As they walked back to the motel Pat filled the young man in on what to expect as they traveled to where they were going to put down roots. He explained what he felt they would experience when all of the power went off and the food had to be grown by the group.
Just before they came out of the woods Pat turned to the young man, "By the way, what's your name?"
Cal Patch, It's really Calvin but I rarely tell anyone that. I'm a bit of a mongrel. I have some Scotch, Irish, German and, I'm told, a little Cherokee. I guess my ancestors really got around."
"How old are you Cal?" Pauline asked.
"I'm twenty-three. As I said, this is my first job out of college. I took this job because the food was all paid for and we had nice tents and all of the latest camping equipment provided by the government. They were depositing my money right into my account so; all in all it was a pretty good deal for me. I wouldn't have any expenses and the pay was better than most jobs I could get in the private sector. Surprisingly, no one ever came out to check on our progress. It was if they only wanted to spend money and didn't care if the project was successful or not."
"Typical government," Pat snorted.
They crossed the road to the motel. Apparently the girls saw Pat, Pauline and Cal waking toward the motel and everyone poured out of the motel to see the new addition to their group. Cal was soon swamped in a sea of teenagers and each of the girls was shouting questions at him and trying to get closer to him.
Pauline finally pushed her way into the crowd and, after considerable difficulty, convinced the girls to give him some room to breathe. Pauline guided him into the motel to meet Sarah and Anna.
For the next few hours it was hectic with each girl trying to find out all she could about Cal and trying to make sure that the other girls didn't provide too much competition for Cal's affections.
Pauline grinned at the confusion and then turned to Pat, "I think that you had better have a talk with Cal. Explain to him that he'll have to watch himself or he'll cause a war between the girls."
Pat nodded and then Pauline continued, "Anna and I are going to the drug store we saw about a mile down the road. We won't be long."
"Just remember to take your guns," he said as he put his arm around her shoulder, "Better yet, I'd feel much better if you took a rifle and ammunition for each of you along with the pistols."
Pauline kissed him lightly, "What would we do without you to protect us."
Pat pushed toward the front door, "Go! Hurry back because I'm sure that I'm going to need you to keep the girls from smothering Cal."
Pauline got a sky smile on her face, "Is that all you need me for?"
Pat reached for her to pull her closer but Pauline spun out of his arms and avoided his hands, "See you later, Anna and I won't be too long."
Pat watched her walk away and then went to pull Cal out of the mob of females that surrounded him. It took several minutes before he was able to convince the girls to let him talk to Cal alone. None of the girls were too happy to let Cal go. Pat knew that Cal's age, since his age was closer to the girl's age, accounted for his popularity with the girls.
Pat got Cal into a private room and began to discuss what the adults had all discussed about the continuation of the human race. He explained that, even though there were now two males plus Sarah's baby, the gene pool would still be too small and that sperm from fertility clinics would have to be used to ensure a larger gene pool. Cal agreed that they would have to be careful if the human race was to survive. When the conversation ended Pat was amazed at the maturity of the young man.
As they began to leave the room Cal turned to Pat, "Uh, that woman that I met downstairs, uh Sarah, Is she ... I mean are you and she..."
Pat laughed loudly and slapped Cal on the back, "No, there's nothing going on between us and I think that it would be great for her to have a man's shoulder to lay her head on."
When they went downstairs they looked out at the pool area and saw that many of the girls were enjoying the pool. As before many of them were swimming nude.
Cal looked at the girls, "God, this is going to be hard."
About a half an hour later Pauline and Anna returned from their trip to the drug store. Both women were smiling. They put heir heads together and whispered to each other and then walked up to Pat and Cal.
Pat could Anna and I talk to you privately. "Sorry Cal but I need to talk to Pat alone."
"Go right ahead," Cal said.
Pauline took Pat's hand and they began to walk out of the motel. Both women were quiet until they were several hundred feet from the motel.
"Okay what's all since about?" Pat asked.
Both women looked at each other for a few seconds and they both turned and grinned at Pat, "You're going to be a father ... twice. We're both pregnant."
Pat stood there in shock, "But I, is this what you want? Anna I didn't mean to force this on you."
Anna rushed into his arms and hugged him, "Shut up! This is the best thing that ever happened to me. I had given up all hope of ever having children of my own. I hope that this is my first child and I hope that you'd be the father of at least one more."
Pat pulled Pauline into his arms and hugged both of the women at once. All three of them stood together and cried tears of happiness for a long time.
When Pat could finally pull himself together he asked, "Does Sarah know?"
Pauline answered for the two of them, "We thought that we should tell the father first. We'll tell her when we get inside."
"We'd better get inside," Pat said, "I'm sure you're busting at the seams to tell Sarah and we have to fix something to eat for the girls."
They turned and began to walk back to the motel. As they walked, Pat told them about his conversation with Cal and how he seemed to be drawn to Sarah rather than the girls.
Pauline got a thoughtful look on her face, "Cal is much more mature than the girls so it's natural that he would be drawn to Sarah rather than the girls. There's a big difference in the maturity of a twenty-three year old and a sixteen year old. I've never asked her how old she is but I'd venture a guess that Sarah's twenty-seven or twenty-eight."
There was a pause and then she continued, "It would be great for Sarah if they did hook up. She's going to need someone in her life or grieving for her husband could cause her to lose the baby. I think that Cal has the maturity to handle a relationship with Sarah."
When they got inside they found Sarah alone in the kitchen looking for food to prepare for the group. When Pauline and Anna told her that they were pregnant the three women had an orgy of crying, hugging and kissing. Pat was drawn into the melee after a couple of minutes.
When everyone finally calmed down Pat suggested that he and Cal go to a supermarket in the town and pick up canned goods for dinner. Pauline advised him to pick up canned hams and tuna. The women checked the condiments and found that the condiments that they needed were stocked in the motel pantry. Pat checked to see if the natural gas was still on and found that it was.
Cal and Pat took one of the pickup trucks and headed into town. At one intersection they found three supermarkets. Pat parked in front of the door of one of the supermarkets and they walked inside. They had seen that the power was off in the whole area.
The stench of rotting food hit them right away and Pat got dish towels off of the display and they wrapped them around their nose but it didn't provide much help. As soon as they found the canned goods they wanted they rushed out side and put them in the truck. After several breaths of fresh air they hurried back inside for another armful. When they decided that they had all they could take of the foul smell they headed back to the motel.
As soon as they walked back into the motel the women and girls began holding their nose and giving the two men a wide berth. Pauline pushed them toward the motel rooms and told them to take a shower.
After both men had showered and shaved they met in the lobby. They could hear the women and a few of the girls preparing the early dinner.
Cal looked at Pat and smiled, "I see why we had that talk. Some of those girls are aggressive."
Pat laughed, "You're going to find out that we're not doing you any favors by letting you tag along with us. I'm sure you have some idea how difficult it is to juggle one relationship. Well now you're going to have to learn how to keep many women happy without pissing off the others. You're going to have to be very careful not to reject any of the girls outright but you can't be the lover of all of them either. It would be only a matter of time before the big green jealousy monster raised his head. How you handle all that I can't say but you'd better do it right or there will be hell to pay."
Just then Pauline stuck her head out of the kitchen and called them to eat. The men went into the kitchen and found that the canned goods that they brought back had prepared an excellent meal for the group. Most of the group stoop around the prep table and ate but a few spread out in the lobby.
Something was not right but Pat couldn't put his hands on it right away. All of a sudden it struck him.
"I haven't seen Cassie all day. Has anyone seen her? Does she know that the dinner is ready?"
Several of the girls got sheepish looks on their faces and a couple of the girls looked down at the floor.
Anna saw that the girls were hiding something and asked in a stern voice, "Where's Cassie? What's happened to her?
None of the girls answered for a few seconds and then one girl started to answer, "Cassie took off."
"What?" Pauline shouted.
The girl started to cry, "Some of the girls have been ragging her for the last couple of days about how she would have to take her turn having Pat's children. Cassie said that she was never going to let any man knock her up. She got in an argument with some of the girls and she pulled a knife on Shasta. She's weird in the head. She found the keys to a Jeep that was parked in the parking lot and took off."
"Why didn't you stop her?" Pauline shouted at the girls.
The girls started crying so hard she couldn't answer so another girl started telling what had happened, "Cassie is fucked up in the head. No one tells her what to do. She'll rip your head off just for saying hi. She doesn't belong to this group and I don't know how she even came along with us."
"How long has she been gone?" Anna asked.
"About three or four hours," one of the girls answered.
Pat turned Cal, "Let's get in the trucks and try to see if we can find her before she gets too far away," he turned to Anna and Pauline, "See if you can find the keys to any of the cars that were parked here when the black hole passed. If you can find any keys take the vehicle and fan out and try to find her. I want everybody back here before dark. If we can't find her tonight we'll try to find her tomorrow. The longer she's gone the harder it will be to find her."