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     After they left, Joe and I sat side by side on the cot with our backs propped against the wall
.  I put my head on his shoulder and he put his arms around me and I instantly fell asleep.

     When I woke up, Joe and I were on the purple sphere.  Joe was still asleep and I kissed him.  Before he even realized where we were, we were making love.

     When it was over, Joe looked around and we both got the giggles.

    
“Well, it looks like I won’t ever have to worry about being
alone again,” Joe said.  “We’re
obviously suppose to be together.”

     “I wonder if it was because we were together that we escaped, or was it because of me?  I wonder if I got arrested and locked up by myself, if I could escape.”

     “Don’t worry about it.  We’re not going to test it out.  Let’s go find Irene.  She must be worried sick.”

     “Welcome home, Joe,” she said when we came out of the house.  She was working in a beautiful garden.  I looked up and wondered where the source of light came from. 

     It looked like any other sky and if you didn’t know you were deep inside a cave, you would have thought you were outside.

     The three of us picked vegetables and took them to Irene’s house and cooked them for our dinner.  We had some more of the crusty bread and the good wine.

     “Where does the bread and wine come from?” I asked Irene.

     She shrugged, “The same place your bacon and eggs have been coming from.”

     We all laughed and I had never felt so happy and at peace.
  Joe took my hand and kissed my finger tips.  I looked at him and at the same time thought about helping Irene with the dishes.

     But when I looked at the table, there was nothing there.  I looked at Irene and she shrugged, “Your guess is as good as mine.”

CHAPTER 10

     One thing I loved about living here was that there was no hurry about anything.  We let Joe rest for a few days while Irene and I talked.

     “Ashley, how do you feel about both you and Joe going out and getting more people to join our community?  I believe I was brought here to be the gate keeper
,
and that you and Joe are meant to spread the word together.

     “Isn’t it clear to you that neither of you can go out alone?”

     “I don’t want to go out alone and neither does Joe.  As soon as he’s rested some more, we need to go let his sister know what’s happened.  I’m sure she will want to be part of it.”

     “I’ve rested enough,” Joe said from the en
trance to the main
part of the cave.  He was rubbing his eyes.

     We left immediately and headed for Joe’s sister’s house.  “She’s going to be shocked, Joe.  Is there any way we can soften the blow.”

     “I can’t think of any, can you?”

     I shook my head and
looked up and saw their dwelling.  It didn’t impress me as much as before
, after
seeing the city inside the cave.

     Joe said, “Enter.” and the wall disappeared.  His sister and niece were sitting on a sphere.

     His sister looked up and said, “You look like my brother with hair.”

     “I am your brother with hair and I am totally healed.”

     She stared at him and made hand movements.  She looked confused.

     “The implants are gone.”

     “How is that possible?”

     “Oh, 42R, we have so much to tell you.  And how are you,
63?” he asked as he swung his niece into the air.

     She squealed and then said, “Oh, uncle, I want to be like you and Ashley.  Do you have a pet name now too?”

     He laughed with her, “Yeah, you can call me Joe.”

     His sister gasped and looked around like she expected someone to come and arrest them all.

     “Don’t worry,” Joe said, “As long as Ashley and I are together and you’re with us, nothing can happen to you.

     “Will you come with us?  It’s easier to show you
tha
n to tell you.”

     We hiked up the
hillside and the little girl looked at
me, “Can I have pretty hair like you?”

     “Yes.  As soon as the implants are removed, your hair will grow out.”

     “Will it hurt to have them taken out?  Will they give me some happy juice?”

     “There is no happy juice where we’re going.  There are no drugs of any kind.  And it will hurt but only for a few seconds.”

     The little girl ran to Irene as soon as she saw her and climbed onto her
lap.  They appeared to have an
instant connection and I wondered if they had known each other in another life.

     We let Irene do most of the talking and when she was finished, she led us all back down the dark passageway and to the entrance of the city.

     The woman and girl stood looking inside with awe and I knew how they felt.  I put my palm against the opening and there was no membrane.  We entered and the little girl stopped and tried to pick some flowers.  She giggled, “Look, Ashley.  It won’t let me pick any.”

     “I know, it won’t let you pick anything that you don’t need like fruit and vegetables.”

     “Oh, I get it…” Before she could finish what she was saying, she fell to her knees and grabbed her head.  She started screaming.

     Her mother came over and knelt down and suddenly she grabbed her head and screamed. 
We could only watc
h until it was over.  Liquid met
al ran out of their eyes
,
noses
,
and mouths and poured onto the ground.

     Just like Joe, they passed out and when they again opened their eyes they had hair.

     The little girl pulled a handful in front of her face and exclaimed, “Look, Ashley.  It’s red like yours and mama’s.  We must be related.”

     I looked at Joe, “I sure hope not.”

     “Why?”

     “Never mind, I’ll tell you when you’re older.”

     “Oh, one of those things.  I want to be named Pud.  What do you want your name to be, mama?”

     “I choose Ina.”

     Now we all had names and it was less confusing for me.  They chose a lavender house across form ours and next door to Irene’s.

    
Ina took me aside and asked, “Are you and my brother joined?  Don’t be embarrassed.  I only want to know so I can know if he really is healed.”

     “We have made love,” I said to her, “and Irene thinks we have already started a baby.”

     She hugged me, “It’s a miracle.  You’ve made me so happy, Ashley.  It’s like a miracle you have been sent to us.”
    

     We were all happy to live there and enjoy the food and the gardens for a few days until Irene reminded us that we needed to get on with recruiting more people for our community.

CHAPTER 11

     On the day we had planned to go down the hill and find more people, we set out early but left Irene in the cave entrance
and Pud in the city
.
  I would have never left my little girl, June from my other life, alone but knew she would be safe here.  She said she wanted to explore.

    
We got half-way down the hill and noticed two teen aged girls and an old man coming up.

     When they saw us they stopped walking and started silently talking to each other.  We walked down to meet them, sensing they were frightened.

     We let Joe do all the talking, “Hello, what is your designation?”

    
After hesitating one of the young girls pointed to herself, then the old man and then the other teen, “Q34S, Q66F, Q7N.
”

     Joe introduced us using his and Ina’s old designation and making up one for me.

     “We saw the cave and thought we would stop and rest there.  We didn’t know it was occupied.”

     “You’re welcome to come in and rest and to stay as long as you like.  Are you hungry?  We have plenty of food.”

     The man looked very old and shaky and the two girls helped him up the hill.
  Irene had been watching from the cave entrance and she had a table set with a feast.  There were regular chairs around the table.

     One of the girls ran her fingers over one of the chairs, “It’s like what’s in the museum back home.”  The three ate like they were starving.

    
“What’s going on in sector Q?” Joe asked.

     The old man got tears in his eyes, “It’s awful.  I lost my daughter and son-in-law to the authorities in one of their experiments.”

     The two girls put down their food and cried into their napkins.  He looked at them, “Their parents.”

     “What kind of experiments?” Joe asked.

    
“Some of the men and women volunteered to participate in some fertility experiments.  It involved new implants and the removal of old ones.  The volunteers all died and when no one else would volunteer, the authorities took who they wanted.

     “My daughter and son-in-law were dragged out in the middle of the night and implanted against their will.

     “There weren’t many women of child bearing age left so they were going to take the few teenage girls left.  We don’t have that many because there have been no births in many years.”

     Joe shook his head, “It’s worst than here.”

     Pud came out of the back of the cave and I heard our three guests gasp.

     “How old is she?” the old man asked.

     Before anyone could answer Pud said, “I’m five and a half.  Are you here to get unimplanted?  It doesn’t hurt much and for just a little while.”

     The teenage girls held on to each other.
  The old man’s eyes widened, “Who are you people?  Why do you have hair?   And what is this place?  It’s not just a cave, is it?”

     “It’s a wonderful place,” Pud said.

     Joe motioned for her to be quiet, “She’s right.  It’s a healing place.  It heals what mankind has made sick.”

     “I have so many questions.  But why don’t you just continue on and tell us the whole story.”

     Joe nodded, “I’ll be
glad to tell you all I know fro
m my own experience.  Section P is heading in the same direction as your section Q but it hasn’t advanced as far yet.  Or I should say it hasn’t deteriorated as much.

     “I was one of the first volunteers for
the fertility transplant.  I was dying.  My sister lost her husband last year from volunteering for the original version of the transplant.  They were supposed to have fixed everything by now but they apparently didn’t.

     “I’m going to ask my mate here to tell her part of the story.”

     I could feel myself blush.  No one had ever referred to me like that. 
But I t
ook up the story, “In 1973
I went into the hospital for a simple appendectomy and had a heart attack and died.  I woke up here.”

     I saw their mouth fall open but I continued, “I didn’t reincarnate as a baby, probably because there are no babies being born in this time and I was apparently meant to come to this time…”

     I continued to tell them my story and when I finished Irene told hers.  Joe told them about meeting Irene and then me and about bringing me to the cave.

     We were all silent for awhile, each hesitant to tell about the city.

     “How did you get hair and get healed?” One of the teenage girls asked.

     It was Irene who finally answered, “There’s a city within this cave.
”  She looked at the rest of us before continuing, “We will take you there if you feel you’re ready.”

     The old man nodded and we all headed down the dark passageway.  When we got to the entrance, the three gave a loud gasp.

     “Those buildings are not like anything we’ve seen,” one of the girls said.

     Joe looked at her, surprised, “Your dwellings in section Q don’t look like this?”

     “Our buildings are very old and mostly falling down.  They provide very little shelter.  They were made of wood and a few rocks.  What is that material?”

     “Our buildings in section P are like these and they weren’t built by us but grew out of the ground.  They looked like mushrooms when they were small.

     “As our buildings began to deteriorate we moved into the ones that grew.  They are amazing.”

     The old man spoke up, “If you have houses like this on the outside, why do you need to move here?”

     “Even though the buildings in section P are better than yours in section Q, we still had to escape the authorities, just like you did,” Joe said.

     None of us had thought to warn the newcomers and almost as soon as we entered the city the old man fell to his knees and grabbed his head.