Callie's Ranch Read online

  Callie's Ranch

  (Post-Apocalyptic MILF)

  Holly Ardent

  Text copyright © 2019, Holly Ardent

  All Rights Reserved

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  Brian glanced down in his backpack to confirm what he thought he knew.

  Yeah, I got enough food for two meals tomorrow and that's it. Time to go back to that spot where the locals go to find help.

  Things were seriously screwed up and he was far away from home. He'd made the hundred mile trip in a couple of hours the evening before his birthday. His friends were all going to be coming up to the campground the next day, but he'd wanted to be there early and have a peaceful night before the raucous party he knew his friends had planned.

  Little did he know that when he woke the next morning his car, and just about every other car produced after the mid-1980s, refused to start. He still heard engines running somewhere in the distance, but it took him more than a day to figure out what was going on.

  Every engine he heard in the distance was from an older model car, of which there was no lack of in this area. The campground and lake he'd chosen for his party was inexpensive, primarily because it was in the middle of a rural area made up of farms and small towns. There were a lot of old beater trucks in the area and those were the only thing he saw running after his car would no longer start.

  He'd started talking with one of the other guys at the campsite, one who didn't seem as panicked as everyone else. What the man had told him was that it was probably an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) attack. He claimed that when they'd tested the effects of EMPs and stated that they wouldn't affect cars, they'd only tested a bomb that was about a quarter as powerful as what was available at the time, and that EMP bombs had only grown stronger since then.

  When Brian had gotten up the next morning that man, along with his tent and family, were gone. They'd disappeared at some point after it had gotten dark and no-one else knew when or where they'd left, although their vehicle, an older model SUV, was also gone. Brian hadn't realized that the man's car would still start. Evidently, knowing what would happen if everyone else found out that he had a working car, he hadn't tried to start his when everyone else had.

  That left Brian, and about twenty other campers, stranded at the campgrounds. It had been less than a day before a local man drove up in a rusted out old pickup truck. He hadn't gotten very close to the crowd, but he'd yelled out that anyone who was willing to work could earn food and maybe a place to stay. Then he'd yelled directions to a small convenience store about two miles away and said that was where people looking for work should go.

  The crowd had started towards his truck then and he'd accelerated away, leaving a plume of dust behind him.

  The body of that truck is trashed, but the engine's sure in good shape, Brian had thought.

  * * *

  Now, here it was, more than a month later. Brian had taken on several jobs a week, getting enough food for a few days at a time. He'd been considering trying to walk back to his home city, until he'd heard the radio the last guy he worked for had left on for his workers.

  In between broadcasts of a truly eclectic array of music, there had been news segments as well. From what Brian had heard the big cities, like the one he'd been thinking of returning to, were now hell on earth. Not enough food, gangs taking over massive territories and abusing the previous residents of them, police pretty much vanished from the streets, and potable water more valuable than gold.

  He didn't even have to add in the news broadcasts about people being ambushed in the areas outside of the larger cities if they were walking along a road and looked like they had something of value. Just the reports about what the cities were like was enough to discourage him from trying to get back to his apartment.

  It's not like there's a whole hell of a lot for me there anyhow. A bunch of clothes? Maybe some food still in the cupboards if my place hasn't been ransacked yet. What I wouldn't give for a gun, or even a big knife, right about now, but I didn't even have those at home.

  He decided that tomorrow he'd go back to the store where people were hired for work, but instead of a short stint like all the ones he'd taken so far, he'd look for something longer term. After all it was now technically fall and while the winter in this area wasn't truly bitter, he didn't look forward to trying to sleep in a tent when it went below freezing. Not to mention that most of the jobs he'd been doing were farming related and he was sure they'd dry up once winter was here.

  He went to sleep with plans to get up with the dawn so he could be one of the first potential workers at the store. A lot of the ones he'd seen there before didn't show up until ten o'clock or later. He was pretty sure that if he was up at dawn, he could make it there by eight o'clock and maybe have first pick of the jobs, if there were any he wanted.

  It wasn't even dark out when he fell asleep, so waking up at the first sign of light was easy. He grabbed what food he had left, split it in half, then ate breakfast while walking along the road. So far, no-one had messed with his tent while he was out working, he'd been giving a little of the food he earned to someone who stayed at the campgrounds to keep an eye on things, and that had been working out well. It meant he didn't have to break camp anytime he was leaving.

  He wasn't sure, but he thought he made his goal. Normally he'd just check his phone for the time, but much like his car his phone had been destroyed by the blast. There were only a couple of trucks sitting in the lot when he got there, one with a rusted out bed like the one that had visited the campground, and the other a 1960s Chevy pickup that looked to be in pristine condition, except for the fact that it desperately needed a wash.

  He walked over towards the Chevy. He wasn't infatuated with cars like a lot of the other guys he knew, but there was something about that one that called to him.

  “You like her?” a woman's voice asked.

  He spun to find himself looking at an older woman. She looked a bit thick, but something about the way she was walking towards him told Brian that it wasn't fat, or at least not all of it was.

  Because those are some massive tits and I know tits are made up of fat. But the rest of her? I don't think that's all fat, she walks like some of the weightlifters I've run into, the really muscular ones. Although she doesn't have the sheer bulk they do.

  He glanced back at the pickup truck.

  “Gorgeous,” he said. “Needs a wash, obviously, but she looks to be in prime condition. If the exterior is any indication I bet she runs like a top too.”

  The woman looked him over for a moment.

  “You here looking for work?” she asked.

  He nodded.

  “Yeah, I wanted to get here early and maybe get first pick. I'm tired of doing the short term stuff, so I thought I'd just wait it out until I could find something longer term.”

  She cocked her head.

  “Really? Why's that? You're from the campground, right?”

  He nodded again.

  “Yes I am, got stranded there the day before my twenty-first birthday. I guess if those blasts came after midnight, they were pretty much the worst birthday present I'll ever get.”

  She looked at him, pursed her lips, and laughed softly.

  “Still got your sense of humor at least,” she said.

  “That's pretty dark for humor, don't you think?”

  “Gallows humor, it's always the last to go and the first to return. You can have lighthearted humor any time things are going well, but gallows humor always seems to work. Even if it does work best when things suck.”

  Brian was about to try to contradict her when he stopped to think about it.

  She's r
ight, damn it. I don't have to like it though, he thought.

  “Okay, I have to give you that one,” he said, “I don't have to like it though.”

  “Me either, but like it or not it's all that got me through when my husband died,” she replied. “That was a really dark year for me and if it weren't for gallows humor I wouldn't have had any at all.”

  Brian was instantly apologetic.

  “I'm sorry,” he said. “I had no idea. I didn't mean to bring up painful memories.”

  Crap, he thought, I'd hoped she was getting around to offering me work. Looks like I've blown any chance of that now.

  She shrugged.

  “No way you could've and it was a few years back. I won't say I'm over it, but I learned to live with it and keep living. It's what he would've wanted, I think, and I'm not about to end my life because I lost someone. If we all did that, there'd be no human race left. Not that the human race isn't headed that way anyhow, not if what I've heard on the radio is right.”

  He went silent for a moment.

  “What've you heard?” he asked finally. “The only time I heard a radio was a week or so back when I was doing some work for a guy named Callahan. He had a radio going that we could listen to while we worked.”

  “Cities burning, people killing each other for virtually nothing, no different than normal times, just more exaggerated,” she said. “But that's neither here nor there. You were telling me why you wanted long term work if I remember right.”

  “Oh, yeah,” Brian said, remembering her question. “Well, I know we're well into fall now and all I've got for shelter is a tent. I've got no stores of food, and I'm sure there'll be a problem with getting water when it drops below freezing. I'm willing to work and quick to learn what I need to know. So I thought I'd look for something more long term and maybe learn some sort of skill that will be useful, you know? I can do manual labor and don't mind it too much, but...”

  He shook his head slowly.

  “That's not what I want to do for the rest of my life so the sooner I learn something useful, the better.”

  She started at him pensively. As she watched him she captured her lower lip with her upper teeth and gently bit. Brian just waited, wondering what she was doing.

  “Good,” she said finally, “you aren't one of those people who feel the need to fill silence with inane chatter.”

  He just shrugged. She grinned at him.

  “Maybe a bit too reticent to talk though. I'm Callie,” she said, sticking out her hand.

  “Brian,” he said, taking her hand and shaking it, “and I've been known to talk my head off, I just didn't have anything to say about that. There's a reason it's called a comfortable silence.”

  Her grin widened.

  “The people who understand that are far too rare, in my opinion. So, what kind of work can you do?”

  They got down to the nuts and bolts of his skills, what work she wanted done on a regular basis, and what he'd have to learn to do it. Brian was surprised to discover that some of the skills he did have would prove useful. He'd thought he'd have to learn everything from scratch. After all, he'd had to learn what to do for the manual labor jobs he'd taken. Callie wanted things that required a bit more skill though, mainly with machinery, and his habit of tinkering with things to keep them running or make them run better was now going to pay off.

  “Deal then?” Callie asked. “You come to work for me, I pay with food and lodging for now and if it works out we'll figure some sort of additional pay later on.”

  “It's a deal,” he said.

  “One last time though, since I want this to be clear. I listed some primary duties, but that won't be everything you do. It pretty much boils down to you do what I tell you to do.”

  She stuck her hand out, waiting. After a moment he took it and gave it a firm shake.

  “Yeah, I do what you tell me,” he agreed.

  Callie broke out into a smile then, a big one. It made her face light up and for a moment the moderately attractive woman Brian had gauged her to be when he first saw her was replaced by a real beauty.

  “Well, hop in then,” she said, gesturing a thumb towards the old Chevy. “We'll go grab your stuff from the campground, then get back to my place and get you settled in.”

  * * *

  Callie pulled the Chevy onto a long gravel driveway and Brian watched in awe as they drove up a half mile of driveway to get to a low, rambling, ranch style house.

  “This is your house?” he asked.

  “Yup, this is it. Bigger than I need right now. We used to have a twenty-two hundred and fifty acre spread, my husband ran cattle on it. Had a bunch of extra bedrooms in the house, both for my kids and the extra hands we needed at times during the year. Kids are gone now though, moved out a few years back, and I haven't needed the extra hands since I sold off two thousand acres of the spread. I wasn't willing to keep running cattle by myself after my husband died. I had my hands full with the fifty acre farm I'd worked up.”

  “So, it's just a farm now?”

  “Well, a two hundred and fifty acre spread is a bit more than I want to farm. So now it's just fifty acres of farm plus I run a few cattle for my own needs, plus some extra cattle I planned to butcher and sell off. Now, those extra are insurance. I've got chickens, cattle, and fifty acres of non-GMO wheat, plus a half acre garden. That should tell you why I needed extra help. I could barely keep up with it all before the blasts, since then I've been falling behind.”

  “Yeah, are two of us going to be able to handle it?” Brian asked.

  “Maybe not right away, but once I've got you trained up we'll be able to do it. I still need to finish converting some solar panels to power a few things. They used to be on those two thousand acres I sold, hooked up to pumps to draw water for the cattle, but the guy buying it wanted to go back to wind pumps instead. So I had a bunch of solar panels in the basement and they still work, so...”

  “What are you using them for?”

  “Some in the house so I've still got electric in spots. Some for the milking pumps, got a few milk cows segregated from the herd, that sort of thing.”

  He nodded.

  “Okay then, where do I start?”

  She shut the truck off and slid out of it with Brian following. Callie walked over to a stall on the outside of the house.

  “You start here. Strip,” she said.

  “What?”

  “You need a shower pretty badly. And those clothes ought to be burned, but we don't waste anything around here, especially not now, so I'll wash them and we'll tuck them away somewhere for the cloth. In the meanwhile I think you're about the same size my husband used to be, less broad in the shoulders, but his stuff ought to fit you. I'll go get some while you get clean.”

  She stared at him until he started shucking out of his shirt, then she turned and walked off towards the door to the house. The water was frigid and he was glad there was a curtain to close off the stall from the outside or it might've been colder still. He was even gladder for the curtain when Callie's voice rang out.

  “When you're done there's a towel on the hook right outside the stall. The clothes are on the bench next to the stall. Come inside after.”

  I'm so glad she isn't waiting, he thought. Not that I had thoughts that way, not many anyhow, but it would be embarrassing to have her see me with my cock and balls all shriveled and trying to crawl into my body to get warm.

  When he was done soaping up and rinsing off, twice since she'd been right about him needing the shower, he shut the water off and reached out. Sure enough, the hook right around the corner had a soft towel hanging from it. After drying, dressing, and discovering that her late husband had also had a larger waist than Brian did, he headed to the house.

  He walked in to a scent that immediately set him to drooling. Meat, rich meat, and some kind of potatoes as well. The scent of them filled the air so he followed his nose into the kitchen where Callie was standing over the stove.

&
nbsp; “Have a seat, dinner will be up soon,” she said. “Hope you like beef, that's most of what the main courses will be around here.”

  Brian was having a hard time keeping the drool from dripping out of his mouth. The rich, fatty, meaty scent alone was nearly as filling as most of the food he'd had in the past month. He swallowed quickly so he could answer her.

  “No problem here,” he said. “That sounds great.”

  A few minutes later she tossed a slab of meat on a plate and followed it with a large scoop of fried potatoes. She'd fried them like potato chips, except they were a bit thicker than normal chips. She dished out the same for herself then set the plates on the table. He waited until she was sitting and when she immediately picked up her fork and knife, he dug in.

  He didn't even finish the steak she'd put on his plate. He found himself full well before he was done. She glanced at him as she finished her own meat.

  “We're gonna need to fatten you up a bit Brian. Your body will need all that protein because I guarantee that if you stay here you'll be putting on a lot of muscle.”

  “Sorry, I'm full. Haven't been eating much recently.”

  “I thought that might be the case, don't worry about it. So far food isn't a worry for me here.”

  He nodded, slowly drifting off into a food coma.

  “Follow me and I'll show you your room,” she said.

  When she opened the door to a bedroom, he took his belongings in.

  “I'm just across the hall if you need anything,” she said.

  She opened the door across the hall and he noticed that the room beyond looked occupied, but neat.

  “I'll give you a little bit of time to settle in, then I'll go over the one final primary duty I didn't mention earlier. I'm happy to train you in it if needed, but I didn't want to discuss it in public,” she said.

  Then she stepped into her bedroom and closed the door. Brian shook his head at her cryptic statement, then started taking out his few belongings before noticing that there were stacks of clothing on the bed as well.