The Gatherings by D.A.Sanford - HTML preview

On tip toes

It now has been a few days in the hide. This cavern is very large. Spacious floor space. For five people, we are not banging into each other. I purposely put a large LED clock in here that has am and pm with the date. That way we can tell the passage of time. I took that from the orbiting space station. That was their only way to keep track of time. They have the opposite. Their day night cycle is an average of ninety minutes due to the orbit they are in.

The children have settled in the life without social media. I have a library of sorts. Paperbacks and hardbound books of various subjects. Also some notebooks. Those are printed backup for stories I have written. They seem to like those. I’m still a kid at heart so I write things that I enjoy to read.

Jonus and Calest seem to be tiptoeing around. I don’t care, there are no real secret areas here. I walk over to the children. Voices do carry in here, so I ask them, “Were your parents like this at home?” They both giggle and say that they would always talk. They always would hug and swat each other’s butts. Then they would go to their room.

I know what they mean. I now say to the children “Why do they feel that it is not allowed now? You two do realize what they are doing, don’t you? They are in love with each other and are restraining.”

Chelsea says that there is a small chamber towards the back on the opposite side of where the toilet is. It is almost big enough to be a small bed room. Maybe dad could make it their room with a door.” These kids do get it. Their parents are afraid that I will get annoyed, no that is not the reason. They are uncomfortable in front of a stranger, me, having those displays.

Now in a voice that they know I am talking to them, “Jonus, take some lumber and make that your room. I am quite sure that your two learned children would like a divider on this platform so they could have their own side. I will tell you something, I know that you are humans. These children know you love each other. As landlord of this, our hide, I will allow you the right to renovate that room. Enjoy your old life style.”

I get serious and look at the both. “If you continue as you have been the past few days, your human minds will start lashing out at the world but we three will start to feel your growing resentment. You will eventually grow to hate me. For our and your sanity, make that room and go in there. We have enough sheets and blankets to insulate it, somewhat.”

On the book shelf, I grab a book about native Americans and open it up to a section on teepee life. I showed it to them. There is a section on how the whole family slept together. Sex was a normal thing between the parents. The children would just sleep through the noise. The children laugh and say that they did the same thing. “They are not quiet.”

The two seemed to be embarrassed so I get up and hand Jonus the tool kit. “You know we are right. There is no telling how long we will be in lock down. We have provisions enough to probably last almost a year. Can the both of you last that long? I can see that your wife gets it. We men are stoic. Hell no, we are thick headed. Make that room and then lock yourselves in.”

I walk over to the area that has some wine bottles. I grab one, two glasses and a few candles. I hand them to Calest. Then I sit down with the children again. “If you put that bottle in the cold water, it should be at the right temperature by the time Jonus finishes.”

The three of us just smile at them. It does not take him very long to build. Calest does some decorating. Then we know that we will need to make supper for ourselves. Now it was a night to remember for all of us. We three slept but I question if they did.

They emerge from their room totally a different couple. I actually got a friendly hug as she thanked me for rescuing them. I knew that she did not mean just the shelter in the hide. From that day on, the mood in the hide was different.

The two have relaxed from the tension of going from sacrificing themselves for the sake of the children to having a mad man call them as whatever is going down demanding they get here. To finding that they really needed each other’s intimate company. This hide is now starting to become a home.

We now have routines that each must do each day. Cleaning, cooking, testing and such. We rotate each day. This way we do not fall into boredom. Boredom can kill. Miss radiation or contamination in the water. Use spoiled ingredients or don’t cleanse the sanitation properly. All these can kill.

We try different things to do. You see there is only so much that you can do in a cavern. We have started expanding the very small opening at the very end of the cavern. We each have written what or where it will lead. Most feel that it will just peter out. I feel the slightest breeze. I have been checking the radiation and find that there is none.

Not being miners, each of us take turns chipping away expanding the opening. I am right. It does not peter out. Much to our delight, it starts to expand. With the flashlight we can see that it is larger than the cavern that we have. The biggest thing is that we can see a sliver of light towards the top. There is what appears to be a shelf system that can pass for stairs. We now can get a look at what is outside.

The fact that there is no radiation has me wondering what were those quakes? There has to be some explanation. Something that being in here we have missed. If it wasn’t nuclear, what happened and why aren’t people trying to get in.