I felt along the wire as I traced it to its source within the engine compartment. Thankfully, my fingers encountered nothing but cobwebs and old grease.
The wire was intact. That at least made one for once.
I pulled my arm out of the engine compartment. Picking up a rag I stepped back from the Mustang and surveyed my handiwork.
I'd had to replace most of the wiring as mice had made piecemeal of things underneath the hood, but theoretically things should work now. I'd changed the oil yesterday, along with the gas.
The oil really hadn't needed to be changed, but the supplies were available and so why not. Indeed, it had been nice to do something of such a former pastime as working on a car again with the pursuit to drive it.
It wasn't the only thing I wanted to drive though. Reaching forward I took the hood extension rod down and snapped it flat into place and then I let the hood slam down.
With the hood closed I turned my back to the car and faced my silent admirer, who had perched herself on top of a barrel nearby. She smiled and eyed me over speculatively as I continued to wipe my hands off on the rag.
I had never known or even heard of the existence of this place that lay within a two-day walk of my own place and yet there was good reason for it. It was a bug out homestead.
There wasn't even a noticeable road other than a leveled off dirt path leading away from this place. The house and the shed were fully stocked with all the food and necessities needed to make it in a grid down situation and to some degree quite luxuriously.
Whoever had set this place up hadn't made it though and for the past two years or so it had sat here waiting. Waiting to fulfill a desperate need in a feat of God appointed timing that was undeniable.
I had not ceased to praise God for the provision of this place and truly a stockpile of food capable of lasting years, if managed correctly. It was exactly what Pastor and the kids needed.
In short, this place bought us some time, but I wasn't satisfied with that alone. I needed to know if things further out were as bad as I had been told that they were.
To that end, I intended to explore and test the waters so to speak. I wanted to do it alone, but JaLin wouldn't have it.
She'd broken through my hard reserve to her coming along yesterday by stating in English, "You live, I live. You suffer, I suffer. You die, I die. You go, I go!"
I'd given it up then. There was simply no denying a plea played on the heartstrings such as that.
Speaking of hearts I idly took in the way her nipples were peaked hard against the shirt she wore. Her breasts were small, but I didn't care. They were still quite fun to play with and highly responsive.
I reached out an oil stained hand and rubbed it over one of them possessively and had the satisfaction of watching her eyes blink closed for a moment. They opened again with a ready fire within them to experience more and I was helpless to fight against the urge to make her passions come true.
I glanced toward the shed's access door only to have my eyes drawn back to JaLin as she held up a key in the air. I smiled wolfishly and stepping close I bent my head to hers and whispered, "You little vixen you! You want me that bad do you?"
She nodded her head emphatically before then kissing me. I kissed her back even as I let my hands slide down her back to squeeze over her perfectly rounded little bottom.
I picked her up and her arms and legs closed around me. I then carried her through the garage a short distance never breaking the kiss with her and then I laid her down.
Her eyes opened as our lips parted and with a bit of a smirk she took in the fact that I had just laid her down on the hood of the Mustang. I grinned right back at her as I pulled her shoes off and then her tight jeans along with her T-shirt.
I'd always wanted to do this with a girl and now I got to do it with my girl. She wore a dazed expression of wanton desire as I pressed her legs up and apart even as I kneeled down onto the concrete floor.
The floor was hard, but I didn't care. The experience of doing this was worth it.
My mouth descended upon the slick wetness that her womanhood already was and I took my fill of her as I sought to drive her to a fever pitch of wanton need. Moaning and twisting about upon the hood, she accepted the strokes of my tongue upon her and when she was breathing heavy and almost over the edge I stopped.
She moaned in anguish and chuckling I got up and undid my pants. Her passioned eyes took in the desire for her that I always had before they rose to my eyes with open want for all I had to offer.
I grasped her ankles and slid her lower down on the hood until her bottom was poised slightly over the edge. I split her legs apart and rested them against my shoulders as I bent down over her and placed my oily hands to either side of her on the car hood.
Her feet caressed my neck and ears as I familiarly nuzzled my shaft into her tight folds. Holding her gaze, I pushed forward into drive and watched to see how she would respond.
Her nails bit into my back and her groan was answer enough to testify that she was ready to ride and so I did. She was fast and came hard and moments later I joined her and she fell over the edge with me for a second time.
Breathing heavily from the exertion of past moments I held my weight up off of her. That said, I still stayed fully connected with her, as it simply felt good just to be in her.
Glancing about introspectively I came to the conclusion that I had dented the hood. Oh well.
My eyes met hers and she knowingly squeezed down on my shaft with her strong inner core muscles. Groaning, I shook my head. She was amazing and I told her so on the spot.
Her hand came up to caress my cheek, "You too." She said.
I let her feet slide off my shoulders and letting down onto my elbows I kissed her. I loved this woman so much!
We stayed that way kissing for a while and then she curled her legs up around me and ground herself against me. Unbelievably, I felt myself stiffen to full hardness again within her tight sheath and I started to drive her all over again much to her delight.
~~~~~~~
We'd said our farewells which were hopefully only temporary. Now, however the moment of truth had come.
I turned the key and the engine came alive and purred like a throaty kitten ready to catch a ride on a fast-moving stallion. I'd started the car earlier, when I'd flushed the old gas out of it, but the sound of power willing to move never got old after being absent from the world of familiar sounds such as it had been for almost three years.
No, this was nice, as were the sunglasses I wore. I glanced to JaLin only to see her likewise enjoying the experience.
Truth to be said I was glad that she was coming along. It was hard to say what fate lay before us, but it was better knowing that we would face it together.
I gave Pastor Joseph and the kids a wave and then I eased the car forward down the dirt level track being mindful of the roughness of the terrain. The dirt only lasted for about a mile and then we were pulling up onto the abandoned tarmac of a paved road unused to the sound of power on four wheels.
Sand had blown across the road here and there along with other debris, but I didn't let it block me from achieving my pursuit and intense need for speed. I looked behind me at the towering rise of stirred up dust. It was a glorious sight.
What we were headed into I didn't know, but the expectation of the unknown threatened to drive me nuts almost as much as the desire occurred to me to pull over and enjoy my wife all over again. She must've read my sideways glance at her because her hand came out across the seats and began to possessively rub over my crotch that immediately bulged into her massaging touch upon it.
She didn't stop and my torment continued. I was on the verge of pulling over when her hand undid my pants.
My shaft busted threw the gap that she had opened. Her hand withdrew from touching me and I had started to look her way when I heard a click.
My gaze settled on her only to see her seatbelt receding away. She turned in her seat and coming close to me as she knelt in her seat she pressed her lips wetly into my ear.
Pulling back slightly, she took her sunglasses off. Taking one of my hands off the steering wheel she said, "Hold please." And I did just that.
Her head lowered and I groaned before her lips ever touched the head of my cock, only to then experience more pleasure, as she began to suck lightly upon my shaft. No, this day simply couldn't get any better.
I glanced about helplessly as pleasure radiated up-and-down me on multiple levels as she stroked her mouth up and down on the essence of who I was as a male. There were no words to describe this moment, but I did my best to anyway.
"Thank you so much, God!"
Keeping on the road brought a new challenge to me in the face of what was happening, but I did it all the while planning within my mind as to how on earth I could ever return as much significance in pleasure to her as she was giving to me right now. My mind, however, came up with nothing that could equal with what she was doing and at about the same time my body gave up to the inevitable.
Gripping the wheel hard I breathed heavily as she continued to suck on me hotly through the heat of my passion and groaning, I kept us on the road just barely as her mouth worked hungrily upon me. Never would I suggest this for the safety of others, on the road, but we were alone out here and yet I'd do it again even with other cars.
Her head rose up and my eyes took in the arousal to be found in hers and something bade me to speak out and in as authoritative of a voice as I could muster in the moment, I said, "I want you to cum right now."
To my surprise, she did. Her hips jerked and she pressed her face into my neck as she cried out softly as her own passions swelled to a high pitch of accomplished yearning.
After a long moment she pulled away and I held her sunglasses out to her. How I had avoided from crushing them, I did not know, but I was happy that I hadn't.
She put them on and slid back into her seat and redid her seatbelt. The sun had fully risen in the morning sky and the road was open and clear before us.
I settled down to about 80 mph as I enjoyed literally everything going on in the moment, but most of all the sense of loving connection I shared with JaLin topped all else. Our hands lay clasped together near the gear shifter and they stayed that way as mile after mile of barren landscape fell off behind us.
~~~~~~~
Truly the FEMA people had been right, at least that is how it seemed.
I was driving through yet one more long night and I had already resolved to turn around and head back once the sun began to rise up over the horizon. I had just enough gas to make it most of the way back.
There was no end, seemingly to the desolation of the land and its former occupants and I was tired of discovering more of the same. Suddenly, though I noticed something different in the dark of the night off in the distance.
Lights? Lots of lights!
The moon was bright and I'd been driving without headlights as I didn't want to announce myself too much and now I continued on doing so. Reaching out a hand, I gently shook JaLin awake.
She sat up quickly and stared transfixed at the lights that lay along the horizon even as I found myself doing. Why so many lights?
How were so many lights being powered when it came down to that? I didn't know, but I intended to find out.
Saying a quiet prayer, I eased on forward toward the wall of lights on the horizon. The lights soon revealed that indeed there was a wall. A wall of barbed wire.
I let my one hand fall down beside the door to grip hold of my pistol. The road we followed along led up to a brightly illuminated gate that lay situated in the wall of wire.
There were actual people standing about too and they weren't wielding butcher knives or clubs. In fact, they all looked as if they'd had a shower today and their uniforms looked as if recently pressed.
What was going on here?
I was motioned to come to a stop and as I did so an officer approached the window. I lowered it while at the same time prepared to lay a hold of my gun and send a shot clear through him and send the car into reverse at a moment's notice if need be.
His words were harsh, "What sector did you two moonlighters slip through? Taking a joy ride out into the Badlands is no joke! It is in no way safe and you're an idiot if you ever do it again, because I for one am sure not going to come out to help you! Now get back into the Goodland and the next time I catch you guys slipping through the border I'll report you!"
I blinked uncertainly, but at the authoritative wave by the officer the gate in the wall of barbed wire opened and I found myself easing the car forward on through it to the other side all the while receiving dirty looks from all the other border guards that stood nearby with automatic rifles in their arms.
Where did all these normal appearing and quite well fed looking people come from all of a sudden? The East was supposed to be a complete loss, but now in the distance I saw otherwise, as a brightly lit up grid of lights indicated the presence of a city.
JaLin and I looked at each other in consternation. This most definitely had not been what either of us had been told about.
I drove onward with my headlights on and on my approach to the city I noticed a sudden change in the greenery to either side of us that was so apparent that the human eye could comprehend it even in the darkness of the night. It was surreal to say the least and I found myself wanting to be back out on the barrens as opposed to this unknown plain of existence that we had stumbled into as if waking up from a bad dream.
Trees were passing by quickly and more and more it became apparent to me that there had been no spraying done here. Even more so than that there had been no nuclear fallout as it had been told to us by FEMA. I'd passed several fans marked FEMA already.
We entered the city and it became abundantly clear that life was going on here as if nothing had ever happened. Socially things appeared even looser than before, but there had been no complete fall of society, as I had witnessed for the past two years, to grace any corner of this city of modernity.
It was apparent that food was not limited at all as a million flashing icons for it advertised it almost everywhere one looked. If a wide-ranging natural diet was available why then was FEMA feeding the people of my former area with such stale and likely poisoned food, unless it all was on purpose somehow to drive them nuts in the first place.
A big experiment as it were. For the past two and a half years I had been living and striving to survive in some devilish paradigm of a mad scientist's field day of sociological experimentation.
These people that walked to and fro everywhere one looked, even at night in this city, seemed totally impervious to the fact that beyond the wall of wire people were being eaten by each other and that the chief occupation was to hunt down one another in order to scalp off their faces!
Anger seethed hotly through me and as if sensing it JaLin laid a hand on my arm consolingly. I tamped my emotions down or at least I attempted to.
I pulled the car off the main drag and out of traffic and into a hotel parking lot. Because of a wild inspiration I had actually brought along some money that I'd seen in a drawer at the homestead location just on the possible chance of finding something like this.
Getting out of the car I went to JaLin's side and opened her door for her. She got out and together we walked down the pristine sidewalk with lush green grass growing on either side of it.
Everything about this experience felt unreal. Entering the immaculately kept hotel lobby, I immediately felt dirty only to have the emotion compounded as everyone present looked up to stare at us. I approached the front desk and was dismissively regarded by the cursory up-and-down glance of the attendant standing there.
Speaking up I said, "I'd like a room for the night. Do you have any available?"
"Quite certainly, Sir. Identification number, please."
I stared at the man blankly for a second before asking, "Do you mean a driver's license?"
The desk clerk's face grew into the smirk that he had been fighting to hold back ever since we'd come in here and succinctly he now said, "I knew it! Another hillbilly rebel come back into civilization's redeeming glow. Yes, you need an identification number. Without it, I'm afraid I can't give you a room and nobody else will either. It's the way things are run now. Society no longer runs on money, but all are free to come and go as they please, as long as they are identified by the number and sworn to all that it stands for. Understood?"
Feeling hollow inside I said, "I see." And then without another word spoke I began to back away from the counter. Abruptly then I turned and headed for the freedom of the outdoors even as the desk clerk called out, "I'm going to have to report this you know! No one is going to give you food or anything without your personal identification number. Come back here! You won't make it! You've already been biologically scanned and you'll be picked up within hours! You fools... you can get your number it's easy!"
The sliding doors of the hotel lobby closed behind us and on a half run, we both made it back to the car and without pause we both jumped in. The car roared to life and I tore free of the parking lot and the mark of the beast system that had been clearly initiated here in this place of lost souls living on a promise that would only deliver them to hell in the long run.
I would never submit to this spiritual tyranny! I'd rather die or at the very least spend my life fighting to survive, which is exactly what I intended to keep on doing.
Just short of the border I spotted my ticket to freedom. Roaring up alongside of the white FEMA van making its way toward the wall of lit up barbed wire I forced the van over to the shoulder of the road through aggressive driving.
The FEMA van came to a stop grudgingly and I hopped out of the car gun in hand. The driver of the van had hopped out too, and with angry protest exclaimed, "What's up with you mister? I've got more important things to do than play games like this!"
"Yeah, I know, like feeding hallucinogenic and highly toxic food to unsuspecting people, even as you could've had the ability to feed them almost anything one could ask for from a natural organic source!"
The man had started to draw back in shocked surprise from me, but he wasn't quick enough. I grabbed a hold of him and pulling him close I clubbed him over the head with the gun barrel brutally. I let him fall to the ground and turning back, I was in time to see JaLin climb free of the car with our bag of provisions in tow.
It was clear that she knew what I intended to do, but I felt like I needed to explain anyway. Pointing to the city of controlled lost souls behind us I said, "I will never accept that mark! I would rather die being fed upon by my own kind than willingly hand over my soul to the devil!"
JaLin nodded her head and pointed to her own heart as well. We were in agreement as man and wife.
I nodded with gratitude for her understanding of how I could turn my back on an easy time of it versus the challenge of having to continue to survive in the barrens beyond the wire in a man-made habitat of horrors. Truly though there was no horror greater than the loss of the human soul and it was this reality of fallen order that I now wished to escape from the most.
Slipping into the driver seat of the white van I eased it forward even as JaLin made herself scarce by ducking into the back of the van. The border was just ahead and when I reached it the gate opened automatically and without even being asked to stop and verify my shipment of poison the border guards waved me on.
I eased on through the gate and back into the familiarness of the past two years of my life that had seemed to stretch on for an eternity. Now, however seeing the barrens was almost more of a feeling of welcome relief than anything negative in comparison to what we were escaping from.
It was better to die in a day and live for forever in God's presence than it was to prolong an earthly existence for a thousand years only to realize that all that time constituted to nothing more than a day in the span of an equally eternal hell.
I taxed the van as hard as it would go as I fled back into the lands of freedom. Somehow we would make it and if not, then we would die trying.
Relief washed through me as I accepted the scope of what life would be like from now on and the feeling only got better as I felt JaLin's hand squeeze down over my shoulder. Truly God had given me everything I needed and I would be content to dwell in it.
I closed my hand over JaLin's hand. Within two days or so we would be back at the homestead with Pastor and the kids and life would go on. I thanked God on the spot for such a positive future, when before I had railed against the idea of being content in such a make do environment, but now my eyes had been opened and I wasn't ever going to second-guess God again. In short, I was right where I needed to be in life.