Discovery

Back in late 2020 I was tasked with checking on my mother's brother a total wacko by everything I've heard of him. He lived off the grid and didn't trust governments or most people even, he had a partner, so she was probably my aunt. But not much was known about her by my parent's or my mother's family. I had just left the Marine Corps after being injured in a training exercise. It put pay to my career in the Corps, so I headed off to check on my uncle and aunt. They really lived off the grid, but I found his property and by GPS. Everything was so quiet on my arrival; I called out to my uncle saying who I was. After a little bit of time the door opened, and a young girl came out. It was my cousin; someone I didn't know existed. Anyway, I showed her my driver's license to prove who I was. She took her time checking it over and then accepted I was who I said I was. I asked to see my uncle and she told me he had died and so I asked to see her mother and was told she was also dead. My cousin had been living alone since they died for several months, she had buried both by dragging their bodies out with their horse to a hole she had dug herself. I had a satellite phone with me and so I called my parents, and they came with my mother's other brother and my father's brother a lawyer. I left all the legal stuff for them to sort out as the death hadn't been reported. Everything was sorted overtime, and nothing was found to be wrong. The autopsy said they had died of the virus and due to both having poor health before, the virus finished them. Meantime I looked over my uncle's property and liked what I saw, my cousin slowly came to accept the larger family being around her more and more. We discovered in my aunt journal as it was marked on the cover, my cousin was born in 2001 and she also was registered as even being born another job for my father's brother to fix. It was almost June 2021 by that time and my cousin had come to trust me and was like a shadow to me rarely more than 3 or 4 feet away from. She came with me to visit my siblings and parents and was overawed by what she saw. As I said before she was always very close to me, and she preferred her home to the city. As did I and so we returned and being alone and away from people, we became lovers and in 2022 she got pregnant and another trip to visit the family she was tested, and everything was okay with our child. Our son was born late December, we still live on the property, albeit not so isolated as before. Better access, internet access and electricity have been added. House moved on site and the old cabin my uncle had built turned into storage shed. My cousin was registered under her mother's name, and we went away and married. She is happy so she says, and I've been teaching her to use my computer. But she likes the phone and regularly talks to my mother and other relatives. That is our life these days.