53 Miles West of Venus Ch. 06

"Ok, I've taken this route once, about three years ago right after the Littlejohn team finished scouting a viable back door out of here. It's about a three-day trip and there are pre-positioned camps with supplies at about four-hour intervals along the route. We're going to take the route slow and carefully, so there will be prepared places to rest and even cook food. It won't be a fun hike in spots, there will be some more climbs down and a fuck-load of climbs going up, mostly with either fixed ropes or ladders already fixed in place. Pray and pray hard that they are still there three years later! It's downhill for about half a day from here and then it levels out for a bit, then it's all going up towards the surface. The climb only gets technical at about three places, but done smart and carefully you'll both do fine."

That was easy for Phyl to say about the lack of hard technical climbing ... Phyl was an experienced mountain climber who had a summit of Everest to her credit and occasionally mentioned that she someday wanted the real challenge of doing K-2.

"Where's Peggy?" Fredi suddenly wondered as we started to rummage through the prepared camping supplies that had been left here for just this sort of emergency.

"She and Cherry both went out earlier tonight right after board games with Bryce. There's a hidden emergency escape tunnel downstairs in the security quarters that leads into the big grove of white mulberry trees to the north, right next to the fence into the Collins ranch. Everyone else got out that way and should have been long safe with the Collins' even before things started to get interesting. A couple of security guys are going to hide and watch the fun over the next day or two, but passively and from a safe distance. Everyone's fine."

"What about your bird, Onan? Did he get left behind?"

"Also no...", I laughed, "Cherry has him with her in a pet carrier. He'll be very pissed off ... but safe. Unfortunately, she'll probably even return him to me later when this is over. The Queen would be miffed at me if some accident were to befall that bright green squawking chicken dinner."

There was little point in starting out at this late hour of the morning so no one argued when Phyl suggested that we pitch up a tent and blow up an air mattress and get a few hours of sleep before the long slog out of here started. Actually, the devious dusky devil didn't have any notion at all about sleep, but other things instead.

With a smile, Phyl and Fredi looked at each other and together they pulled off their wet t-shirts, which significantly improved the view. Their jeans came down next ... followed by mine. Tugged down with great forceful insistence by two determined women.

"Technically," Phyl laughed, "I'm the one in charge now of the evacuation team, so I don't want to hear another word about your authority or independence! You've got two very horny women here that are long overdue for some very special attention!"

Oh yes... long and very hard overdue!