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."
One of Adam's tasks was to patrol the perimeter of their property each day. He had basically worn hidden trails through the woods. He always took a weapon with him on his walks. There weren't as many animals left as there had been before the disasters, but there were still some left, and some of the animals could be dangerous. In the last couple of years, Adam had noticed more and more animal tracks, so he assumed that the animals in the area were multiplying. By then, years had passed since the disasters, and although he hadn't seen another human in a long time (other than his half-sisters), he still kept an eye out for any human sign as well.
It was just a month or so after Rebekah gave birth to a son (named Isaac) that Adam actually found human tracks during his daily walk. At first, he missed them. The vegetation had grown up to the point where even his trail was obscured, and it wasn't until he found a small fresh footprint in a muddy area that he knew for sure that there was a human in the area. He carefully followed the tracks, and he had a lot of experience in tracking, so it was fairly easy for him to follow the trail.
Adam wouldn't normally go off their property, but following the tracks, he found himself crossing what had been the property line (not that it meant much anymore). He knew the area very well from before the disasters, so when the tracks led across the valley and up a ridge, he had a good idea where they were leading. Adam knew that there were caves in that ridge, and he figured that whoever had made the tracks was living in one of the caves.
The whole time he was following the tracks, he was careful not to leave any tracks of his own, and he was always looking for any other tracks. From the size of the tracks he was following, he figured that the person was either a boy or a woman. They weren't big enough to be made by a man. As Adam got closer to one of the caves, he slowed down and was even more careful than he had been. It was a good thing, too, because Adam started to find traps along the trail. It wouldn't be good if he got caught in a trap.
As he approached a cave, he got off the trail, and went up above it into the vegetation, where he could watch the trail and the cave entrance without being seen. It was soon apparent that somebody was using the cave for shelter. There was a fire ring in front of the entrance, and there were animal skins drying near the fire. Whoever was living there had some skills.
It wasn't long before he saw the girl coming out of the cave. He watched her for quite a while before she went back into the cave. She came back out with a bow and arrows. She sat by the fire and ate what appeared to be jerky before making her way down the trail toward him. Though Adam was pretty sure the girl was living alone, he didn't show himself as she walked down the trail. He continued to watch the cave entrance until she returned from wherever she had been. She was carrying a rabbit that Adam assumed she had trapped.
Adam continued to watch as the girl prepared and cooked the rabbit. By the time she was finished eating, Adam was fairly sure that she was alone. He pondered whether or not to introduce himself to her, but he finally decided to go back to his home to talk with his half-sisters first. If they took this girl into their group, it would change everything, so he obviously had to get their input.
He quietly slipped away through the vegetation, staying off the trails. He had already learned that the girl knew how to trap, and she was using the trails to catch animals, so it was safest for him to stay off the trails. However, that meant that he had to be extremely careful about where he put his feet. He backed out of the area and finally got back to his home. When he entered, both of his half-sisters asked him where he had been, since he was outside much longer than he normally was.
Adam sat down with his half-sisters and told them where he had been and what he had seen. Both of them were very curious about the girl, and they talked for quite a while before Adam told them he was hungry. Rebekah and Ruth smiled and asked him to come into the kitchen while they prepared some dinner, so they could talk some more.
There were a lot of questions, and Adam couldn't answer many of them. They talked about the different possibilities, and how they would affect their own lives, if they chose them. In the end, it was Rebekah who came up with the final solution. "Until today, we weren't sure there were any other living humans on Earth. Now, we know there is at least one other human still alive. I ask myself what it would be like if you thought you were the only human left, and my heart goes out to this girl. It must be depressing living alone like that. I think that Adam needs to go to the girl and ask her if she would like to join us."
Ruth chimed in, "I agree."
"Okay, then," Adam replied. "I will go to her cave first thing tomorrow morning. Have you girls thought about how we will explain our situation to her?"
Rebekah said, "Don't worry. I will explain it to her, if she is willing to come with you."
They all sat down and ate dinner. Rebekah had actually cooked earlier, so all she had to do was dish it up. She said, "Adam, we have everything we need to set up a greenhouse. Now that things are growing again, I think it is time to build the greenhouse and plant a garden. What do you think?"
"I have been thinking about that for a while," he answered. "With all of the ash, the soil seems to be more fertile now than ever, so I think that a garden would do well. We have plenty of water, and now we have plenty of sunlight, so things should grow. We will want to keep the greenhouse next to our home, so nobody else will discover it. If somebody does, we will need to protect it. Therefore, we may want to build a wall to protect it and our home from critters as well as any scavengers that may still be out there. After all, if there is one survivor out there, there may be more, and we can't assume that all of them will be friendly to us."
Rebekah replied, "That is true. In fact, we can't even assume that this girl will be friendly. However, if it turns out that she isn't, we must be prepared to deal with that as well."
"I agree," said Adam. "I will be armed tomorrow when I visit her camp. What happens will be completely dependent on her reaction to me."
Little Isaac started to cry in the other room, so Rebekah went to look after her son. Adam had built a small crib, so Isaac could sleep in their bedroom, but so he could sleep in the crib by himself when he wasn't being fed or changed.
Adam went outside to stake out where he would put the greenhouse. He knew that his parents had purchased a few greenhouses long before the disasters, but they hadn't ever assembled them, and they had been stored until they could be used. Now was the time to pull one out. The greenhouses were stored along with a lot of other prepper supplies back in the cave behind their home for future use in case they were needed. Now, they were needed, so they could start growing their own fresh food. Adam would also stake out the perimeter of the perimeter wall he planned to build around the home and greenhouse area. It would be a log palisade, like an old west fort. Since there were standing dead trees all over the property, it would be easy to build with them.
