New World, New Love By Jay Bates
When Eli proposed developing the natural limestone caverns into vaults and storage, everyone agreed. This is Why the location of Old Springfield, MO was selected. But when he told them the size of the vaults he proposed, everyone laughed, but they did as he asked. Now they would be glad at his foresight. His house was located a quarter mile from the eastern entrance gate. The sky seemed to be nearly as bright as day as the spotlight system was up and running to guide the military aircraft to the freshly renovated Springfield-Branson Airport. Eli was very happy that they had expanded the runways when they took control of the abandoned city.
He met General Johnson at the gate. Ryan Johnson was in his mid-60's and had somehow survived the middle east destruction of the Decades War. Johnson had retired right after the nuclear fallout had settled. It was intense PTSD he was struggling with, his final job was to evacuate the Jerusalem embassy, a duty that he failed at when he was ordered to leave before getting the family of the local groundskeeper loaded. He spent years having nightmares of their faces. After his retirement he joined with a private security firm and spoke out against the hundreds of conflicts around the globe. He was a founding member of the Ozark community and was now in charge of the security and defense.
Eli was guessing what would happen as the General was already beginning to speak, "The nation went down in one hell of a shit show, huh?, the General said trying to be humorous, but Eli could see the pain in the veterans eyes. " So Eli I'll escort all the military to the airfield and you take the artifact loaded semi's to the Vaults."
"Sounds good, but what are we going to do with all these people?," Eli said in frustration, "we down have the bed space for all of them. If push comes to shove, we can feed them, but hell if I know where to let the stay."
"Last week we started the walls around site #2. I'm saying we put the military boys to work," the General said matter of factly. To be honest it wasn't that bad of an idea, they had taken possession of old Branson, with plans to use it for future expansion. With all the abandoned resorts and hotels they could house 10,000 of these military personal and their families, it wouldn't be pretty but would work. Each would be vetted and if the General was happy, they would help grow their new little world. Hopefully.
Once all the military hardware was by the gates it was Eli's turn. First up was an armored van. The driver got and the first thing Eli could tell you, this person was not very tall or very big. " Dr. Fields?" They light tenor voice questioned. Eli couldn't quite make out who was before him with the glow of the spotlight and headlights glaring in his eyes.
"Yes. And you are?," Eli spoke a little apprehensively.
The figure stepped a little closer and laughed saying, "Oh yeah, I'm Dr. Isaiah Weizfeldt, Director of the Smithsonian Salvation project."
Eli was shocked twice over. First that Dr. Weizfeldt was even alive. All reports the past 5 years had been that he had not survived the capital destruction from the Russian bombing. The story had gone that he had been killed trying to evacuate the last items from the national archives.
The Second shock was when he noticed how cute the little Doctor was. Standing at 5'2 there was no way he cracked 100lbs. He had a short cut, but obviously still curly dark brown almost black hair and deep brown eyes behind thick glasses. A short cropped beard, a crooked smile, and a slightly crooked teeth, he was near perfection in Eli's eyes. If he hadn't been simultaneously exhausted and overwhelmed, Eli would have definitely have been sporting a hard-on.
"Dr. Weizfeldt I'm so excited to meet you, alive and all."
The tiny man began to laugh and then spoke, " You should see my secondact, making 200 semi's disappear for the last 5 years. And please call me Isaiah," he said as he lightly chuckled. "But what I had in that van behind me was worth letting the world think I was dead. "
"Call me Eli, and is that was I think it is?" Eli's heart began to race as he realized what was in the armored van.
"Yes. The original Declaration, Constitution, and Bill of Rights. I also have a Guttenberg Bible, All the British Crown Jewels and the Magna Carta. They last things barely made it out of London before the Isles were destroyed. That King William was one hell of a pilot."
Eli got into the front seat of the armored van and directed the caravan to the vault entry. The next 24 hours was a whirlwind as every truck was emptied and all its contents were stacked to beginning the cataloging process in the weeks, months, and years to come. By the end of it there were 200 empty semi's setting in the factory district and both men were beyond exhausted.
As Eli and Isaiah began to head out Eli was locking down each section and in walked Mr. Janes. Ezra Janes was a founding member of the Ozark community, a 50+ year old businessman. He was also the only founder that Eli did not trust. "Dr. Weizfeldt, so glad to meet you," came dripping from Ezra's lips as he shook Isaiah's hand, making him feel even grimier that he already did. "Thank you for delivering all our things to us. We appreciate it. You will be escorted to Old Branson and we will decide if you will be allowed to remain in our community."
"The Hell I Will!," Exclaimed Isaiah. " I've been in charge of the care of these artifacts for the last 5 years, I go nowhere." The tiny Isaiah stood firm, while the older Ezra was about to throw some cocky weight around.
"Gentlemen, If I may," said Eli hoping to break the growing tension. "Ezra, if I had known Dr. Weizfeldt was still alive he would have been one of the people I reached out to for our community. I personally vouch for him and if is willing, he can be my house guest until we can find him an appropriate place to live." Both men agreed, though Ezra was far from happy about it. "Now I've been awake for over 38 hours and I am going home and to bed. We will finish this discussion tomorrow or the day after. Good night.
Eli and Isaiah caught a ride to Eli's house. There was no real discussion, barely any talking. Eli showed Isaiah where the bathroom was and to the guest room. Eli really only got his shoes off before he practically passed out in bed. The lights were still on. The world changed all over, again, but for now that doesn't matter, for now was a much needed rest.
Chapter 4
The first thing Eli realized as he woke was that his body ached all over, so exhausted he literally had not moved. Rolling over he looked to the clock and realized it was three in the afternoon. He had slept over 15 hours, and was pretty sure that he could have slept even longer if he wasn't so sore.
He stripped off his clothes and headed into his master bathroom. Stopping at the shower to turn on the water to warm up he then went to the toilet to relieve himself. It wasn't until he was in the shower that he remembered that he had a house guest. Man, Isaiah was cute, maybe not to everyone, but to Eli, he was just his type. After a quick shower he realized just how hungry he was as well. It had been more that 36 hours since he had last ate anything.
Eli tossed on some shorts and a t-shirt and headed to the kitchen. He could hear that his guest was in the shower and was glad that he was settling in. He knew that his guest was Jewish and Eli wasn't sure how observant that he was so he would skip frying any bacon or scrapple for their afternoon breakfast. He settled in on making some omelets, using some of his onions and peppers from the garden. He also began to slice some of the Challah bread he had prepared earlier in the week to make some toast. Omelets with toast and homemade preserves, sounded like a pretty good meal to him.
"Um Eli, I think I left my bags in the vault and I don't think your clothes will fit." Eli turned and nearly fainted at the sight before him. Isaiah stood before him nearly naked. His tiny frame was not so by exercise, but by nature, a naturally slim build with the tiniest of bellies. What really got Eli going was the hair; Isaiah was purely a pocket otter, covered in that dark brown almost black hair. He had on the tiniest pair of extra small trunks with an extremely impressive bulge in front.
Regaining his composure to speak Eli said, "Yeah, let's eat something and then I'll head down to the vaults to your bags for you. They are in my office so they should be a quick item to grab." Obviously not shy Isaiah walked to the kitchen table and sat down. Eli could smell the faint sent of the Old Glory body wash he had stocked in the guest bathroom. Eli put their very late breakfast on the table and they both ate with gusto. Isaiah was tiny but he could really pack the food away.
"That was wonderful! But I gotta ask though, did you skip bacon for me?," Isaiah asked.
"Well I wasn't sure if you were observant or not and I didn't want to push," replied Eli.
"Nope. I guess I should be, there are less than 10,000 of us left, I'm endangered." He said with a chuckle, "but there are a lot bigger issues than my love of all things pork preventing that." Eli was curious to what he meant, but decided not to push.
"Well I'm going to run down to the vaults. I'm sure that I'll get stopped 2-3 times, so make yourself at home. TV works and my computer is in the study, so settle in and relax."
As expected Eli got stopped several times on the way to and from the vaults, and ended up in a tele-conference with the founding counsel. Big decisions had been made while he slept, most he liked, some he would just have to deal with. Either way he had a lot of work ahead of him. The question was, will Isaiah be interested in the position we are going to offer him?
It was nearly eight before he arrived home. Stepping into the laundry room he dropped off all of Isaiah's bags. The next thing he noticed was that things smelled good. His creole feast from days before was warming up on the stove and a fresh cake, what look like red velvet, was on the counter. The kitchen was spotless and even noticed that floor had been mopped. Eli was very impressed. He was also impressed with the choice of music coming from his study, Luciano Pavarotti, belting out an impressive opera. As he walked to the study door he was an adorable but arousing sight. Asleep in his leather wingback chair sat Isaiah with one of his book slumped to the side and his tabby, Kira, curled up in his lap.
Eli spoke softly as he tried to wake Isaiah, "I'm back, sorry it took so long but I got stopped even more than I expected." Then he said with a smile, "I know I was gone awhile, but did you really have time to bake a cake?"
Yawning Isaiah spoke, "I must have dozed off. No a lady stopped by, a Sara Johnson, very sweet. She said it was your favorite? I'm just glad I found a robe in the closet, I don't want to be known as the flasher!" He said and followed it up with giggles.
"Oh she's wonderful, the Generals wife. She had 7 sons, you could have answered the door naked and she never would have noticed," Eli said with a hearty laugh.
"7 sons! Wow!" Do they also live here in Ozark?"
"4 do, they are on the Generals constabulary force. They lost the other 3. 2 in Chinese battles and 1 in Alaska. They don't talk about it much, but I know that it contributed to the Generals military retirement." This was a story like so many the last 25 years.
"Ok that is so sad. I'm glad they still have the other 4. I guess though we've all lost someone," he said with sadness in his eyes. He paused to regain his composure, "I saw you had some good looking food prepared in the fridge, I hope you don't mind that I warmed it up."
"Not at all. You didn't have to, but I appreciate it. That's what I was going to do anyway." Eli motioned to the kitchen, as Isiah pointed to Kira in his lap, "You'll just have to pick her up, she's stubborn, I am surprised she got in your lap, she's not much of a lap cat," Eli said with slight jealousy, wishing he was that close to Isaiah's crotch.
"Well I sat down here and she stared at me for a while. Then she jumped in my lap and went to sleep."
"You were in her chair!," Eli said with a laugh. "She has claimed that chair for herself. Since you didn't move, you had to share."
"That's ok, she's pretty sweet, I'm pretty sure her purring is what put me to sleep," Isaiah shared.
"Shes pretty good at doing that," Eli said laughing. "Let's get some grub and then you can start some laundry, then we have a lot to discuss."
Eli was again astounded by just how much that Isaiah could consume. 3 bowls of gumbo with a large scoop of Cajun rice in each, 4 slices of cornbread covered in honey and two good sized slices of Red Velvet. "Either you have a metabolism out of this world or you are near starved!," Eli said with a smile.
"Well a bit of both. I haven't put any weight on since I was 11 years old and enough food has been hard to come by the last 5 years. I'd heard stories of what you all have been building for yourselves, but you are honestly the first community that doesn't seem to have a food shortage in the last 15 years."
"I'm really proud of what we've done. It wasn't easy but we are getting there. Heck we only finished the wall 5 hours before we met. But we were lucky too, after the Ft. Leonard Wood incident, this entire region was evacuated, and looters and scrappers were so focused on St. Louis that they left virtually everything this far west untouched," Eli shared. "But between the expertise we've brought in and the treaties we've signed with other city-states, we've been able to create something pretty special."
"I'd say! Also who would have thought that business like Disney, Coke, Apple, Google, and Microsoft would be their own cities."
"Yeah, we've got some great partnerships with all of them." Eli was proud to share, "Our cavern vaults are more extensive than what you've seen and they all are using them. Which leads me to decisions that were made while we were working and sleeping. We've been in contact with 72 of our fellow American City-States, they all have agreed that the Smithsonian and National Archives should stay here. They all just would like access."
"That's Amazing!," said Isaiah with a big smile, "But there are three more, what about them?"
"Well Cook, New Brooklyn and San-Cali aren't happy about it and want their share. But they are never happy. We hope that the situation can be managed." Eli decided to change directions. "So the founder counsel has made a few decisions. First your citizenship was been approved, so welcome to the neighborhood. Second I was supposed to build our education system and take charge of the vaults. Well that just can't work anymore. So since you are the most familiar with all the new stuff, we would like you to take the position of preservationist. Which would mean you are in charge of all the historical vaults. So what do you say?"
"There were a few moments of silence, then Isaiah spoke, "Thank you and I accept, but now not to be selfish, where am I going to live? My home was destroyed 5 years ago. I only have the clothes and item in those 3 bags. I'm not sure how to restart that part of my life."
"Well there is a little hiccup there, but I have a solution to propose. Currently there is no additional livable housing in the city. For some reason Ezra still wants you at site #2, but that doesn't make any sense to me. So here is my suggestion, you can stay here until accommodations can be arranged or you decide you can't stand me anymore." Yes Eli was attracted to the nearly naked man in his kitchen, but he also really respected him too. He was an intellectual powerhouse in his field, and was someone he really wanted to know.
"If it isn't too much of an imposition, I'd love to stay here. I will pull my weight. Heck I'll even put my clothes on!"
"I won't make you, just make yourself comfortable. But if you want to do some laundry the laundry room is all yours."
So Eli did dishes while Isaiah started his laundry. They quaintness of it made Eli smile, he couldn't remember the last time he anything even close to this, in reality it never had been. After finishing the disher Eli went to get himself ready for the night, and old t-shirt and his sleep shorts. The sleep shorts were really 4" running shorts, they really showed off his large and extremely hairy thighs. Coming back from his bedroom, he could see Isaiah's cute little bubble but headed into the study. He followed shortly behind. As he entered Isaiah spoke, "I love this room. From the excellent collection to the woodwork to the furnishings to the floors, It's just so inviting."
"Thank you. I'm actually pretty proud of it myself. Just because the world as we've known it has ended, it doesn't mean we can't bring the beauty of the old into the new."
"Well said I do have a question. Different topic. The economic system you helped design. The police force referred to as constables. Your Cat named Kira. You are a Star Trek fan, specifically Deep Space Nine, Right?"
"Guilty as charged. We may not call it World War III, but that is what the Decades War really was. Why not try to imagine rebuilding the world in a way that could be the foundations of the Federation?"
The conversion went on for hours. Eli talked about his childhood and Isaiah his. Both were depressingly similar. Orphaned at 5, Eli was raised by an elderly and ill grandmother. She taught him about food, history and economics; but most importantly of all encouraged him to always be himself. She passed when he was 16 and other than some distant cousins, he was all alone in this world. His ability to write and teach had made him an expert in many fields and brought him to where he is.
Born in Israel, Isaiah was sent to NYC with his older sister, Esther, when he was 4 to live with an aunt for their safety. There entire family was in Israel when the nukes and other bombs started dropping. The three of them were the only survivors. His Aunt would pass from cancer 2 day before he graduated High School. Extremely intelligent he held numerous degrees, being a go-to in the worlds of history and archaeology. He had been hunted by the Smithsonian to work. Last he knew his sister was in Texas, but that was 10 years ago, he sadly expected the worse. Eli promised to reach out to the three city states in the region, but neither held much hope, just too much loss of life.
They talked about all kinds of things; music, sci-fi, books, food and more. While they talked they would periodically stop to change out loads of laundry. With every article of clothing that Eli would help him fold, he became more enamored with just how tiny Isaiah was. For starter his guess of height was wrong, Isaiah was 2" shorter at 5'. His shirts were extra-small and he had a tiny 24" waist and legs, and tiny size 6 shoes. Eli with 3xlt shirts and size 15 shoes was more than 3 times his size.
By 1am all of Isaiah's clothes were done and both men were ready for bed. They said their good nights and each headed for their room. As soon as he was settled into bed Eli grabbed his lube and stroked himself to completion thinking about Isaiah. What he didn't know was Isaiah was in his room doing the same thing, thinking of him.