Chapter 139

1758 hours, local time
Monday, 28 July, 2014
The Wright Residence
Beckley, WV

The supper, of course, was fantastic. So was the dessert, which proved to be crème brûlée. The wine was phenomenal as well. The full day’s delay proved to be a blessing in disguise, since it gave Desdemona and Cordelia more time to thoroughly prepare the evening meal. We all sat there and gorged ourselves, even if I spent considerable time also enjoying the presence of a series of naked women and teenage girls on my lap. I fed them bites of my food from my plate, though I didn’t starve in the process by any means. I naturally fucked all of them as they squirmed and creamed themselves with delight.

“You might as well get used to this, honey. You are marrying entire communities. Which means that we’re marrying the same ones. We’ll be back someday, I presume, too. Any locals who die in the meantime can be resurrected, of course. You might be gone for decades, but you won’t be forgotten. You can even marry the people living here when you return as well. Face it. You now have permanent ties to Beckley, just as you do to Hinton, Peterstown, Roanoke, Charlottesville, Twin Lakes, Stanardsville, Lancaster County, Baltimore, Frederick, Hagerstown, Hancock, Hazelton, etc.,” Charity pointed out to me now with at least as much amusement as arousal.

“By the way, there have been updates about the global situation. In Iran, a group of mullahs, seminary students, former politicians, and cashiered Pasdaran and army officers have launched an insurgency from the city of Qom against the secular technocratic regime in Shiraz. This has transformed Iran into a nation trapped in a religious vs. secular civil war. The loss of Cuban, North Korean, and Angolan advisers and volunteers to the small, but ruthless Iraqi People’s Army has critically weakened the Pasdaran and other forces, but enough to be decisive yet. The insurgents face an uphill battle, but sadly are still in the fight so far.

“In the former Russian Federation, Chechnya and Dagestan have formally emerged as independent republics, both of them with a mix of secular and Islamic influences. Both have serious issues with organized crime, alas. Both ‘republics’ are somewhat deficient in democratic institutions and processes, of course, but that’s scarcely a surprise under the circumstances. The President of Democratic Republic of Chechnya is Zelim Sadulayev and the President of the Islamic Republic of Dagestan is Timur Aslanov.

“Much of the Caucasus region is naturally in utter chaos or under the thumb of many different factions and warlords, just like much of the rest of Russia and the world itself. Many cities in Russia have become independent city-states in effect, while others have become either ghost towns or hellscapes, The Urals are full of bandits or brigands. Sakhalin is a de facto independent island state, of course, but has relative law and order compared to many others. Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia are all caught up ethnic violence and civil wars at this point.

“The Communists are rapidly regaining control over Kazakhstan, while there is a major bloodbath of a civil war in Uzbekistan between ethnic Uzbeks and such minorities as ethnic Russians. Turkmenistan is torn between mostly secular leftist forces and militant Islamist factions, causing a lot of bloodshed and mayhem there. Tajikistan is now governed by a strong man type named President Namvar Koshan. He was an army colonel prior to Doomsday. Kyrgyzstan is headed by a still weak provisional government fighting an insurgent united front of ethnic Uzbeks and Russians.

“Closer to home, the ASF in Richmond are mostly confined to the government district after heavy fighting in which neither side is willing to ask or give quarter whatsoever. The rest of the city has been liberated, but only after great loss of life and limb, not to mention that the longer supply lines are vulnerable to raids by the Nazis. The children of the ASF troops are all either orphans or fatherless, depending upon the attitude of the women. Many have surrendered quickly rather than fight like the menfolk, whereas many others have died fighting, too.

“Richmond is very much still on track to fall on the third of August, despite being surrounded and outnumbered. The sheer ferocity of the resistance has ensured that much. The orphans are going to be raised in orphanages, at least for now. The city will be renamed Clarkesville and the airport will be called Austin Bryce International Airport. Yes, they are ambitious about that airport for the future. They are already setting up a rudimentary municipal government for the liberated parts of the former state capital. Much of it is rubble, but they are working on reconstruction now, of buildings and infrastructure as well.