"Bartertown Revisited"

[Alice2015]

"Bartertown Revisited"

CLOSED FOR THE MOMENT
Please read the note at the bottom for more.

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/d6/47/52/d647520a091315e97dc15d4029149abc.jpg​

As she topped and began down yet another sand dune, Alice slowed her already slow (exhausted) pace. She'd ascended and descended dozens, maybe hundreds of such dunes, large and small, over more days than she cared to or likely could count. You could never truly realize how vast the Australian Outback was until you were in the middle of it, were robbed of almost all you owned, and were left to die in the sand under the heat of day and the chill of night.

Four days later, Alice had been lucky enough to catch up to those who'd robbed her before they'd eaten all of her food and drank most of her water. The rest of her gear was missing though, likely tossed aside or traded. Since then, Alice had run out of what had remained of the food and water. She likely wouldn't have made it another day if she hadn't come across and decided to follow an increasing number of tracks, both of feet and wheels, that all seemed to be heading one direction. Topping the dune, Alice was suddenly looking down upon more people than she had seen in all of the past two years combined...

https://johnkennethmuir.files.wordpress.com/2010/12/thunderdome22.jpg​

Once upon a time they used to say that there was safety in numbers. That hadn't been Alice's experience since the world into which she'd been born, raised, and educated had ceased to exist. For the last 12 years, since she'd been a 22 year old senior at the University of Sydney, Alice every experience with large groups of people had been a tragic one. She'd been cheated. She'd been robbed. She'd been beaten. She'd been raped. Since escaping to the Outback, she'd stayed as far away from people as she could. And she felt that making that decision was the reason she was still alive today.

But, when you quite possibly are a day or two away from becoming dingo food you come looking for opportunity in a place like this...

https://stchucky.files.wordpress.com/2015/06/04_2bartertown1.jpg​

The loose, wind driven sand dunes had given way to a flat, hard packed expanse which itself had come to an end at a tall, steep rock wall. It wasn't a natural wall, or at least not entirely. Work had been done here. Mining. Resource removal. Alice followed and became part of the throng as it neared a hole in the wall, a tunnel that again was not entirely naturally made. The light of day surrendered to the darkness of the supported arch, and the darkness in turn surrendered to a minimal number of electric lamps strung along the top of the cave.

Alice didn't know the last time she'd seen electric lighting. No, no she did. It had been a tiny ranch at an oasis where the occupants had had a working solar panel by which they lengthened their day with the nearly forgotten wonder of artificial light. Alice would have been impressed by the people if they hadn't been the ones who had enslaved, beaten, raped, and robbed her. And this was all after she'd offered them her labor and knowledge for little more than food, water, and a place to lay her head at night. Oh well. They learned the error of their ways in a most horrific way. Life can be a harsh sometimes.

The forward movement through the tunnel slowed to a near stop. Up ahead, a Barker called out, "If you have not a service or a good with which to barter, you have no reason to be in Bartertown and have come a long way for no reason. Return to the light or be returned to the light."

Every minute or so Alice would hear the Barker repeat his announcement. The throng was now three or four people wide and was being directed to the left side of the tunnel by armed men who had the look of a police force. Well, a post-apocalyptic one anyway. They had no firearms but instead carried a wild assortment of mostly handmade knives, clubs, swords, aces, spears, and even maces. Although no two were dressed exactly the same, their individual appearances was similar enough (and different from those in the throng) as to set them apart as what they were. The Law.

After about 100 feet of dimly lit tunnel, Alice caught sight of a second, smaller tunnel branching off. She was near enough to the Barker to see him standing upon a pedestal of some sort, and before him some more of the guards were separating out those who (as the Barker had warned) had no service of good to offer. These individuals were roughly shown the door by the guards who forcibly directed them down the smaller tunnel that obviously led back outside to the wasteland.

A now familiar voice asked, "What service or good do you have to offer?"

Alice looked away from the reject tunnel to realize that voice belonged to the Barker. He was speaking to the woman and man in front of Alice who she had determined were a couple and were now the head of the line. They talked meekly with the Barker for a moment, attempting to justify their visit to the trading post since they obviously had no barter in which the Barker was interested. When the woman made a personal offer the man on the pedestal countered dismissively, "The brothels are full. Step aside."

A pair of guards manhandled the couple off toward the reject tunnel. Alice looked up to find the Barker looking down at her and asking the same question, "What service or good do you have to offer."

Alice hesitated, unsure of what to say. When she'd followed the tracks, joined the throng, and pushed her way forward through the tunnel, Alice had assumed she would find her way into a marketplace of some sort and eventually find some way to find and secure food and water. It hadn't occurred to her that she might not even make it through the door, or in this case through the cave. The Barker repeated himself, and when he got no answer looked to the next pair of bouncers.

But just as they were grasping at her and turning her away, an unfamiliar male voice called out, this time over an intercom that suffered such static and feedback that they words were barely comprehensible. "Wait! Bring her inside. Bring her to me. Now."

Alice suddenly found herself turned and hustled forward by the guards tightly grasping her by her upper and forearms. They headed deeper into the tunnel, and (as the dark began to give way to light) out of it into Bartertown...

(OOC: Imagine the movie's market place filled with ~200 people)

https://cdn.blizzardwatch.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/gadg-bartertown.png​

The fact that she was being manhandled toward the unknown gave way to the awe of the trading post. There were hundreds of people doing business, selling or buying goods or services out of carts, booths, or small huts. Alice was suddenly seeing products she hadn't seen in forever. In some cases, items were being repurposed for uses she'd never even contemplated. The men turned her between a pair of small structures to take a new direction. One of the buildings was a bathhouse in which men were being scrubbed and shaved by nearly naked women. The other building was providing tattooing and piercing, again by women who wore almost nothing at all.

It became clear to Alice in an instant what role women played in Bartertown. Actually, it wasn't much different from the role they currently played outside Bartertown or had played across the world for most of the history of mankind. Some things never change. Alice wasn't going to let that happen to her again.

As the guards escorting her arrived at a doorway, one let go of her to take the lead while the other fell behind, holding Alice less securely than he had been. She picked out a new face in the room, presumably the man on the intercom. In an instant, Alice kicked a leg upwards before her connecting to the leader's groin with such force that he almost appeared to have left the ground. With a skilled spin, she knocked away the rear guard's arm with one of her arms and connected the balled up fist of the other arm to his lower jaw. (She would learn later that she'd broken it and knocked out two teeth as well.)

As she continued her spin, Alice whipped out the sawed off, double barreled, 14 inch long, 12 gauge shotgun in a holster on her right hip and leveled it across the room to point at the face of the third male in the room.

<<<<<< >>>>>>​

About this role play

• It is inspired by the movie "Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome".
• However, all characters are original: no Mad Max, no Auntie Entity, no Joanna Goanna.
• And there is not currently an Underworld from which the town gets its electrical power and liquid methane gas.
• I am beginning this role play as a 1x1 with an old role play partner of mine, TiredFingers, who recently returned to Literotica with me from a role play site from which we were both booted (you guessed it) for writing erotica.
• Once we have established some of the new facts of the story, I will likely open the role play to other writers.
• For now, please do not post to the thread.
• If you think you might be interested, send me a PM titled "Interested In Bartertown", and I will keep that PM until I make a decision about opening it to become a small group role play.
• Thank you for your consideration.

 

[TiredFingers]

In a post-apocalyptic world in which surviving the madness often required one to appear as scary and vicious as an old Hollywood horror film villian, Roland was any but. Well, sometimes his expressions and those dark squinting eyes could cause a shiver to crawl up the spine of even the most hardened Outback warriors, but put him in his pajamas with a smile on his face and you'd never know that he ran Bartertown with an iron fist and a blood covered katana.

Actually, he didn't run Bartertown. He couldn't, shouldn't, and wouldn't because -- unlike the person who did -- Roland could be a bit impulsive at times, occasionally wanting to simply kill all who weren't doing right by Bartertown, rather than finding a way to make them want to do right by their town.

His spontaneous and often deadly outbursts were the reason he didn't need to play the part of the brutal, bloody end-of-the-world warrior. He didn't have to feign it; he was it.

He knew that one day soon he would likely be killed with just as much brutality and bloodletting as he had done in the past, so when the woman before him so easily took down his two guards -- both of whom were a head taller and 50 or more pounds heavier than her -- and then pointed a double barreled shotgun at his head, Roland simply smiled to her.

"Impressive," he said softly as he looked her up and down, then looked over the gun's barrels into her hard set eyes. "Perhaps I should consider allowing you to serve in the Guard."

When she said nothing and only kept the weapon trained on his face, Roland's smile widened and his head cocked playfully. "Okay, not good enough...? How about I make you its Commander? I can count on one hand the number of these miscreants who could do what you just did to those losers."

Casually, not wanting to accidentally prompt her into blowing his head off, Roland leaned forward to lift a pitcher and pour a tall, clean glass full of equally clean looking water. After he poured a second one, he lifted them both and came around to the front of the table behind which he'd been standing. He leaned back against it, offered out one glass, and lifted the second to his lips to suck down several gulps.

"It's safe," he said as he licked the drops off his lips. "No rad'. No chem'."

Whether she took the glass or not, Roland would continue, "I saw you earlier, in the entrance."

He raised a hand and gestured to the wall to the left behind him. A decades old computer monitor -- probably the last one for a thousand miles or more that both worked and had power -- showed a view of the entry area of the tunnel below an also functioning security camera. The entry area where the Barker worked had been illuminated by a circle of a dozen overhead lights specifically to allow Roland to see -- to monitor -- each and every person entering Bartertown.

"I knew the moment I saw you that I wanted to meet you," he said. He lifted his glass again, drank, and lowering it continued, "I suspected you had something to offer me that others couldn't."

He let his gaze take a conspicuous walk down and then up the woman's body. Then, giving her a moment to consider that he was, indeed, talking about the two of them fucking. Then, he looked to her escorts; one was standing and looking sheepish after his boss glared at him disappointingly while the other was still on the clean but aging hardwood floor grasping at his crotch while he groaned.

"I'd like to offer you a position within my organization," he continued, sipping before smiling, "one that doesn't require you to lean over my desk with your panties down about your knees."

He looked to the two men with disappointment, then called out, "Guard!"

A third man with similar garb and a sword made of the blade of an old farming scythe entered. Roland commanded, "Take their weapons and uniforms. Secure them. I'll deal with them later."

Once all three were gone, Roland looked back to the woman before him. He told her firmly, "Make a decision. Shoot me now … I won't try to stop you. Or take this..."

He leaned to his left and pulled a flat, round object from a small bowl. It was a foreign coin, old and more than an inch in diameter; a hole had been drilled through it near the top and a thin, leather thong fed through and knotted. Roland offered it out before him.

"This allows you unfettered access and … unfettered … do you know this word?" he asked. Without waiting for a response, he continued, "Present this anywhere in Bartertown and you will eat anything, drink everything..."

His lips spread in a wicked smile as he continued, "...fuck anyone … to your hearts content. Bring it back to me tomorrow."

He lightly swung the coin before him on the thong as he continued, "If you find you like what this gets you … I will tell you how you can keep it for as long as you wish."

 

[Alice2015]

Alice had known men like Roland before. Confident. Powerful, whether in their own mind or reality. Often cruel as well. And unafraid of most if not all things. They typically fell into two groups: those who died young because they'd thought themselves to be more than they were or those who rose to great power because others thought them to be just what they projected. Alice could pull the trigger right now and put him in the first category. But if she did she knew she would never escape Bartertown because of those others who would avenge his death for whatever their own personal reason was.

Alice found him to be a unique looking man in this new world. Roland was obviously concerned with his appearance and the impressions he made on new people such as herself. Later she would wonder when the last time she'd seen a man who was so neat and clean in both body and clothing, and she would have to reach back almost to before the end of the world. There were probably people and entire communities that lived as hygienically as they had before the end of oil and gas, before the end of the glaciers and ice caps, before the use of biological weapons and atomic bombs.

Alice had never met any of these people. Until this man. His face was shaven as clean as a baby's butt. His clothes had not a speck of dust or a hand sewn stitch or a snag or a rip or a stain. He smelled. Good! More than eight feet separated them and yet the smell of soap and cologne wafted to her nostrils and led her to involuntarily imagine him out of clothes while she licked him up and down his torso.

Despite those thoughts forcing themselves into her mind and through her long-untouched body, Alice kept the shotgun trained on the man's head as he came around the table to speak with her. He offered her not only a position with his guard but control over it. She wouldn't take the job of course. Alice wanted only to fill a heavy pack with food, water, and replacements to the supplied she'd been robbed of and then get the hell out of this place.

He offered her water, drinking some himself to verify his vow. "It's safe. No rad'. No chem'."

Alice hesitated knowing that he might very well be as quick with an ambush on her as she had been on the two unsuspecting guards. But she turned her body to hold the gun across her torso and reached out slowly to take the glass. Her gaze never left the man's eyes and neither did the aim of her weapon. She lifted the glass to her nose and sniffed finding it smelling clean and fresh. As she backed again to her original and safer position Alice let the water touch her lips, then the tip of her tongue, then the inside of her mouth. Finally, she took a small mouthful

"I saw you earlier, in the entrance," he went on, looking to a working screen with an image of the Barker and his work area.

While he was turned away, Alice gulped down the rest of the glass. She emptied it, too quickly it would turn out. The sudden influx of water caused her stomach to clench but she fought back the grimace that the pain threatened to reveal upon her face.

She was surprised and somewhat in awe of the working surveillance system. There were likely a great deal of computer hardware that would still work if powered up. That last part (the power) was the issue of course. There was little fuel available anymore be it oil, gas, wood, peat, wind, solar or whatnot. Alice hadn't seen any windmills as she neared Bartertown and hadn't heard any combustion engines running electrical generators so she assumed that somewhere atop the ridge surrounding the trading post they had some solar panels that had survived the apocalypse of more than a decade ago.

After they were again looking at one another, the man told Alice why he'd had her brought inside despite her having nothing to impress the Barker. When his ogle of her body suggested he was expecting her to let him put his dick inside her she tightened her grip on the sawed off weapon and made sure he knew it was still a finger twitch away from ending his life.

Then he told her, , "I'd like to offer you a position within my organization, one that doesn't require you to lean over my desk with your panties down about your knees."

As she contemplated how truthful he was being about his intentions with her, he called a guard in to remove the two failures. Alice wondered what would happen to them but then realized she really didn't care. He told her to decide between killing him or taking him up on his offer, handing out a token that would supposedly give her a nearly free reign of the trading post. It sounded far too good to be true. He didn't know her enough to offer her such access to valuable resources without a promise of reimbursement. Alice knew it was a trap or a con. He would let her eat and drink and be merry and would then demand that she do whatever he asked of her without ability to deny him.

Still, Alice curled around the man with the weapon still trained upon him, set the now empty glass down, lifted the pitcher to drink heartily from it while watching him carefully over the rim, then set the pitcher down and reached out to snatch the thong and coin from him.

"When I am asked later who I stole this from," she asked, dangling the token, "what do I tell them?"

He answered. Alice lowered the shotgun as she curled back around him again. Telling him with a dismissive tone that she had already been well aware of what unfettered meant, she clarified, "Anything I want? Anyone I want? Anywhere I want?"

"Anywhere but Heaven," Roland answered.

When Alice's expression revealed her confusion, he carefully moved past her, out the door, and into the narrow path between structures. Looking up, he pointed to Heaven. The steel structure looked like some killer robotic machine from a 1950's alien invasion motion picture. More than 25 feet above the ground was what Alice assumed was someone's home. Its topside was covered in tarps, which she would later learn were heat reflecting and shade producing in the summer months and were replaced with heat absorbing and light penetrating tarps when winter arrived. Netting along two sides allowed the occupants to look down upon the whole of the trading post while preventing anyone on the ground from seeing who was doing the watching.

He explained that no one went up there without permission, then turned and headed back inside his little building. Alice contemplated following him inside to ask more about this place but instead wrapped the thong around her left wrist and went out into Bartertown to see just how powerful this little coin could be.

(I hope that the little bit of "god moding" I did for him was within the limits we'd discussed. I can change it if I went to far.)

 

[TiredFingers]

(OOC: No, the god moding was precisely as we'd discussed. Leave it. Also, I tried to find an appropriate image for my new character and couldn't. Will continue looking later.)

The loud crack and short lived flash of electrical sparks shooting out from the panel caused Flicker to jerk his hands and tools back in shock … figurative shock, not literal shock, though that happened often as well.

Flicker called out in anger toward a nearby power distribution panel, "Paulie! You didn't turn the fucking breaker off."

When he got only a meek Sorry from the assistant electrician, the Master Electrician -- Auntie's title of respect for the man who'd given Bartertown electricity -- drew a deep breath and let it all out in a long, loud, frustrated yell that was likely heard for miles.

For the past eight months, Flicker -- his real name was Harvey Grueber -- had been working to provide the growing community with a steady and stable supply of solar power. But the equipment with which he had to work was simply unacceptable: nearly every piece of hardware was at least a decade and a half old; most of the energy absorbing panels had been exposed to years or decades of wind, rain, and dust with no regular cleaning or maintenance; the control panels, power regulators, and other advanced circuitry were often mismatched and incompatible with each other and with the panels; and, of course, everything -- as with the very people of Bartertown -- had been subjected to varying degrees of radiative fallout from the nuclear strike on Sydney, as well as the dozens of other atomic blasts that, almost exclusively, had taken place in the northern hemisphere.

Flicker looked around himself at the assemblage of mismatched solar panels he called The Farm and sighed in despair. Auntie B had designated the triangular shaped 1.5 hectare plateau above Bartertown's trading post as being exclusively for Flicker's needs. Of course, he didn't have nearly enough panels to fill the more than 22,000 square meters of available land and likely never would, but in less than a year after Auntie had put out a bounty on solar power related equipment, the Farm's panels now occupied about 8% of they plateau.

Of course, very little of it actually produced power. Flicker could only consistently created enough electricity to keep the lights on from sundown to almost sunset, and those were only the lights in the tunnel, in Auntie's Heaven, in Roland's residence -- once the office of the mining camp's Foreman -- and in one other very important building of commerce, the tavern and whorehouse.

Auntie had presented Flicker with a vision of illuminating the entirety of Bartertown, as well as of supplying power to the residential, commercial, and industrial sectors that she saw as being the heart and soul of a rebirth of civilization right here in the southern reaches of the Outback.

She'd set out a time frame in which she wanted it done, and after Flicker had seen the amount of hardware available when he initially took on the responsibility, he'd been stupid enough to tell her he could get the job done on time. He was behind that schedule -- far behind -- and he was beginning to doubt whether or not he could ever fulfill Auntie's dream, regardless of how much time she gave him.

A voice from behind him surprised Flicker. "You're presence had been requested."

Flicker looked over his shoulder, then stood quickly as he recognized the guard they called Crusher. The brute of a man had been part of Auntie's entourage since before Auntie had come to this place to ultimately create Bartertown. And he'd been assigned to watch over and -- when necessary -- incentivize Flicker to get the solar power project back on track.

"Of course," Flicker responded without hesitation. He shed his work belt, patted the every present dust and sand from his clothes, and told Crusher, "I'm ready."

He wasn't, of course. One could never know what one might face when called before a disappointed Auntie. He fell in step behind the big man as they descended from the plateau using a combination of a trail along gentle slopes, tool cut steps in the steeper rocks, and steel stairs where the cliff wall was nearly vertical.

Reaching the bottom, they headed through the throng of sellers and buyers to the base of Heaven, where they stepped into the hand cranked lift and began the slow ascension to Auntie's abode.

Entering Heaven made one feel as though he was actually there … in the real Heaven. The steel structure was covered in a tarpaulin fabric that reflected sunlight -- and thus heat -- in the winter and provided shade without throwing the entire interior into darkness. When the winter months came, the tarp was replaced with a second one that absorbed sunlight -- and thus heat -- and allowed a more significant amount of light through to prevent that winter dreariness that often led to or deepened depression.

Of course, Flicker couldn't know whether or not Auntie suffered from depression. He only knew that the last three times he'd had to come to her she hadn't been wearing the delighted expression she'd worn when they'd first met and she'd learned that he had a background in electronics and power production.

Crusher grasped Flicker's upper arm and forcibly -- and unnecessarily -- escorted him forward through the significantly cooler space to stop ten feet short of Bartertown's queen. Flicker contemplated greeting Auntie with a friendly, hopeful tone before launching into an update of his work. But honestly, he had very little to tell her that was good news.

I'm going to die today, Flicker thought as he stared at Auntie's backside, then glanced up and to the left to Crusher, whose nicknamed had been rightfully and violently earned. He looked past Auntie toward the horizon and the empty space above the marketplace, and thinking about how high up they were finished his thought, They say it isn't the fall that kills you. It's the sudden stop at the bottom.

 

[Alice2015]

(Imagine her not in a walled room but in Heaven, described below and in TF's previous post as her abode. I like that word. )

https://i.pinimg.com/736x/7a/07/3f/7a073f930cf53c3095c514d810fc639d--post-apocalyptic-fashion-warrior-women.jpg​

She'd been born Emma Lace Richardson. But those engaged in commerce below Heaven -- her home in the sky above Bartertown's marketplace -- knew her as Auntie Benevolence, Auntie B, or more often than not simply Auntie. Many didn't think the first half of her sobriquet fit her because of her youthful age of only 24 years. But she'd earned and continued to earn the second half of her nickname with her frequent and generous work for and donations to the community's more downtrodden residents.

Of course, few knew the dirty secrets, dirty tricks, and dirty acts behind that public benevolence. Auntie could count on one hand the number of people who knew where the bodies were buried, figuratively or literally or both. One of those was her brother Rolly, who the rest of Bartertown knew to call Roland if they wished to avoid his wrath. Another was the big guard they called Crusher, who in fact had been personally responsible for many of the dirty acts that had helped Auntie achieve her status in Bartertown.

Auntie would do anything to protect Bartertown's future, which in turn meant protecting her and her brother's futures as well. Today that might very well mean killing someone. She turned at the sound of the lift reaching the top stop and locking securely into place. Seeing Crusher escorting Flicker as expected, Auntie turned her attention back to the milling crowds below and waited for the worried looking man to be escorted nearer. She mused without looking back, "When they told me your name was Flicker, I smiled. Do you recall that, Master Electrician?"

She gave him a moment to respond or not, then continued, "If I had realized that that name came from the fact that that seems to be all you seen to be able to get out of my lights, a flicker..."

Auntie gave him a moment to understand that If I had realized was the beginning of a threat. She finally turned to face him, a slight polite smile on her lips. My brother Roland-- You've met Roland haven't you?"

She knew the answer to the question of course. Anyone who worked for Auntie directly had been okayed (or vetted, if Auntie remembered the word correctly) by Roland. It wasn't that her brother was better at personnel matters or had an insight Auntie didn't. It was because her brother (despite his smaller size and handsome looks) could at time be just as intimidating as the very big and very scary Crusher. If you wanted someone to understand how important it was to not fail Auntie, you just sat them down to interview with Roland. It tended to keep people on the very straight and very narrow and tended to keep them very attentive to their work and very productive in it.

Usually. Auntie continued to politely show her disappointment in the Master Electrician by telling him, "My brother thinks I should have Crusher cut off your pinkies."

She watched Flicker for his reaction then continued, "He believes that you can work without them. He also believes that I should have your ring fingers removed as well. He believes that you could maintain your current level of incompetence with just six fingers. What do you think about his assessment?"

Auntie gave him a moment to counter or beg or simply remain silent as he felt appropriate for his situation. Then still looking at him Auntie called out, "Karma.

A moment later an exotic, erotic, scantily dressed woman moved out from the shadows and into the others' view. Her ensemble of horizontally and vertically slit leather barely hid her firm, bountiful breasts. Down lower, the same slit leather styling gave peeks at the tiny black thong between her smooth, flat belly and the meeting of her fit thighs. Once Flicker had seen and taken a moment to appreciate the sexy woman, Auntie explained, "My brother likes to use a stick. I myself like to use a carrot."

That wasn't true of course. Auntie was very good at employing a stick when necessary. The difference between her and Roland was that Auntie usually had someone else wield the weapon while her brother liked to swing it himself. She continued, "Karma, this is our Master Electrician. He is endeavoring to bring lighting, heat, and other such wonders to our community. How do you feel about that?"

As Auntie had been talking, Karma had been nearing Flicker. She was inches from him as the leader of Bartertown finished. Without hesitation or shame, she reached to gently grope Flicker's manhood as she pressed her virtually exposed breasts against his chest.

"I feel very good about that, Auntie," Karma said to her boss even as she was looking into the Master Electrician's eyes. "I would be very appreciative to have lights and heat and other wonders in my lonely bedroom at night. Very appreciative."

Karma licked her lips, leaned in, and took Flicker's lower lips into her own as her hands continued to knead his crotch. She pinched her teeth on the man's lip and pulled gently outward as she moved her face from his. It wasn't enough to hurt him or draw blood. It was just meant to make him wonder what things she liked to do in bed. Then just as suddenly as the seduction and suggestion that a carrot was being made available, it was over. Karma released her grip, backed away (smiling devilishly), then turned to move to stand near Auntie, though looking out upon the trading post while Auntie faced Flicker. If the front side of her outfit had been erotic in nature, the backside was even more so. The only things on view other than Karma's smooth, unblemished, heavily tattooed flesh were the narrow, horizontal, leather thongs across the back of her neck and waist and the equally thin one reaching from the small of her back downward between her full, shapely, pear shaped butt cheeks.

"What do you need to accomplish the task I have laid out for you, Master Electrician?" Auntie asked. "How do I help you help [/I]me?"

Before the man could answer Auntie (with her eyes still on Flicker) reached a hand over to pet the other woman's bare ass. Karma turned her head to smile to Auntie, literally purring at the touch from her employer. Auntie continued the carrot conversation, "How do I justify letting Karma keep you warm at night rather than let my brother abandon you in the Outback with nothing to eat but your four detached fingers?"

As Auntie listened to what Flicker had to say, Karma turned and headed back toward the bedroom. She stopped at the gap in the curtains and began pulling thongs loose beginning at the bottom. At one point in his explanation to Auntie (or maybe many points Karma couldn't know because she wasn't looking), Flicker glanced the beautiful woman's direction. She pulled the bow knot at the back of her neck and the entire ensemble fell to the floor leaving her naked as the day she was born. She smiled to Flicker, then turned away and disappeared beyond the drapes after saying, "I'll be waiting."

"In case you are wondering," Auntie clarified when Flicker looked back to her, "that invitation was for me. Not you. You won't get that invitation, that carrot, until the security lights are burning bright and consistently through the night. No flickering, Flicker. So..."

She looked to Crusher who immediately grasped the other man's arm and began pulling him toward the elevator. Auntie called to him, "I want to send Karma to you soon, Master Electrician. Karma. Not my brother."

 

[Alice2015]

Alice wandered about the Bartertown marketplace just taking in all about her. She hadn't seen anything like this since the weekend and summer farmers and crafts markets of before the collapse of civilization. Shops, booths, carts, and pedestrians packing their wares offered more than Alice would have imagined. There were fresh fruits, roasted meats (from all sorts of animals, some of them unidentifiable), manufactured clothes from before the apocalypse, hand sewn clothes from following it, tools and equipment (some of them repurposed for a new sort of world), and so much more. Services offered included shaves, baths, massages, divination (by mostly women but men as well with palm and skull reading as well as with tarot cards and crystal balls), tattooing, piercing, branding, and (of course) sexual fulfillment.

Alice tested out the token Roland had given her by stepping up to a food vendor and lifting the wrist around which the unique foreign coin was tied. The man nodded his head to Alice, almost bowing, then offered her any of the shish kabobbed meats roasting over a small charcoal fueled fire. She took just one to which the vendor insisted she take more. That was when Alice caught him glancing nervously past her. She looked over her shoulder to find a guard that she'd seen earlier yet thought nothing about. It occurred to her that he might shadowing her, and after she took the second kabob she turned and crossed to stand very close to him.

"What's your story?" she said with an accusing tone in her voice. "Did Roland send you to watch me, or do you just like staring at my ass?"

The latter didn't make much sense as the ground length leather coat she was wearing his her backside from view. The man, who was a head taller and impressively built told Alice, "I have been tasked with ensuring that you come to no harm."

She studied him for a moment unsure of how she felt about a tail. Then she offered one of the two kabobs and when he initially politely refused it Alice said, "Take it and eat it or I'll put the stick up your nostril."

The man's lips spread in a smile. He took the kabob, tilted both it and his head, and slid a big chunk of meat, a cherry tomato, and a chunk of some unidentified root crop off all in one bite. Alice ate with him, still standing well into his space, then asked, "Where do we find alcohol?"

He led them off through the market, passing by two or three vendors or carts offering their own versions of alcoholic drinks. Finally he led her into a tiny building. There was enough room for just a tiny counter behind which were half-kegs and bottles and just three tables around which four people could barely fit. They sat and at the man's gesture the proprietor brought over two large flagons. They were filled with a liquid (an ale it turned out) that was so thick you could almost stand a spoon in it. The proprietor looked expectantly to the man, but the man only grabbed Alice's arm and lifted it to show the dangling token. The proprietor donned a disappointed expression. If he'd known that his regular customer wasn't paying he would have brought over the lesser ale behind the counter.

"What's your name?" Alice asked as she drew a small sip, then a large gulp that made her face twist up for a moment. "What do you do beside stalk innocent little girls around the market."

 

[TiredFingers]

"When they told me your name was Flicker, I smiled," Auntie began, surprising the man with her reminiscing of their first encounter. "Do you recall that, Master Electrician?"

"Yes, Auntie," he said, his nervousness evident in just those two words.

He was about to respond humorously to his moniker but Auntie continued, "If I had realized that that name came from the fact that that seems to be all you seen to be able to get out of my lights, a flicker..."

He was disappointed in his inability to do for Auntie what he'd promised, but Flicker felt as though he was being maligned by her description of his work. He opened his mouth to defend himself, but again Auntie spoke first.

"My brother Roland-- You've met Roland haven't you?"

Flicker's stomach rolled with fearful anxiety just at the mention of the man's name. Stories of his brutality abounded in Bartertown, and Flicker believed every gory detail. He couldn't count the number of times that people he knew -- residents and visitors, men and women, young and old -- had expressed their concern over an issue they were having with Roland, only to be beaten up or robbed of all or at the least a considerable amount of their wealth.

Some had simply disappeared, never to be seen again.

Investigations into such situations were conducted by the Sheriff of Bartertown who, of course, had been picked by Roland and answered directly to him. Law and order beyond the rocky walls of the trading post was essentially nonexistent, but sometimes the situation within the walls didn't seem much better.

When Auntie warned him of what her brother thought was an appropriate course of action, Flicker realized that he was visibly shaking. And then the most incredible turn of events occurred: a nearly naked woman stepped out from what Flicker presumed was Auntie's bedroom area … and Auntie essentially told him that if he got the power grid up and running, he could have this beauty. Have! As in fuck!

Flicker wouldn't have believed it to be true or even likely, except that the woman -- Karma, oh what a name -- came up close to him and cupped his already hardening cock. He flinched and nearly stepped back from her, not because he didn't like it but because he simply didn't believe it was happening.

In an instant he was stiff as could be, and Karma's gripping hand was wrapped around his shaft through the loose fitting slacks, kneading it as if she was trying to milk it to explosion … which was very likely to happen if this continued much longer..

"I feel very good about that, Auntie," Karma said about servicing Flicker, finishing that she'd be, "Very appreciative."

Flicker realized that his trembling was not only continuing but becoming more noticeable, as was the accelerated breathing through his now partially opened mouth. It had been years since Flicker had had sex with anyone other than his right hand, and far more than a decade since he had sex with a woman who looked like this.

He began to fear that he was about to splash cum all up and down the front of his jockeys when suddenly Karma just released her grip, turned and walked away. He was relieved for not having gotten himself embarrassed … and at the same time he was disappointed because he'd been so very, very close to orgasm and now he was going to have to wait until he could find a quiet, isolated place to finish himself off.

"What do you need to accomplish the task I have laid out for you, Master Electrician?" Auntie asked. "How do I help you help [/I]me?"

Flicker's gaze was still set on Karma, specifically on her wonderfully displayed and wonderfully shaped ass. He only subconsciously even heard Auntie's question, which -- with his ogling -- she must have noticed; suddenly, the eroticism of the moment only exploded to new heights when Auntie began caressing the other woman's butt with a touch that told Flicker it wasn't her first time enjoying the feel of the woman's body.

Must beat off, Flicker's brain was screaming at him in desperation. Must
… beat … off.

"How do I justify letting Karma keep you warm at night rather than let my brother abandon you in the Outback with nothing to eat but your four detached fingers?"

Flicker's stomach turned again at the mention of Roland and his stick rather than carrot approach.

"Canadian Solar," Flicker responded without hesitation. He clarified and continued, "Canadian Solar, Incorporated. Photovoltaic modules … panels, control boxes, distribution systems."

Karma turned and headed back the direction from which she'd come, smiling to Flicker as she passed. He struggled to pull his eyes from her incredible form, looking back to Auntie.

"A company … Australian Green … they purchased millions of dollars worth of solar power equipment from a Canadian company just before the--" He hesitated, not wanting to even mention the atomic strike on Sydney 12 years ago. "Canadian Solar delivered the equipment, but it was never deployed. It was sitting in a warehouse outside Broken Hill, waiting for Canadian supervisors..."

Flicker could tell he was getting a little more detailed than was necessary. He hesitated, and -- more instinctually than intentionally -- peeked over toward the bedroom entrance just as Karma dropped her clothes on the floor about her ankles. Flicker's eyes swelled at the sight of her youthful, firm, gravity defying tits … and her smoothly shaved muff.

Later, after he'd relieved himself of the pressure Karma had built within him, Flicker would wonder, Is it still a muff if there's no hair there?

Because she was looking directly at him, Flicker thought Karma was speaking to him when she said, "I'll be waiting."

He stared at her until she disappeared, then looked back to Auntie.

"In case you are wondering … that invitation was for me. Not you. You won't get that invitation, that carrot, until the security lights are burning bright and consistently through the night. No flickering, Flicker. So..."

"If I could get to Broken Hill with some men to help me pack it up," Flicker continued, excited to get his idea out and desperate to get to a private place to deal with things. "We would need wagons, trailer beds, carts … something to carry the panels and other gear in. Horses or camels to pull them."

There weren't many beasts of burden around anymore after the survivors of the apocalypse found themselves more in need of food than pack animals. But he knew of at least one Outback trader who had camels, possibly half a dozen of them if he, too, hadn't found himself desperately hungry.

With a more subdued tone, Flicker warned, "I can't guarantee they will still be there. But isn't it worth a try, Auntie? The panels I have now … the controllers … the regulators. I'm sorry, Auntie. I will never accomplish what you ask for with what I have, despite your benevolent work in getting it for me."

Trying to be a bit playful but also wanting to emphasize how important this was to him, Flicker raised his hands with his digits splayed. "Auntie B … I am partial to my fingers remaining where they are. Please … please!"

Then, paraphrasing what she'd said to him Flicker ended, "Please … let me help you help me. Let me go to Broken Hill."

He wasn't sure whether or not he'd convinced Auntie when he suddenly found Crusher dragging him away as he'd dragged him here earlier.

Auntie called to him, "I want to send Karma to you soon, Master Electrician. Karma. Not my brother."

"Let me go to Broken Hill, Auntie!" he called back over his shoulder as the big man put him in the lift and jerked a handle to cause it to begin lowering using a counterweight system that Flicker himself had built. As the floor rose to eventually block his view of Auntie, he called one last time, "Broken Hill, Auntie."

 

[TiredFingers]

Hammer wasn't too excited about his new assignment. He preferred to be hitting people rather than ensuring someone else didn't get hit.

He'd been following Roland's latest prospective employee for an hour or so when he was finally made. In truth, he hadn't been trying very hard to conceal his surveillance; why should he care whether or not she knew he was there since it wouldn't prevent him from doing his job.

They ended up in his favorite little watering hole making introductions when she asked, "What do you do beside stalk innocent little girls around the market."

He laughed. "Innocent. No offense, but somehow I doubt that."

Hammer gestured to the proprietor for two more beers. He arrived with the mismatched flagons and a harsh glare. Hammer reminded the man, "How's that new still working out for you … the one Auntie provided you when yours caught fire?"

The proprietor's attitude shifted quickly. He asked with a more respectful tone, "Can I cook you and your lady friend something, sir?"

Hammer just waved the man off and returned to his conversation with Alice. "I do the things Roland would do on his own if it didn't mean getting dirt on his hands or blood on his shirt."

His tone in talking about his boss showed an obvious level of contempt. It wasn't an attitude he would take in the presence of someone loyal to Roland or Auntie. But Alice was new, and Roland wanted her for some reason that was only known to Roland. Hammer was Roland's right hand man, and yet all he'd been told about Alice was that he was to ensure she stayed safe.

"Did Roland tell you what he wanted from you?" he asked. She didn't know, or if she did she lied to Hammer. It didn't surprise him if Roland was keeping his cards close to his chest. Roland -- and Auntie for that part -- liked their secrets. Hammer reassured Alice, "He will. I'd be interested to hear about it when you learn … if you were inclined to tell me."

A pair of guards passing by the business stopped and turned back. They reported that Hammer was wanted back at Roland's. He drained the mostly still full flagon and slammed it back down onto the table before standing.

"It was nice protecting you, Alice," he said with a sly smirk before heading out.

 

[Alice2015]

"Canadian Solar."

Auntie listened closely to what the Master Electrician suggested. It sounded like a long shot. A very long shot. The solar power equipment had been delivered to the location in Broken Hill over a decade ago. There was no way to know whether or not it was still there. But then would anyone else who'd survived the apocalypse have both an interest in the equipment and the knowledge of how to use it? You could find a fully fueled Boeing 747 sitting on the runway with the door unlocked easy enough, but if you didn't know how to fly it what good was it to you?

After Crusher had taken Flicker away, Auntie made her way to her bed chamber. Karma had donned a thin, silk robe and was sitting on the edge of the bed filing her long nails. The two talked about the Master Electrician's plan as Karma engaged in the time intensive task of loosing Auntie from her current wardrobe. When the latter was finally naked, she slipped down inside the large steel bathtub filled with cool but not cold water. A moment later Karma joined her. The whore pressed her mouth to her employer's and slid a hand down between her thighs to find her womanhood. For the next twenty minutes Karma pleasured Auntie as few people (male or female) could.

"Finish me," Bartertown's leader finally demanded when she'd enjoyed as much buildup as she could. Within seconds the very skilled sex servant pushed Auntie over the top, causing her to cry out in prolonged ecstasy. When she finally came down from her euphoric cloud, Auntie ordered the other woman, "I want you to go to the Master Electrician and give him a taste. Perhaps it will incentivize him more than just a promise of heaven."

"Of course," Karma responded. She left her mistress in the tub to relax while she herself dried and dressed. She reminded Auntie, "Hammer is coming to my room for his weekly stress release session. If he has any new information about your brother's activities, do you want me to report to you immediately?"

"No," Auntie said softly, still laying back with her eyes closed. She opened them and looked to the whore. "Bathe first. Then come to me."

She closed her eyes and laid her head back again, adding, "I don't want to smell that man, or any man, on you when you are her."

They made their farewells, and Karma descended to the ground. She didn't blame Auntie for her feelings about the residual scent of sex that would be on her after seeing Hammer. And to be honest, with the heat being the way it had been for the past couple of weeks, Karma was more than happy to slip into a cool or lukewarm bath two, three, even ten times a day if possible. She made her way to her room in the more elegant and more expensive of Bartertown's two brothels. There, she picked out some sexy under things that both highlighted and hid her womanly attributes. In a robe that was her own, she wandered the house chatting up patrons and girls alike without taking any work. She would be paid well tonight by Hammer, and Auntie had already paid her for this afternoon and for her first meeting with Flicker.

"Are you caught up?" a female voice asked as she passed by the brothel's bar.

Karma looked to the House's Hostess and feigned a happy smile. Reaching into the pocket of her robe she withdrew several poker chips. She selected the appropriate denominations and set them neatly on the bar. "I am now."

"I know full well that Auntie Benevolence favors your tongue over all others," the Madam said with a bit of tone in her voice, "but you still work for me. You work for me, and I work for her. And if you wish to retain a room here, you will keep up on your board. Is that understood?"

(Too tired to write the other ones. Tomorrow.)

 

[TiredFingers]

Flicker descended from Heaven with a building excitement for his project. Auntie hadn't said yes to his proposal, but she certainly hadn't said no either. She wanted power; she wanted him to succeed; she was willing to give him a bed partner to relief his pent up frustrations over his failures thus far.

The elevator reached ground level, Crusher released the safety chain, and -- after respectfully thanking the huge guard -- Flicker headed away quickly for his little room in the back of his workshop eager to work out those frustrations for which, hopefully, the woman Karma would soon be solving. But for now that relief was in Flicker's own hands … literally.

He didn't even make it to his sleeping room in the back, instead slamming the door to the workshop, quickly untying the rope that held his pants up in place of a badly needed belt, and whipping out his rapidly hardening cock.

There were a great many things about Flicker that weren't overly impressive, but his penis most certainly was. It had always seemed such a shame to him that the 10 inch long, girth-generous monster didn't get anymore action than it did. After all, what's the use of having the best tools if you weren't using them to get the job done?

But a big cock wasn't always enough in this new world of theirs. Flicker wasn't overly handsome; he wasn't wealthy; he lived in a three meter by three meter room in the back of a smelly work shop; he had the nickname Flicker as opposed to Crusher, Hammer, or any of the other domination sounding names other more impressive men about him had.

But he had a big cock, and it was now rock solid as the man stroked it to images of sexy, naked Karma amongst the wafting semi-sheer drapes of Heaven, and it wasn't but just a moment before the long abandoned beast exploded and sent several huge globs of cum out to splatter and slowly descend the side of one of his tool boxes.

Flicker turned and dropped onto the top of a wooden crate, still stroking his still pulsing cock as he breathed hard and fast to the ferocious beating of his heart. In addition to not having sex with a woman in some time, it had also been many days since he'd last found such pleasure on his own. The euphoria surging through him was incredible...

...and after he'd come down from his own heaven, Flicker pulled up his greasy, dusty, raggedy pants, wiped his hands, and pulled out his maps. He had a trek to plan, and he was damn well going to get this right.

 

[Alice2015]

After paying her rent to the madam, Karma made her way to her room to prepare for Hammer's arrival. He was one of only a few regulars she serviced now that she was directly employed by Auntie. Oh, the Madam thought Karma worked for her and that she in turn worked for Bartertown's mistress. And Karma let the controlling bitch of a madam believe that was true by continuing to pay rent for a room she no longer needed. But Karma was anything but a common brothel whore these days with Auntie's direct patronage.

Karma had become a pillow talk spy. She'd had no idea what that meant until, one night in Auntie's bed, her new mistress explained it to her. "You will service the men I direct you to. Women, too, if I need. You will provide them with your best. You will make them happy beyond just the euphoria you cause with your body. People talk when they are happy. They talk about things they shouldn't talk about. You will listen. You may not always understand what they are talking about. But you will listen. You will remember. You will come to me with what you've learned. You will tell me. And I will compensate you well."

That first night (or the morning after anyway) of driving Auntie to new and repeated heights of ecstasy had ended with Karma leaving Heaven with 400 Chips in her hand. It was more money than she'd made in the last 50 days of sucking cocks and riding groins combined. Auntie had warned her to speak to no one of it or of her new pillow talk arrangement. "Hide it. It is betrayal money. Even those you call Friend will kill you to have so much at one time."

Karma had heeded Auntie's advice and continued to do so to this day. She went now to a metal box sitting atop a table and tossed some smaller denomination chips into it. She took a quick count: 35C. This was her not-hidden-at-all bank. If someone broke into her room or if a patron robbed her, this was the Chip she considered expendable. Next, she pulled a small metal box out from behind a loose brick in the wall. This was her not-so-hidden hidden stash. She tossed more Chip into it and surveyed the contents: the chips' unique color schemes made it easy to count the total as 220C. This was the Chip that she wanted others to believe was her life's savings should her room ever be searched.

Karma lifted the oil burning lamp from atop the table near her bed and looked to the Chips hidden below the base. There were eight of them, they were black, and they were worth 100C each. These were the chips Auntie paid her with or the chips Karma had gotten from the Money Changer when she cashed in handfuls of them for larger, more easily to hide denominations. The lamp base was not the coins' ultimately hiding place. For that Karma had a place up on the plateau's cliff edge where (in solitude) she would periodically go to watch the sun rise. When she knew she had the world to herself, Karma would remove a four inch wide sliver of a stone from a little crevice. Just within arm's reach was another metal box, this one inside a synthetic bag. And inside it was her real stash of Chip, her real Bank of Australia. Currently it was holding more than 8,000C.

Here was Karma's future. It was the savings with which she would one day buy (or even build!) her own brothel where she and her girls would exclusively service the well-to-do class that Auntie Benevolence's visions and dreams would one day create. Karma's new assignment as the Master Electrician's friend was the latest step forward toward that future. Immediately it meant the end to servicing the riff raff altogether. No more sucking cocks of smelly riff raff from the Outback. In the longer run, though, Karma hoped that Flicker would be only the first of many friends Auntie assigned her. Her service to them would (or should) make Karma enough Chip to allow her to abandon her whoring for anyone but her handful of regulars.

Karma snatched up one of the black Chips and recalled Auntie's explanation of how she'd come to possess them. Before the war, the chips had been destined for a Sydney area casino. The man who'd discovered them in an overturned and cracked open armored truck (along with a letter explaining what they were) had told Auntie that they'd been the prototype chip for the poker room. The two cases he'd traded to her (for food, water, beer, and a night with a whore) were the only cases in existence. (The man had found them beautiful and had thought they might have a use in arts and craft, perhaps as jewelry.)

Auntie had had a better idea for chips. She'd concluded very early on that Bartertown needed a currency. She could never build a booming economy when people were trading animal pelts for fresh water or goats milk for blow jobs. She announced the chips as Bartertown's official currency and gave them an exciting new name: Chips. Yep. Chips.

From that point on and despite the community's name, there was to be no more direct bartering of goods-for-goods allowed in Bartertown. Folk coming to the trading community were required to trade their goods and services for Chip. That meant that if they wanted to purchase a new good or make use of a service, they had to use their Chip to do so. Auntie would come to directly control the major merchants and service providers. These people bought low and sold high, and a significant portion of their profit as well as a rental fee for their places of business went directly to Auntie via the Master of Chip.

In the end, with her control over Chip, product sales, rental fees, services provided, and fresh water (from the only two wells anywhere near Bartertown), Auntie raked in about 22% of the value of all commerce taking place in Bartertown. Some of that she kept for her own private use. Some of it she used to maintain law and order via Roland's Police Force. A lot of it went to gathering intelligence about what was happening both within and without the walls of the post. A significant portion of it went to aiding the people, so much so that within a year of adoption of the currency, the community had begun referring to plain old Auntie as Auntie Benevolence.

There was a knock at the door, followed by a young woman speaking through it, "Miss Karma, you have a patron."

Putting the 100Cs back under the lamp, Karma turned and struck a sexy pose. It caused her robe to reveal one long, slim leg all the way to her groin. Hammer entered, and Karma smiled. "It's about time. I thought maybe you had forgotten me."

 

[TiredFingers]

After he was called back to Roland's office, Hammer gave his accessment of the new girl, Alice. "Confident. Unafraid of much ... or simply good as faking it. She wood make a good Captain of your Guard or even a Protector--"

By that, Hammer meant a personal bodyguard, like he was to Roland and like Crusher was to Auntie. He finished his statement, "--if that's your plan for her. But ... Auntie would never allow her to be a Protector ... and probably not into the Guard leadership either."

Hammer had been about to say your sister would never allow it but caught himself. Even though Roland demanded absolute and unconditional respect for Auntie from all who worked for him, Hammer had the distinct impression that Roland wouldn't mind too horribly much if his sister fell from Heaven and splattered all over the packed earth below.

Actually, Hammer was pretty sure Roland would have already pushed her off himself and taken over Bartertown if it wasn't for the simple fact that Auntie was Bartertown. It had been her brains that had initially conceived of the trading post and later conceived of its currency system. The latter was entirely responsible for the massive growth of the economy and of Auntie and Roland's personal wealth -- and thus power -- over the past five or six years.

Men who hadn't followed or obeyed anyone for more than a decade found themselves bewitched by Auntie's brains and beauty. They'd changed their brutal, destructive, criminal ways to work for and protect her; after that, they'd protected her and her growing trading post and given it the chance that many failed predecessors hadn't had.

Roland couldn't have done what his sister had done. Hammer knew that; even Roland knew that. Hard men would never have followed him, and if he was ever to be implicated in Auntie's demise or fall from grace, those very same men would be the end of Roland, as well as the end of Bartertown.

Hammer clarified his statement about Auntie, "She would never trust an armed outsider that kind of proximity to her on a daily basis."

"My sister's paranoid," Roland spat out with a venomous tone, using the familial word Hammer hadn't. "Her and her trust in those Crack in the Earth refugees ... it sickens me."

Hammer wondered whether or not he should be offended by Roland's comment. Hammer was one of those refugees, as was Crusher and even Roland himself in a sense. But Hammer let the comment go without response.

(OOC: Not touching "Crack in the Earth" further. I think you wanted to introduce it, correct?)

"Is there anything more you want me to do about this new girl, Alice?" Hammer asked.

"Keep close to her," Roland said as he began slowly pacing about his office. "I want you to watch her yourself."

Tentatively, Hammer reminded his boss, "I have plans tonight … at the brothel."

Roland shot him a hard glare, ready to ask if getting his dick wet was more important than serving his master. But then Roland remembered what night of the week it was -- Karma night -- and softened as he waved Hammer out of the office.

Before Hammer could close the door behind him, Roland quickly instructed, "Put a couple of men on her … Alice. I want to know everywhere she goes, every thing she does, every one she talks to."

"Yes, sir."

As he headed out, Hammer wondered why this particular desert wanderer was so important to Roland. Auntie's brother had tasked his Protector to surveil people before but never a total stranger with no apparent connection to Bartertown or a specific person within it and never 24/7 with a minimum of two Guards who should have been providing security to the merchants from whom Roland and Auntie made their money.

#################​

Two hours later, Hammer was walking through the brothel, greeting the girls who knew him so very well, cupping tits, slapping asses, and generally being a very bad boy. He'd taken some time before arriving to assign men to watch Alice, then took some more time to find her himself -- feigning a casual running into -- so that they could have another beer and chat for a moment.

After excusing himself, he'd come directly here and made his way slowly but surely back to Karma's room.

"It's about time," she told him as she stood before her bed looking so hot and ready. "I thought maybe you had forgotten me."

Hammer lowered himself a bit as he came close, wrapped his arms around Karma's thighs just below her ass, and lifted her off the ground.

"No man could ever forget you," he said before waggling his head back and forth between her breasts to push aside her bra and expose a firm nipple. He took it into his teeth, biting it hard enough to make her squeal, then sucked on it hard and finally told her, "God almighty I love your tits."

Hammer wasted no time in getting the fun -- his fun -- started. He took her to and dropped her upon the bed, turned her to her belly, and lifted her with ease onto her hands and knees. Loosing and pulling down his trousers and shorts -- his boots and socks remained as they were -- Hammer moved in behind Karma, pushing her knees apart with his own, grasped his already stiff as wood cock in his hand, and placed it at her opening.

Without foreplay or hesitation, he grasped Karma's hips in tightly gripping hands and rammed half of his 8 inches into her in one shove. He ignored her reaction, pulled back and pushed forward a few times to better wet his shaft, then rammed himself into her until his groin slammed against her buttocks.

He began thrusting hard and fast, over and over, pulling and pushing her body to and fro as his own did the same but opposite. There was nothing about it that could be considered making love; Hammer was showing how he'd truly earned his moniker as his body pounded hard against Karma's repeatedly until finally he gave out a great grunt, rammed his full length as deeply as possible, and screamed out in ecstasy.

Once his cock had stopped pulsing its load into Karma and his euphoria was beginning to wane, Hammer fell forward atop the whore, literally crushing her against the mattress for a long moment before rolling to the side, bringing her with him as to keep his cock mostly buried within her. He would lay there, still deep inside Karma, until he fell asleep from a combination of satisfaction and a long day at work.

 

[Alice2015]

(Yes, I will write about Crack in the Earth in an upcoming reply. Thanks.)

Karma pulled her groin forward across the bed. She winced, halted, then lifted her uppermost leg to allow her aching pussy to lessen its clamp around Hammer's hammer. His cock (still somewhat erect) fell out, and she rolled over to lay against his chest. It was still rising and falling noticeably from the combination of her exertion and his orgasm.

"No one fucks me like you do," she said with an appreciative tone.

Karma meant it. And she was glad he was one of a kind amongst her regulars. Not because she liked having her pussy wailed upon mercilessly by Hammer's overly large cock but because she didn't know if she could take such an assault upon her canal like his more than the once a week that he visited. She whispered sweet nothings to Hammer while tracing finger tips amongst his curly chest hairs.

"Should I be jealous of your new girlfriend, lover?" Karma asked after several minutes. "Pawna said she saw you drinking with a newcomer. Am I being replaced?"

She pinched his nipple hard enough to elicit an exclamation and gave Hammer a chance to respond if wished or felt he had to. He could fuck any woman he wanted, of course, whether for money, plain old lust, or deep felt love. But it was part of Karma's relationship with him to feign concern over him no longer wanting or needing to see her anymore. She teased him some more about the stranger, then made some casual inquiries about what he'd been doing since last they'd met. She'd gotten pretty good at gathering intel' without seeming as if it was anymore than a curiosity about and interest in Hammer's life.

What was ironic was that while she was using their time in bed to spy on Roland via Hammer, Hammer was doing the same concerning Auntie via Karma. What was even more ironic was that Karma had no idea that was what Hammer was doing. One day Karma would look back on their weekly fuck sessions and realize that it had been just as much about Hammer interrogating her and they'd been about her interrogating Hammer.

When the big man politely casually turned the questioning the other direction, Karma told him about the Master Electrician and his crazy plan to go out deep into the Outback to search for solar panels for the thus-far-failing sun farm or whatever they were calling it. "She told me she'd going to send him to Broken Hill with some of Roland's Guards. Will you go? You won't go, will you? You'll stay here, with me?"

She rolled atop Hammer, reached down to grasp his cock, and began stuffing it inside her despite it being more flaccid than not. As she did and as he began to stiffen again, Karma asked more questions about who would go, how many would go, would it be dangerous, and more. Her inquiries were meant to sound of concern about the desert's dangers but hidden amongst his answers Karma hoped he would divulge some details about Roland's current operations and way of doing things that she could take to Auntie tonight after she'd bathed the stench of the man's sweat and cum off and out of her.

 

[Alice2015]

After her second run in with Hammer (which she didn't think was at all random as he'd stated), she wandered a bit to collect some necessities and luxuries (all free courtesy of the token) and then found a room to sleep in. As dark neared, she took a walk over to the bottom of the cliff at the opposite side of the marketplace from the entry tunnel. She'd noticed what looked like solar panels upon her arrival and was curious as to whether or not it was the source of power for the lights that haphazardly illuminated a small portion of the community.

She found a combination of metal ladders and carved-in-stone steps ascending the cliff. She also found a guard near the bottom of them, apparently there to restrict access. Fortunately for Alice, the Guard had his back to the ladder as a whore on her knees was sucking the man's cock. Quietly, she began climbing the ladder. It was constructed of old parts but had new braces, clamps, and bolts holding it securely together. Failure of the ladder didn't seem to be a problem but moving slow enough not to make it squeak horribly was hard.

Reaching the stone steps without drawing the attention of the man below was a relief. She made her way to the top of the plateau to find far more than she'd expected. Dozens of mismatched panels covered a small portion of the plateau with several connector and control boxes scattered between them. A tiny shed near the top of the steps seemed to be the center of the operation. Alice began that direction, only to suddenly come face to face with a man emerging from the building. He seemed started, confused, and angry all in a short span of time.

"I'm sorry," she apologized, explaining that she was simply interested in what was happening here. Then she dropped a bombshell, "When I was younger, a teenager and then later a college student, this is what I did. Solar energy research, development, and distribution."

She wasn't sure whether the man believed her at first. But soon enough they were deeply engaged in a conversation about his project, his goals, his setbacks, and finally his new great idea. That was when she dropped not a bombshell but a nuke. "They're still there. At least, they were a year ago."

She explained that her travels over the last 12 years had taken her in and out of the Broken Hill area several times. "I was there last year. The equipment, all of it, it was still sitting there in the building. I, I don't think anyone who knew about it had an interest in it. Hell, I have a degree in Solar Engineering, and even I didn't have an interest in it."

They spend almost three hours talking about the possibilities. The sun had dropped and they'd moved into the little building to escape the killer mosquitoes. When Alice asked why Flicker was working such long hours (particularly since it was sun-related work and it was after dark), she sensed that he was hesitant to tell her what was motivating him. Alice wouldn't have been surprised at all to find that there had been a warm, wet pussy offered up to accelerate his work.

The temperature had dropped to the point that Alice was beginning to shiver in the uninsulated building. They descended to the ground, which left the Guard a bit bewildered at the sight of two people. They made plans for Alice to meet him here tomorrow, and she headed off toward her rented room with a smile of delight. She may very well have found a job that might help her put together her Kit so that this time when she headed out into the Outback, she would be better prepared for survival.

Despite all she saw around her and despite the possibility that she might even find long time employment here, Alice had absolutely no interest in staying in Bartertown any longer than was necessary to replace the resources she'd used or lost before arriving here.

 

[TiredFingers]

After he'd exploded within Karma's pussy, Hammer's otherwise frustrating world simply slipped away, disappeared as the euphoria overwhelmed his senses. His boss's sister's home may have been called it, but this was true Heaven on Earth. Despite having nearly free access to any whore in Bartertown -- and, of course, to his own right hand -- Hammer had come to save himself for this one night of the week to more enhance the experience.

He lay there lost to the delight, his heart pounding rapidly, his chest rising and falling, his cock still tingling … Karma playing quietly in his field of chest hair.

"No one fucks me like you do," she said with an appreciative tone.

Hammer didn't believe that. He liked Karma; she was beautiful and sexy and skilled, and she always kept her pussy free of other dicks for the three days before he visited to make herself tighter for his rough intrusion. But she was still just a whore.

Well, not any whore; Auntie's whore. It was why Roland had allowed Hammer to pass on the task of shadowing the new girl, this Alice; Roland wanted Hammer with Karma, to learn what he could about what Roland's sister was up to.

"Should I be jealous of your new girlfriend, lover?"

Hammer opened his eyes to look at Karma, chuckled, and asked only, "What?"

Referring to another one of the brothel's workers, Karma explained, "Pawna said she saw you drinking with a newcomer. Am I being replaced?"

He laughed again, and began to answer but instead called out in pain as she pinched his nipple, "Fuck! What was that for?[/I]"

Hammer grasped a handful of the whore's hair and twisted her head forcefully to put her lips near his, then kissed her hard and passionately. When he pulled her back, Hammer said with a sincere tone, "I could never replace you. I would never replace you."

He kissed her again, then repeated her own words, "No one fucks me like you do."

She teased him more about the new woman, leading Hammer to explain, "She came into town today from out of the desert. Your lover's brother--"

Hammer said those last two words with the same tone he'd used when he'd talked to Alice about Roland, as if didn't entirely care for his boss. He continued, "--called her past the Barker. Don't know why. Wasn't there for the convo'. He has me watching her … to see who she talks to … where she goes … wants to know if she's here for a reason or here for trade … here for a fuck."

He pulled Karma's head in for another forceful kiss as he said, "I'll fuck her if I'm ordered to ... but I'll be thinking of you the whole time."

He laughed, laid his head back to stare at the lantern's light dancing on the ceiling, and continued, "I think Roland has something in the works he doesn't want his sister to know about. Don't know for sure. He'll tell me when the time is right … when he needs me to know. Probably about security. He's been quietly expanding the Police Force. New guys. They've been spending more and more time with Roland. Not Crack in the Earth folk."

Like Hammer and Crusher, the rest of those folk -- they'd been children and teens at the time -- had come out of the desert safely because of Auntie and, to a lesser extent, Roland. They were more loyal to the sister-brother pair than any person on earth could be to any other.

It bothered Hammer that Roland was spending so much time behind closed doors with people who weren't Family and not including Hammer himself in the conversations. It smelled of conspiracy, but of what … and about whom? Roland had issues with how his sister had surpassed him so greatly in acquiring the love and respect of the people of Bartertown, but Hammer didn't believe that the man would ever do anything to hurt or harm his sister.

So … what the fuck was Roland up to?

"Does she taste good?" Hammer asked out of the blue. He opened his eyes and tilted his head, a movement which caused Karma to do the same. He smirked and repeated, "Does she taste good? Your mistress?"

They teased and laughed and slapped and pinched and did all those other things lovers did in bed when they were pretending to be fighting before settling down for Hammer to begin his side of the interrogation. "They say the work on the plateau ... the solar farm ... they say she's pissed that it isn't putting out enough electricity to tingle her twat."

There was more play between Hammer and Karma at his comment about the latter's lover before they talked more seriously about the project on the flat topped rise.

When Karma asked if he would be sent with the Master Electrician into the desert, she sounded as if she was sincerely concerned for Hammer's safety. He pulled her in for another kiss and assisted her when she rolled to mount his, to harden him and to put him inside her for round two.

"I am Roland's Protector, so he will want me to stay close," he answered as he felt his rapidly hardening cock slipping into the whore's wetness. He groaned in pleasure as she settled herself fully down upon him and began riding him slowly but fully. "He'll send … new people … Outsiders … expendables."

Grasping Karma's hips to help her, they were soon fucking hard and fast. He loved their round two as much as its predecessor; he loved to watch Karma's face as his big cock penetrated her deeply, driving her slowly but surely toward her own ecstasy.

They nearly always came within seconds of one another during round two. He'd wondered in the beginning whether or not Karma might be faking her orgasms, to make him feel more a man. She'd told him she wouldn't do that to him, and -- to ensure her it would not leave him happy if she did -- he'd demanded that she always be true to him about that. Sometimes, it took her longer; sometimes she came first; but after months of meeting weekly like this, they'd learned one another's bodies well enough to enjoy their ecstasy together.

Hammer's climax arrived and -- grunted out loudly -- he rammed his body upwards as he simultaneously pulled hers downward. Jerk after jerk after jerk of his cock filled her before he finally fell back into the mattress and opened his eyes to look up at Karma for signs that she, too, had enjoyed their evening together.

Once they were both finished, the whore pulled a sheet over the top of them and Hammer held Karma at his side until they were both asleep. Some time later, as was the arrangement, one of the brothel's workers arrived to gently stir Hammer awake. He looked to Karma, finding her sleeping soundly in the aftermath of her own euphoria. She was so beautiful in these moments. It made Hammer feel as though he'd finally done something worthwhile this week.

Without waking her, he dressed and headed for the lobby. As expected, the madam was waiting for him. Although he's already left a 50C chip on the lamp table in Karma's room, Hammer pulled out another as he approached Karma's boss.

"You will let her sleep," Hammer said more than asked as he pressed the chip into the madam's opened hand.

The two of them had an arrangement; she would not engage Karma with another man so long as she saw a black and blue chip was in her hand when Hammer left. The madam would already be getting a cut of Karma's payment, as well as the nightly rent on her room. This chip was solely to ensure that Karma ended her night now, sleeping in the afterglow of making love with him and no other man.

"Of course," the madam said with a smile and tone of helpful delight. "She yearns for her night with you all week long, Hammer. And she will yearn to be with you again for a week more."

Hammer didn't know whether to put faith in the woman's words, but he knew not to put any in her delight at seeing him here each week. The madam's only concern was that the chip continued to flow from the patrons' hands to the whores' and ultimately to her own.

He made his way outside and contemplated searching down the new woman, Alice, for yet a third time this day. Despite having emptied his cock inside Karma twice in less than half an hour, after his two hour nap with her Hammer was eager to find out if there was any chance of getting deep inside Alice as well.

It took less than three minutes of making inquiries for Hammer to locate and reach the room the woman had rented. Bartertown wasn't that big, after all, and strangers were watched quite closely by those who knew the Guard would sooner or later come looking for them

Alice wasn't there, however, and the two Guards who'd been assigned to keep an eye on her had no idea how she'd gotten past them. After he'd hit one of the men in the forehead so hard it knocked him out, he and the other man -- who was holding his broken nose as it bled into his palm and fingers -- went off to both search for her and put the word out to the other Guards that she was to be found without knowing she was being searched for.

It was an hour later that Hammer learned Alice had been found descending from the plateau with the Master Electrician. Hammer caught up with her a few minutes later, inviting her to yet a third sit down for ale and convo'.

 

[Alice2015]

Karma laid there in her bed -- unmoving, seemingly asleep -- until the woman who'd woken Hammer for his departure returned again to open the door and announce, "He's gone."

Karma sat up, thanked the girl, slipped into a robe, and headed to the bathing room to clean up. As she sat in the tub of relatively clean, soapy water, she replayed her hour with Hammer. Had she put on a convincing enough show tonight? Had she made the man believe he'd driven her to orgasm? Had her cumming nearly a full minute after Hammer reassured him that she'd fought hard to reach climax, that it had been important to her that they enjoy the night together?

She would probably never know whether or not she was convincing Hammer anymore than he would know whether or not Karma was faking. It was all part of the game. No. It was more important than a game. It was spying. What was that word Auntie had used one night while she and Karma were in bed together? Espionage? Karma didn't know whether or not what she'd learned tonight was important or not. But she would take it straight to Auntie as directed.

After washing in the tub in which other whores already had, Karma emerged and carefully climbed the three steps that led to a platform and a shower head that dispensed clean water. She rinsed away the used, soapy water. (The water flowing over Karma's body drained off to a tank that would replace the water in the soapy tubs, thus reducing the brothel's water use and cost by almost half.) She dried, returned to her room, and dressed in some casual clothes and a hooded cape. She headed out into the dark, escorted to Heaven by one of Auntie's guards who'd been standing by, waiting for her.

Auntie was again standing at the edge of the platform that looked down upon the community she'd created. The semi-sheer drapes hid her from the people below but allowed her to see all. During the day the dirt roads and open plaza below was a lively but civil marketplace. After dark though Bartertown became a wild party with live music from a raised stage, dancing, drinking, and all sorts of lascivious, public displays of affection. A lot of the latter. Directly below Heaven, in fact, Auntie could see and hear the cries of delight (likely faked) from an independent street whore as a man fucked her hard and fast from behind. The man groaned out loud enough for Auntie to hear, slumped, then backed off. A moment later, a second man handed the woman something (likely a 10C chip, as was the going street price for a fuck) and began pummeling her from behind as had his partner.

"He's meeting with people," Karma began after ascending to Heaven and making her way over to stand next to Auntie. She glanced down at the commerce taking place over an overturned oil drum. She shook her head and continued, "Hammer thinks your brother is adding Outsiders to the Police Force. Is that a concern, Mistress?"

Auntie didn't immediately respond. She lifted her gaze from the whore and her patrons to survey the town. Her town. She used to think of it as her and her brother's town. But lately a gap had begun to widen between the two of them. They used to meet every day. They used to spend hours together every day, talking about their vision for Bartertown. Now, they hardly spoke at all. And when they did, it was through their Protectors (Crusher and Hammer) or other representatives.

"I want you to get the names of some of these new people, Karma, but carefully," Auntie instructed. "I want to talk to them, without my brother knowing."

"There's a new woman," Karma said. "She arrived today but your brother took an immediate interest in her."

"Nice legs?" Auntie asked quickly.

She peeked to Karma and smiled. She knew what it was about women that first attracted Roland's attention. And it wasn't their willingness or interest in being a police officer. Karma shared the smile knowingly but responded, "No, I think it was more than that. Your brother had Guards following this woman all day. Hammer met with her. Twice. And Roland gave her a Pass."

Auntie's pleased expression faded and she looked back over the town. The coin on the thong wasn't something Roland gave out to a woman just because he wanted to put his dick inside her. The merchants who honored the Pass lost income at the time it was used. But they always made it up in the end through one thing or another that came out of Roland's pocket. That meant it came out of Bartertown's treasury. Out of Auntie's purse.

"Find this woman," Auntie commanded softly. She turned to Karma, moved close enough to press their bodies together, kissed her lover passionately, then whispered, "I want to talk to her first, tomorrow. But tonight, I want to talk to you. In my bed."

 

[TiredFingers]

Flicker would normally have quit his work shortly after sundown. His backup DC power battery pack in the Control Room -- his little shack on the plateau -- could only power his lighting for a couple of hours, and his flashlights were even less efficient and helpful than that.

But Flicker had a new reason to work well after dark: Karma.

He'd continued working well after dark and was heading out to check a connection when he practically pissed his pants at the sight of a dark silhouette suddenly right there before him.

A female voice apologized, "I'm sorry."

"You're not supposed to be up here! he warned. "You could get in trouble. I could get in trouble!"

But soon Flicker and Alice were engaged in an exciting conversation about the solar power project. Flicker had never been able to discuss his work in detail with others in Bartertown because they simply had no ability to understand that about which he was talking.

Alice had surprised him again and again with her understanding of his issues, but when he spoke of the abandoned solar power project at Broken Hill and about the hardware that he could only hope was still there, she shocked him by claiming, "They're still there."

Flicker listened to her claims of having actually seen the panels and control panels, and he found himself suffering chills and goosebumps at the thought that her information meant that he might actually get to make his trek to Broken Hill.

Their conversation didn't end until the bugs and cold forced them off the open plateau. They made plans to meet the next day, and although Flicker would have loved to continue the conversation over ale and roasted kangaroo, he didn't ask her to join him in one of the many shops where those and other foods were available.

He watched her disappear into the crowd, then made his way to his own room where he would strip, wash a day's worth of dirt and dust from his body, and lay down to beat off to the fantasy of laying with Karma … and with Alice, too.

 

[Alice2015]

Alice flashed the token dangling around her wrist to a merchant. As opposed to those who'd come before him, this man seemed strangely delighted to serve her for no immediate compensation. She picked out a fried chunk of meat and asked for a beer. Without being asked, the man served up a baked potato wrapped in a plant leaf charred by a charcoal flame. He sliced it open and plopped some greenish looking butter into its interior where it quickly melted.

A familiar voice from behind commented favorably on the meal. Alice turned to once again find herself looking into Hammer's smiling face. Alice shared the smile, then looked to the merchant, who was already serving up another plateful of food with a smile. Alice wondered what good things Roland's Guards had done for the man to make him so eager to dish out free food and alcohol.

When he moved forward to retrieve his plate, Hammer asked Alice if she wanted to sit and drink. She got the distinct feeling there was more that he wanted from her by the way his gaze dropped for a moment to the swell of her breasts. Before she could answer though, Alice caught a scent in the air strong enough to overwhelm even the smell of the food in her hands. She leaned in close to Hammer and drew a deep breath near his chest.

"Won't your lover be concerned that you're out with another woman?" she asked as he reacted. She leaned in again, nearly pressing her nose to Hammer's neck. She pulled back and turned toward one of two tiny tables. "You smell like desert flower perfume. And pussy."

She sat, smiled up at Hammer, then gestured to the chair opposite her. When he sat, Alice asked, "How much does a common whore fuck for? Or--"

She lifted her arm and dangled the Pass. "--do you have one of these?"

Alice smiled devilishly as she dug into her food.

 

[TiredFingers]

"You smell like desert flower perfume. And pussy."

Hammer laughed out loud at Alice's crude, bold, and likely very accurate assessment of the current state of his scent. He rarely bathed after his nights with Karma, but then that was because he didn't usually go out looking for another woman with whom to spend time.

"How much does a common whore fuck for? Or ... do you have one of these?"

"I don't have one of those," he told her as he sat across from her. He was trying to imply that Alice was more special than he was for having gotten the Pass from his boss, but in reality -- as Roland's well known Protector -- Hammer didn't require one to get what he wanted from many if not most of the merchants for free. He turned to her comment about Karma, "And she's no common whore. Do I look like the kind of man who would settle for a common whore?"

He studied Alice as they both dug into their free meal. Without the goggles and hood scarf she'd been wearing when she'd arrived at Bartertown, Alice was an incredibly beauty woman. She had wonderful features, a product of good genes; she had flawless, smooth skin, too, as if she had been living the relatively luxurious life Auntie had for the last many years. It made Hammer wonder if she'd actually been living out in the harshness of the Outback for all these years since the end of everything as Roland had presumed and spoken to him of.

"I have my own quarters if you would like to spend the night with me," Hammer suddenly put out there. He smiled at her reaction and added, "I have a bath, too. And … I'll let you go first … or … share it with me."

 

[Alice2015]

Alice didn't know whether Hammer was defending his lover's honor as a good girl or his reputation as a good man when he responded to her question with, "And she's no common whore."

But then he quickly added, "Do I look like the kind of man who would settle for a common whore?"

Yeah, that answers it, she thought to herself as she bit into the roasted meat. One thing she'd learned about women who no longer retained their virtue (following the apocalypse anyway) was that they fell into three general categories, whores or wives. There were very few women in this new age who parted their thighs for only one man. There were simply too few opportunities for them to support themselves in a society where commerce had been reduced to so many areas of profit. The pre-apocalypse world had been a man's world. It had become even more so following the collapse. What was a woman to do to get by if she didn't have a man taking care of her? Part her thighs and purse her lips.

Except in Bartertown, of course. As she ate, Alice recalled the things she'd learned about this Auntie, most of it from Flicker. She found it incredible that a woman (particularly as young as Auntie) had created and maintained control of such a community in this harsh, dangerous, deadly new world. Alice was so impressed that she had asked Flicker to arrange a meeting, an audience with the Queen of Bartertown.

Hammer interrupted the silence of the ongoing meal with his suggestion that she go home with him. He didn't speak the words and fuck. But they were more than generously implied with the offer of bathing with him as well.

"I'm not that type of girl," she lied, though he couldn't know whether she was being truthful or not. Alice smiled devilishly as she stood, downed the rest of her harsh ale, and told him, "I'll be here an hour after sunrise to eat. If you want to join me."

And with that she turned and departed. As she returned to her rented room, Alice contemplated all she'd learned or sensed today. She'd come to Bartertown to fill her belly, her pack, and her canteen for a departure at the earliest convenience. Now she was torn as to whether or not she should ever leave. This place was like nothing Alice thought would ever exist again in her lifetime. She arrived at the building that had been converted to a boarding house. The man behind the grilled off desk ogled her hungrily. So did the two men and even a woman sitting in the lobby. Did they see her as a robbery victim, a sexual assault victim, or both? Once in her room, Alice moved the simple metal frame bed to barricade the door. She laid the mattress on the wooden floor and laid down. Her shotgun was at her side, as was her knife.

Surprisingly, she was asleep within seconds. Good beer, she would tell herself the next day. More likely it was the long, hard day. The long, hard life.

 

[TiredFingers]

(OOC: Just a quick one for each of my characters. I have plans today, but I wanted to set you up for the next day as we discussed.)

Hammer awoke with his jack hammers pounding on the inside of his skull. After Alice had made her departure, refusing his invitation of a bath and a fuck at his place, he'd sat there in the little shop and finished another three strong ales.

On his way back to his room, he found a street whore standing negotiating with some desert dweller in town for the night; he punched the man in the temple hard enough to knock him out, latched onto the woman's hands, and essentially dragged her down the dirt alley to his room. There, she sucked him off as he fantasized Alice between his knees, before he took her in each of her other two holes and finally fell to his bed to pass out.

Now as he forced himself to sit up, Hammer reached for his trousers to check the pockets. They were empty, as expected. Normally a street whore wouldn't think to rob Hammer; they all knew who he was and what he'd do to them when next he saw them. But he'd been so blasted that she'd probably assumed he wouldn't remember who'd he'd been with, if he'd remembered being with anyone at all. She would have been right on the who part anyway.

He got himself up and dressed and headed for the Police Force building where he showered and ate some breakfast. After that, he checked in with Roland, who -- as expected -- sent him off to find Alice again. After a short time of asking around, he learned where she was.

…………………

Flicker awoke as excited as he had in a long time. Yesterday had been a most momentous day; he'd presented Auntie with a spectacular proposal about solar power and then met a beautiful woman who had been educated in part in that very field.

He was certain that if he took this new information to her, Auntie would most definitely send him with assistants and guards to find the equipment at Broken Hill. He took a quick rag bath with lukewarm water, combed his hair, and even shaved before hurrying to the base of Heaven to request an audience, as Alice had called it the day before.

 

[Alice2015]

Auntie

Shortly after the Master Craftsman had finished the final work on Heaven, Auntie had put out word that small fortunes would be paid out to help her decorate it. Many would be recipients of such large quantities of Chip brought forth ideas. Many brought forth furnishings themselves. In the end Auntie's Audience Chamber was decorated with mostly pre-apocalypse furniture, art, sculptures, and more. It featured some post-disaster items as well though. Art work created from repurposed steel, furs, cloth, and stone. The atmosphere became one of old meets new. Of life meets death. No matter one's opinion, though, it all spoke of wealth and power. Few people had the wealth in this time to spend on such extravagances.

Those extravagances included the long, polished meter wide steel and glass table that stretched 4 meters out before the throne. Upon it were dozens of platters and bowls featuring a smorgasbord of dried and spiced meats, cheeses, breads, fruits, cut vegetables, and more. Pitchers offered clean water, goat's milk, juices, and wine. The layout represented the equivalent of what an average Bartertown resident ate in a month.

Flanking the table were two long couches, as comfortable and elegant as Auntie's chair. And sitting on each of them was a woman as beautiful as Auntie herself. The Master Electrician was escorted into the chamber by Crusher. He'd never been in this room, having only ever met with Auntie out in the more open foyer of Heaven. She studied his reaction to the room, to the food, and to Karma and Alice sitting on their respective couches. She gestured him forward, and Karma stood to meet him. She led him back to sit on her couch at the end nearest Auntie. Karma sat intimately close to the Master Electrician with one hand gently caressing his back as the other lay upon his upper thigh.

"Eat, Master Electrician," Auntie suggested with an inviting gesture toward the table. "Fill your belly while we speak of the future."

She herself retrieved a piece of cut fruit and sucked, then bit, then devoured it, all while staring intently at Flicker. After licking the juice from her painted lips, she told him, "I've been talking to your friend, Alice. You seem to have made an impression on her, as I believe she had likely done so upon you, yes?"

Auntie spoke of the solar power project, occasionally urging Flicker to try this food item or that anytime he seemed to be simply sitting there, maybe overwhelmed? She went on, "I am sending you to Broken Hill. I will send six men with you, for protection and labor both. You will locate what you need to finish your project. Find a way to transport it back here. Once you have, you will have twenty men to help you finish the project."

Auntie studied the Master Electrician's reaction as she spoke and after she'd finished. She casted her eyes to Karma for a moment, then back to Flicker. "If you do, if the project succeeds, if you provide Bartertown with the electrical power I yearn and which you promised me, you'll want for nothing. For the rest of your life here, you will have whatever you want."

<<<<<< >>>>>>​

Karma

She'd awoken before Auntie as was typical and began preparing to help Auntie with the day ahead. Drawing water for a cistern hidden in Heaven's ceiling and heating it over a charcoal fired stove, she drew a bath in a large tub in the corner of the bed chamber. As it heated she supervised the preparation of Auntie's breakfast and accepted the cleaned and dried clothes delivered by a laundress. It was all very normal for Auntie's morning, though it wasn't always Karma who was the servant doing the work.

The next service provided Auntie was only ever provided by Karma, though. She returned to the bed to gently and respectfully urge her mistress out of bed. "Crusher tells me there is someone important waiting to speak with you."

Instead, Karma found her own self being urge, under the covers and down Auntie's body. She dutifully (and willingly, as it always was) found her place between her mistress's thighs. She put her lips and tongue to work upon the other woman's sensitive folds and button. Soon enough, Auntie was writhing upon the large mattress, ultimately crying out at the ecstasy that exploded through her body. The pair lay in each other's arms for quite a while before Karma once again urged Auntie out of bed. They bathed together, dried, perfumed, and dressed.

<<<<<< >>>>>>​

Alice

Alice had easily fallen to sleep the night before. Exhaustion and heavily alcoholic ale can do that do you. She awoke before sunrise as was typical, though. She rose and stripped and bathed in a large bucket of water the boarding house proprietor had furnished upon Alice renting the room. Soap, shampoo, and oil Alice had gathered from the marketplace using the token around her wrist made her feel and smell like a new woman again.

She left the rented room not by the door but by the little window in the back wall. She knew Roland would have guards (maybe even Hammer) waiting to watch over her again. Alice still didn't know what Roland's specific interest in her was. But she had others she wanted to speak with today without the man knowing.

The men at the lift went on guard upon hearing and then seeing her approaching. One leveled a cross bow at her while the other circled around to take from her the shotgun she informed them she was carrying.

"I need to speak to Auntie," she demanded. When they denied her an audience, Alice told them, "I am a friend of the Master Electrician. I am working with him on the solar project. Tell her that. Tell Auntie."

They took her to a small structure which turned out to be a sort of jail house. What seemed like an hour but was significantly less passed. Then, they unlocked the door and escorted her to the hand crank lift. She looked to her gun in one guard's hand but he only laughed, pointed at the elevator, and demanded, "Get in."

At the top a guard even larger than the impressive Hammer was waiting. He gestured Alice to a chair and took her weapon from the other guard. Then, he just stood over her silent as still as the other two guards descended in the makeshift elevator once more. At one point a beautiful woman in an elegant robe and simple sandals emerged from beyond loosely hanging draperies that wafted in the morning breeze.

"I am Karma, Auntie Benevolence's servant," the tattooed woman explained. "What do you need of my mistress?"

Alice began explaining about her hours long visit with the Master Electrician and about how she would like to be part of the project. The other woman listened for a minute or so before cutting off Alice, saying, "I will speak to my mistress. Would you like anything to eat or drink while you wait?"

Alice wasn't expecting breakfast, but she shrugged her shoulders and said, "Sure."

The other woman, accompanied by the big guard who she introduced as Crusher, escorted Alice to what she then called the Audience Chamber. Alice's eyes swelled and her mouth fell open at the sight of two additional servants putting together the feast. Karma said with a polite tone, "Help yourself. I will return with an answer as to whether Auntie Benevolence will see you."

For a long moment, Alice just stared at the food and the women putting the final touches on the smorgasbord. But one of the women gestured her to sit, telling her, "It is okay. You are welcome here if my mistress's servant says you are."

Alice knew that my mistress's servant meant the tattooed woman. As she sat and began picking through and eagerly eating this and that and the other thing, Alice couldn't help but wonder what sorts of things the mistress's servant did for her [/I]mistress[/I] other than arrange breakfast. Alice got her answer several minutes later. Just beyond yet another wall of hanging, wafting draperies the easily discernible and easily heard sounds of a woman in heightening sexual enjoyment began. There was no reciprocal male sound, be it grunting from exertion or moaning from pleasure. It didn't take a genius to know who was pleasuring whom and how.

Alice's first choice of sex partner was never another woman, though she had been with another pair of breasts and a pussy before, both pre- and post-apocalypse. But listening to who she presumed to be Auntie being pleasured by (again) who she presumed to be Karma made Alice clench her thighs anxiously as she imagined her own womanhood being serviced. The sound of delight strengthened in volume and accelerated in speed until climax was most obviously achieved. Alice listened to the returning silence and only then realized that the other servants had left and that the juice of some unknown fruit had been slowly dripping down her fingers and wrist during the show.

It would be many minutes later before the tattooed woman would appear again, followed by a second who picked up a piece of fruit and circled around toward a big chair at the head of the long metal table. "I am Auntie. You wished to speak to me."

Alice explained herself, adding that Flicker planned to come here this morning. Auntie listened intently and called in the big guard, telling Crusher that the Master Electrician would be stopping by and that he was to be brought up straight away. Only moments later, Flicker was there, having already been eagerly heading for Heaven. Alice smiled politely to the man, but he seemed a bit overwhelmed at what he was seeing and barely acknowledged her.

They all sat to talk. Alice couldn't help but notice the familiarity the tattooed woman showed toward Flicker. She wondered whether or not there might have been a relationship or at least the promise of one there. When Auntie finished speaking and told Flicker he would want for nothing, Alice couldn't help but notice how Karma's hand slid higher up toward Flicker's groin. She smiled, thinking You'll want for nothing, less of all her.

Auntie stood, which the tattooed woman did as well. Seeing Karma urge Flicker to his feet, Alice thought perhaps she should rise and did so. Auntie looked to the couple and said, "Karma has some things she needs to discuss with you, Master Electrician. You can use my bed chamber for some quiet."

Looking to Alice, Auntie continued, "And you will have things to discuss with the Master Electrician about the trek to Broken Hill. Return here at midday and we will make plans. I will introduce you to the team I will have picked by then."

Alice realized that she was being dismissed. She thanked Auntie, said farewell to Karma, told Flicker they'd put together a list of needs later and turned to depart, escorted by the big guard. She waited with Crusher for the ground level guards to send the lift back up. Glancing back, she found Auntie standing at her usual place, looking down upon Bartertown's waking marketplace. Suddenly, a heavy breeze caused the inner draperies to waft greater than usual. For just an instant Alice got a peek through the drapes to what she didn't understand was Auntie's bed chamber. There, Karma was letting her gown fall to the floor about her feet, revealing a shapely body as she stepped forward to begin undressing the Master Electrician.

<<<<<< >>>>>>​

Karma

"Auntie has given me permission to be with you before you leave, Flicker," the whore said as she stepped out of the pooled clothes closer to the man before her. "I was to wait until you returned, as incentive to make sure you hurried. But I convinced her you would hurry faster if you knew what you were coming home for."

As she'd been talking, Karma had moved up close to Flicker. She was unfastening the belt, snap, and zipper to lower the pants behind which his cock was most certainly already hardening.

"Would you like to bathe with me...?" Karma asked in a low voice, finishing it with, "...Lover?"

 

[TiredFingers]

Flicker was at a loss, a total loss, at understanding what it was he was seeing upon being escorted into a lavishly decorated portion of Heaven ... and finding the three likely most beautiful women of Bartertown awaiting his arrival ... three women for all of whom he'd recently -- as early as last evening -- beat his cock to explosion in fantasies of being deep inside them.

Auntie motioned him to join the trio, and Karma -- dressed in a light, flowing robe through which her nipples readily presented themselves -- retrieved him and sat very close to him as Auntie invited him to eat from the vast array of standard foods and rare specialties.

Flicker couldn't help but get hard as he felt Karma's hand resting on his thigh just a bit closer to his cock than to his knee. What the fuck is going on here? his brain screamed to him.

"I am sending you to Broken Hill..."

Flicker smiled with immediate joy at Auntie's words. All morning he'd been practicing what to say to her when he arrived, only to find that he didn't have to say a word.

"... I will send six men with you..."

As he listened, Flicker imagined the work ahead of them. He'd feared that Auntie might send him alone, unwilling to risk her men on a trek that was so fraught with failure and disaster. After talking with Alice for hours, he'd been convinced that if Auntie did send him, Alice would surely be allowed to go as well. Six men was an unbelievable boon to the trek; Flicker had worried about failure and about death at the hands of Desert Dwellers, but not the latter was less likely and he only had the former about which to sweat.

"Find a way to transport it back here...

That, of course, was likely going to be harder than locating the building at Broken Hill, whether it be empty or still filled with solar power hardware. Flicker didn't know if Auntie would give them horses or camels for the trek there and back. He had heard that she had access to both, but pack animals were rarer -- and more valuable -- than even the most experienced and helpful of human servants. Hell, Flicker could see Auntie or Roland or anyone else of power trading his life for a pair of breeding rabbits, let alone a horse or camel.

That meant that once they reached Broken Hill -- or somewhere along the way -- they would have to find pack animals and carts or working vehicles. There were still some of those, though not many. It wasn't that there weren't cars or trucks or other combustion vehicles to be found; there were dozens of them beyond Bartertown's rock walls being slowly swallowed up by the blowing sounds.

The problem was that there was so little fuel to be had. Occasionally Flicker heard or saw one of Roland's vehicles out in the flats beyond Bartertown, coming or going or simply running its engine and testing out some new modification.

But Flicker doubted very much that Roland was going to let that rig be used for such a likely fruitless venture. Auntie may be Roland's sister, and Auntie may run Bartertown, but Roland was anything but Auntie's puppet. Flicker didn't know the true relationship and power structure between them, but he had heard the rumors that they didn't always agree and that Roland never caved into his sister's demands unless he got some significant out of it.

Regarding his successfully returning with the hardware, Auntie told Flicker, "Once you have, you will have twenty men to help you finish the project."

He beamed with delight once again. Thus far she'd only ever let him take on one assistant, and the boy had often been more liability than not. "Thank you, Auntie. You will not be sorry."

"If you do, if the project succeeds, if you provide Bartertown with the electrical power I yearn and which you promised me," Auntie continued, "you'll want for nothing. For the rest of your life here, you will have whatever you want."

Flicker was trying to imagine just what whatever you want might include when he felt Karma's hand slide farther up his thigh. He glanced down to his groin without thinking; his crotch was huge with his poorly positioned and fully swollen cock, and the tips of Karma's fingers were only inches from touching his anxious manhood.

Auntie stood, as did Karma and then Alice. Flicker hesitated, knowing that there would be no way to hide the excitement below his belt line. When he rose, he tried to pull his midsection back a bit, to lessen the tightness of his trousers over his groin. He doubted it was working well, but he wasn't about to look down and draw attention to himself.

"Karma has some things she needs to discuss with you, Master Electrician," Auntie said. "You can use my bed chamber for some quiet."

Flicker felt Karma take his hand and begin leading him away. He looked to her, then back, calling, "Thank you, Auntie. I will not fail you."

Soon, he was standing in the most elaborately decorated bed chamber he'd seen in his life, pre- or post-apocalypse. And a moment later, Karma was standing before him naked. She'd simply pulled at the tie at her waist, spread the front of her robe, and let it fall to the carpet upon which they stood.

"Would you like to bathe with me...?" Karma asked as she began unbuckling his belt. He just stood there, open mouthed, as his gaze shifted from her beautiful face to her firm breasts to her smoothly shaved oh my god. He heard Karma add to her question. "...Lover?"

Flicker felt his pants fall downward, felt Karma's fingers at the buttons of his shirt, felt himself being set back onto the edge of the bed behind him, felt his boots being removed, then the rest of his clothes. Before he knew it, Karma was inviting him back to his feet with an offered hand as she asked him again about taking a bath with her.

"Yes … yes … oh God, yes," Flicker said quickly, grasping the woman's hand and standing before her. His cock, averaged sized he'd always thought though it was actually a good inch or more than that, stuck straight out before him as if to scream You! Yes, you! I am for you! Use me!

 

[Alice2015]

As Karma began leading Flicker toward the bathtub, the man responded to the invitation to take a bath with, "Yes … yes … oh God, yes."

Karma kept her eyes on his face, not looking down to his groin. But even in her peripheral vision she could see his fully stiffened and now horizontal cock wagging back and forth with each step. She urged Flicker into the tub, which the other servants had drained and refilled for the bath Auntie had encouraged Karma to have with the Master Electrician. (The water descended on a pipe to a tank that was used to irrigate plants in a greenhouse that had supplied some of this morning's vegetable and fruit treats. Water didn't get wasted in Bartertown.) Once he was inside, Karma followed. She didn't hurry, letting Flicker see as much of her for as long as he wanted to stare. She smiled devilishly as she wet her hands and caressed them over her flesh Droplets clung to or slid down her breasts, her belly, the junction of her thighs, her outer labia which (from his lower position) Flicker had a wonderful view of.

Finally, she lowered into the tub into his lap. She pressed her mouth to his as she pressed her pussy against the underside of his shaft. She began rocking almost immediately. The feel of his cock against her inner labia changed as her own lubricants joined the water to lessen the friction. Karma had always gotten very wet very fast. It was the only reason she could take Hammer's big cock so instantaneously without severe pain when he made his weekly visits.

"Put me inside you, lover," Karma whispered to Flicker between kisses. "I want to feel you inside me, lover. I want to feel you deep inside me."

 

[TiredFingers]

We are taking a pause while I am on vacation.