The New Eden Project

by Taskmaster of Women

Chapter One Arrival at New Eden

There were ten of us who set out on our mission to build a new Utopian society. We knew how deeply flawed the existing state of the world was, and we decided to turn our back on civilisation and found a new community, where we would live in a different way, in harmony with Nature and the planet. Well, at least that's how they told us things were going to be in New Eden. And, even though I'd long since learned that life was full of surprises, not even at my most paranoid could I ever have imagined what our new lives were REALLY going to be like. But I'm getting ahead of myself a bit.

Like I said, ten of us set out to build what we called the New Eden project. There were five girls and five blokes who (until we woke up the morning of our arrival) had been our boyfriends. They'd taken us out, done handyman jobs on our homes, wined and dined us by candlelight. They'd sweet-talked us and romanced us, and generally made us feel that we were the most important people in the world to them. Those were the days.

My name is Laura. I was Jim's girlfriend, and had been for the last three years. I thought he was completely trustworthy and that he loved me as much as I loved him. We often used to talk about how appealing it would be to leave the city and live in a self-sufficient community in the countryside.

Our friends thought the same as us, or at least, the girls did. Now, I wonder if the blokes just went along with us because they'd already had the whole conspiracy planned out. Or maybe the scheme they dreamed up came much later.

Anyway, we bought a large caravan and hooked it up to a 4x4. Then we went out on a holiday in the countryside. Living in London, you have to go miles and miles to see any real greenery, so we headed up far away. It was in the Highlands of Scotland that we eventually made camp.

The first time, everything went fine. Beautiful scenery, the men all kind and helpful and considerate, all of us having a good time - it seemed like Paradise. And we all enjoyed it so much that we vowed to go back again as soon as we could.

The place itself was in the middle of nowhere. Large areas of the Scottish Highlands are still completely uninhabited. By people, at least. And it was such a beautiful setting. We felt absolutely at harmony with Nature there and full of inner peace. Surrounded by mountains, with the smell of the heather all around, it seemed like a truly magical place.

We were all professional people, in our late twenties or early thirties. At 34 years old, Jim was the oldest, a junior solicitor. I was 31 and worked as a journalist. The rest of our team included an architect, a nurse, a social worker, a teacher, a policeman, a copywriter for an advertising firm, a junior doctor, an assistant editor in a publishing company, a librarian, and a junior researcher for the BBC.

It wasn't just that we fell in love with the place; we fell in love with the idea of creating a self-sufficient community out there in the wild and beautiful Scottish countryside. For two years we pooled our resources, all of us paying in a sum of money each month to a new bank account we set up, and called "The New Eden Project."

For two years we pooled our resources, till at last, a few days after my 31st birthday, Jim asked us all to meet together to discuss the project.

"We've managed to get together a quarter of a million pounds," he told us. "Let's go and buy that land and make our dreams come true!"

We were all so excited, and for weeks later us girls could talk of nothing else when we met. What the boys talked about, of course, we know now, but at the time, we thought they felt the same way about the project as we did.

Anyway, we all gave in our notice, and travelled up in the caravan to the Scottish Highlands. It was going to be more than just a holiday this time - it was going to be a dream come true. And, I suppose, from the point of view of the blokes, it DID turn out that way. For us poor ladies, though, it turned into, not a wonderful dream, but a living nightmare, a hell on earth.

I suppose I should introduce the rest of the party. Like I said, I'm Laura, aged 31, 5ft 10 inches tall and weigh 154 lbs. I've got hazel eyes and naturally red hair. Till I REALLY loused up on this one, you'd probably have called me the most sensible of the five girls, too. Jim is 31, 6ft 1 tall, with jet black curly hair and weighing 196 lbs. Then there's Carol, Cass to her friends, who's got mousey brown hair, and stands 5ft 9 inches tall, weighing in at 182 lbs. Not fat, either; she's a fitness fanatic and has more muscles on her than loads of blokes I've met. She's the junior researcher for the BBC. Then there's Elaine, who's 5ft 6, 140 lbs, with natural blonde hair and blue eyes. She works as a copywriter for an advertising agency. There's Melissa, who's 5ft 2, 128lbs, with chestnut brown hair and grey eyes. She's the nurse. The last of us girls, though not necessarily the least, is Zoe, 5ft 5, 140lbs, with jet black hair and dark piercing eyes. She's the social worker. As for the blokes, Jim was the leader of the project. There was also Tim, a junior doctor, aged 29, 5ft 10, 182lbs; Alan, a policeman, 30, 6ft 2, 210lbs; Maurice, the architect, 28, 5ft 9, 194lbs; and Colin, the librarian, 26, 5ft 7, 180lbs.