Tales of the Wastelander Ch. 32 - Teaser (Patreon)

“I wasn’t sure if this was real, but after enough time had passed, I realized that this was a place where I could be myself and not worry about what I was. How I no longer had to worry about being attacked or hurt, just for being me. Such freedom is… intoxicating!!” Khara told the group.

“I can imagine! I’m curious about why we were all bagged like that,” Samara asked, wondering why they did that.

“Ah! That is done as a safety precaution, even to those who would be our allies outside of our home. It is only done as a means of keeping the location of this place safe, so no one can find us. It’s as much for their safety as it is for ours,” Khara explained.

“Keep them in the dark about the location of this place, so no one can force them to lead them straight to you,” Chelsea reasoned, thinking the measure was a clever one.

“That’s exactly right! There are plenty of people out there who would see us all dead, if they could find us. We do everything we can to ensure that they can’t, so we can continue to live here, in peace,” Khara told them. “Ah! Here we are!”

The woman then stopped at a cottage on the outer edge of the town, which was almost as big as a small house. It was made of stone and looked like it had stood there for quite some time. Khara led the way inside, showing them what lay within the dwelling. There were a few rooms for sleeping, dining and cooking, along with a functioning bathroom, which everyone was grateful for, especially the girls!

“Well, of all the things that survived Nuke Day, I’m certainly glad that indoor plumbing made it!” Chelsea sighed as she laughed. She, along with Samara and Markie, was more than happy that she no longer had to dig a hole for when she had to go.

“Nuke Day?” Khara asked.

“The Day of the Great Collapse,” Zahn told her, clarifying things.

“Oh! Before the Great Change happened! I understand!” Khara said with a chuckle. “We didn’t always have this, though.”

“You didn’t?” Chelsea asked, thinking that such a situation must have been horrible.

“Only a couple hundred years ago did it first come about and even then, much of it was rudimentary. Like the water we have running through the spouts there,” Khara gestured to the sink and faucet combination in the washroom and the kitchen.

“Still, we are grateful to have these things in this day and age! Thank you for letting us stay here!” Markie told the woman.

“Khara!” a voice called from outside, which everyone recognized and Rhyka.

“In here!” Khara called out and in a few moments, Rhyka had stepped inside the cottage to see what was going on.

“Ah! Still getting situated?” Rhyka asked, looking over the group.

“Just starting to. But I gotta ask, where is the bathroom?” Samara wondered, as she was feeling a bit grungy and could use herself a proper bath right about then.

“Oh, we took those out a long time ago. Makes for more room to store things inside our homes and for just more overall space. We have ourselves a communal bath instead, where we can all get some time to rest, relax and wash the day’s grime away,” Rhyka stated.

“You have… communal baths?” Chelsea asked, a little weirded out by the idea.

“We do. We find it is a bit better when we can all sit, talk and just overall relax with our friends. There are also places in it where one can have nothing but pure privacy if they wish it,” Khara told them.

“Hunh! Well… I will say that the idea of a communal bath is sort of… interesting. Never really heard of that being done anywhere before,” Markie said to them.

“Did you ever study history?” Samara asked, the smaller woman, who shook her head in response.

“Another history lesson, Sambo?” Chelsea asked, knowing that Samara had a thing for history.

“Yup! There were communal baths in many ancient civilizations, like the Roman and the Ottoman empires. It was always a big thing to do, and it was a social and cultural thing that was almost always done. Hell, even the Japanese still had them back in our day,” Samara informed her friends.