you." With that she lunged at Robert, she was fit to be tied.

  I said, "Tim, get a hold of her while we sort this out."

  Brandon spoke up, "I really don't think there is anything to sort out, we all heard him say he killed her. He never once said he didn't, and you can see the scratches on his face where he even said she scratched him. It sounds like he has already tried and convicted himself. We all know what that means."

  Kris started screaming again, this time she was saying, "Give me a gun. GIVE ME A DAMN GUN NOW!!!"

  I knew she and Brandon were right. The law was the law it was the first one we wrote. We didn't even have to prove if he did it, he did that job for us in front of a dozen witnesses. Robert still drunk as a skunk still did not even realize what was happening.

  We had no choice everyone was saying give her a gun. So Brandon did, but as he did he told her to wait one minute. She said ok and I walked over to Robert and asked him one last time if he killed his wife.

  His reply was, "I sure as hell did kill that cheating bitch."

  "Robert you were one of the first to join us and helped write the very law we are about to enforce now do you understand that?"

  It was only then that he realized that he was in deep shit, he tried stop what he knew as coming.

  Robert exclaimed, "I deserve a trial,"

  Kris screamed, "YOU DON'T DESERVE ANYTHING BUT A BULLET,"

  Brandon replied, "The only ones that could do a trial if we felt there was a need would be the counsel, we have a quorum of the counsel present and Peter, that should be plenty."

  I replied, "I agree, let me see the hands of the counsel that feel he is guilty and should be executed here and now?"

  Brandon was the first to raise his hands and to more members also did, and I did as well.

  I continued, "Then it's unanimous."

  About that time Kris found Robert's necklace in Paula's hand. She recognized it because she had given it to him for Xmas last winter.

  Kris yelled out, "Look Paula has his necklace in her hand and it was clearly ripped from his neck."

  Robert reached down for his necklace only to find it not there.

  "Well Robert you have left us no choice. Kris, as Paula's closest friend, the decision on who does his execution, is on you. You can ask someone else to do it, or do it yourself. What do you say?"

  With that she turned to Robert, "I want to hear you say you are sorry for killing my best friend."

  "That only infuriated the drunk and his reply was, "Kiss my ass you whore."

  That was it for Kris, she put the gun to his head and pulled the trigger killing him instantly. That was the first time we ever had to deal with something of that manner and hopefully the last.

  Chapter 50: The Community

  It was ten years ago today that "The Great Quake" rattled our world. Since then our little piece of bliss has endured unlike the first camp at the lake. In fact, it has flourished, there are dozens of farms scattered down the valley from my ranch. As our community grew we set up an area near the cave to build houses.

  That was easy after we built the mill and brought in the nails we needed to complete the work. We even built a couple stores at one end of the village. Little Haven was beginning to look like an old west town with a twenty-first century twist.

  We have had a surplus of all our grains and seeds every year since our first full harvest. We traded that surplus at several swap meets and various farms within a short flight's distance. In return for all those supplies we got every farm animal we wanted. On one of the trips, we even found a veterinarian who wanted to join us. He set up shop in the first store front we built. He was also one of the first to enjoy our community electricity. We had produced enough power that we were able to put up lights down through the middle of town.

  We met more people at those meets and several wanted a new life and joined us. In all our community has grown to well over two hundred. We knew it was a danger every time we added to it, but we also knew we need more people to make it work. We have also come to the conclusion that we are approaching the limit we want to bring here.

  We all came hoping to live our lives in peace, with a roof over our heads and ample food to eat. Everyone came with the understanding that we all help each other out and in return would help when needed. We have literally built our community on that premise and must continue to do so.

  The cave is a perfect example. With everyone's help we were able to build a structure that has been used by residents and as a community center. We gather there for meetings, potlucks, and various other get-togethers. It provided shelter for the first to arrive and later for new members of our village. We are proud of our cave and will continue to use it for newcomers and community events.

  Our cave now offers six bedrooms, a community kitchen for all to use, a large dinning/meeting area, and lots of room to just relax and read or work on projects. We installed those nice Viking ovens and six-burner stove as well as another range with an oven we got from the swap meets.

  The outhouse was a bit of a hike from the cave, but after a couple of winters the walkway was enclosed so no one had to go through the cold to get to it. The outhouse was eventually repurposed for storage. We were able to acquire two composting toilets from the swap meets and install them inside the cave. They work well and use no water.

  The aqueduct was completely enclosed before the first winter to prevent freezing and to keep it clean. During the first winter some of the water was diverted into a cavity built into the fireplace to provide hot water for cooking and cleaning using the same techniques as the Romans did.

  A tub was built in the bathroom so everyone would be able to get baths with hot and cold running water. In the first summer the tub drain was directed into a sort of dry well to ensure it did not make it to the stream or used to irrigate.

  Every effort was made to provide all the comforts of the homes we left, while still keeping everything simple enough that nothing required much upkeep. I think it was the second summer that the wood floor was laid to keep it clean, and heat from the fireplace was piped into it to help keep it warm and to protect from heat loss to the ground.

  In time we built a root cellar out of the cut out rock in the back of the cave and cemented them together for the front. This one has an additional function; it's used as a freezer well into the spring and maybe even summer. Blocks of ice from the pond are used to keep it below freezing so meats are processed and stored there.

  Everyone helped construct the assorted cabins and stores throughout the valley. They put their love, and in some cases their blood, into the construction. Everyone did something to help, whether it was lifting logs, or bringing a sandwich to someone scraping the bark off the logs, which by the way led to several marriages and lots of babies.

  That type of involvement reinforced the type of community we all have grown to love. It has made for strong lifelong friendships that anyone living in the pre-quake world would have died for.

  On one of many trips to the swap meets we were able to get a forge to work steel. Rodney found his calling, he picked up on being a blacksmith in no time.

  We finished the mill in the second year with the structure built before winter hit and all the moving parts built over the winter. The spring of the second year we diverted the flow and held a start-up ceremony just after the floods subsided. By the fall that same year we were grinding all sorts of grains.

  We added a se
cond set of grinding wheels to extract oils from the grains. Besides making corn and soy oil, we even made hemp oil. The pond was used to irrigate several fields for planting, and we had several fields to grow rice.

  We built a dam by cutting down a couple of cedar trees that were not too large. We laid them on their sides and used cement between them to make them watertight. Then to channel the water to where we wanted, we put a couple more on top that did not go all the way across to force the water to one small point. All this provided for more than fifteen feet of fall so we could make a lot of kinetic energy. The water wheel was fairly simple to build.