This is a work of fiction. This story involves a young man and his half-sisters doing whatever is necessary to survive in an apocalyptic world. That includes ensuring that there will be future generations, so if any of that disturbs you, then you should stop reading now. Any similarity to real names or real people is coincidental. Constructive comments are always very welcome.
My philosophy is that a story should be like a woman's skirt. It should be long enough to cover the subject, but short enough to keep it interesting. I try to do that in my stories. You may or may not agree with me as to where I should end a story, but know that I end each story where I think it should end. That being said, this is a fairly long story, which will require multiple chapters to complete.
Nobody in this story was under 18 when they had sex.
"The night is long... and full of terror." Adam had been taught by his parents when he was young that anyone speaking these words must be granted shelter (and food if the host had any) by anybody who was inside (provided the person outside wasn't armed). If the person outside was armed, then all bets were off. So far, he had never had to use the phrase, nor had he heard anybody else use the phrase, so he supposed that he must be luckier than most. Luckily for their family, his parents had seen the disasters coming, and they had stored many years' worth of food and survival supplies for the family. What they hadn't seen was that most of the family wouldn't survive the times of terror. Adam had also been taught that, if he had to choose between the family's well-being and saving a stranger, he must always choose family first.
When Adam was young, his mother had died, and his father had married his step-mother. Adam was young when the disasters had started. First had been huge earthquakes and volcanic eruptions all over the world that had completely blotted out the sun for years. No light meant no growing plants, and the world had quickly started to starve. Then, the few power-hungry world leaders left thought they could gain control over everyone on the planet, and the armies marched. Those who were about to lose the war had unleashed their nuclear weapons on the world, figuring that, if they couldn't survive, then nobody else would either. Of course, all of the other leaders with nuclear weapons had launched theirs too. That killed most of those who hadn't already starved previously. Then, the diseases came. There were very few people left on the planet after that.
Most of the people had died of starvation during the first few months after the earthquakes and mass eruptions. So many died that there weren't enough people left to bury those who died. However, with all of the volcanic ash, a body would be covered within days of falling, so there was really no need to bury anybody. All people had to do was to drag the dead outside, so the ash would bury them.
Before the disasters, Adam's parents really had no idea what the future would hold, but they didn't like what they could see. Too many leaders were totally corrupt, and they knew that couldn't last. They had thought it was only a matter of time before the world was plunged into war, and they were right. Therefore, they had started to store as much food, weapons, ammo, survival supplies of all kinds, water, and seeds as they could afford (which turned out to be a lot since Adam's father had been very successful in his business).
Regardless of what the future held, Adam's father thought the family could survive (provided they remained isolated). To that end, his father bought land in the mountains, and built a home at the entrance to a limestone cave that only he knew about. The war had, indeed, come to the world. Almost all of those who survived the darkness fell during the war. Eventually, though, the leaders succumbed as did their armies, and most of the threat disappeared with them. There were no food reserves left and they, along with most of the people left on Earth, starved.
Being super-preppers, Adam's parents had stored many years' worth of food and supplies for the family, and the family had plenty of weapons to defend their supplies. They got their water from an underground spring up the hill from their home (which was partially in a cave), so there was always good clean water with pressure that they could use any time. The water never touched air before they used it, so there was no chance of contamination. In addition, a stream far back in the cave could also provide clean water to the house.
It didn't hurt that they lived far out in the woods and in the mountains, so they seldom ever saw anybody else near their home, and when they did, they shot them as soon as they saw they were armed. Most everybody who had survived was male and armed. There was no way the family could afford to take chances with somebody who might try to steal everything the family had, and Adam's dad had made the home very defendable. They always had plenty of warning whenever anybody came onto the property.
What even Adam's parents hadn't foreseen was the sickness. Even when the sun finally came back after the volcanoes and the war, nobody could go outside. There was still radiation and dead bodies in every populated place, and those who ventured outside anywhere near those places were soon infected by strange illnesses and died.
It was after the war when the news ceased. Radio and television had gone away quickly, as did the internet, but short-wave radios persisted for a few more years. Adam's father had set the property up well. There was a hydro-generator in the creek that flowed through the cave that never failed to supply them with electricity. He also had a solar array, but he had put the solar panels in underground storage in the cave that extended from their home when the eruptions started. It was a good thing because the electro-magnetic pulses from the nuclear explosions would have destroyed them if they had been above ground.
Adam's family survived for several years after the sickness came before they started to die too. First to go was his step-mother. She just got sick and died. They had no idea what she had died from, since there were no doctors left. Next to go was his dad. Adam wasn't sure if his dad had died of the sickness or of a broken heart from losing Adam's mother and his step-mother. The youngest, his half-brother, was the last in the family to die. In any event, that left Adam alone with his two younger half-sisters, Rebekah and Ruth.
There was no question as to who was in charge. They had been raised in a conservative patriarchal family where the man was always in charge. Adam's father had always consulted Adam's step-mother before making important decisions, but in the end, he made the decisions. With their parents gone, that left Adam running the family. His half-sisters were fine with that, since they had always looked up to Adam anyway. Besides being a man, he was also the oldest.
It had been several years since they had seen another live human being, and they were all missing outside contact. Because they had a Geiger counter, Adam knew that there was no longer any radiation anywhere near their property, so It was okay to venture out. However, he mostly stayed on their property. Anybody finding his tracks could easily follow them back to their home, and that would be dangerous, so leaving the property was usually out of the question. Truthfully, they had no idea if there was anybody else left on Earth. They were a long way from any civilization that might still exist, so it wasn't likely that anybody would venture there, even if they had survived all of the catastrophes.
Going out on the property, though, had shown that plants were coming back. With the years of darkness and layers of ash, pretty much all plants had died. The forest was initially turned into mostly dead trees. However, it did rain, and somehow seeds were still able to find the surface and sprout. Now, the forest around their home was filled with ferns, herbs, wildflowers and young trees sprouting. Even some of the older trees had started to resprout. It looked like nature would recover. It turned out that the ash was very good for plants, and with the rain, plants had everything they needed to thrive. It wasn't long before much of the forest had come back to life.
