The radio squelches with an incoming call. “Everything alright, sir?” Gonzalez asks.
“We’re good here, thanks,” I answer.
I look at the other two kneeling on the ground alternating their stares from the body of their comrade and the bloody pool, now slowly streaming as the lowest parts of the pavement dictate, to us. They are obviously scared.
“You have twenty seconds to be out of my sight,” I say.
“Take us with you,” the one with the shaking hands says.
“Yeah, I don’t think so and you’d best use the fifteen seconds remaining to you wisely,” I reply.
There is no hesitation as the two rise and start running across the lot toward the downed fence line. I shake my head as I watch them bolt across the pavement, out of the gate, and down the road. There’s a definite surreal quality to the events of the past few days. I mean marauders, night runners, and having to rescue our own from our own backyard. I’m ready to wake up now.
“This is like the Wild West stories; handing out justice at the end of a gun,” Lynn says.
“He did have it coming. He practically begged for it and to be honest, I’m a little jealous,” I reply thinking he doesn’t have to deal with this messed up world anymore.
“I’m not saying he didn’t. It’s just, well, fuck, I don’t know exactly,” she responds.
“Lynn, truly, what were we to do? Take him back and lock him up? We don’t have the facilities or manpower to do something like that. And lock him up for how long? If we let him go, he would have just continued in a similar manner as before. Think about the ones who left to try it on their own. He would have found them. We probably saved a soul or two as he was a dangerous sort,” I say trying to make some sense of it.
“I know all of that, Jack. But where do we start and end with it? Do we just go around dispensing justice to those who think differently or don’t agree with us?” She asks.
I can tell she is having a hard time with the outright shooting of someone, especially as they were unarmed. I know she has no qualms whatsoever in battle or if someone is endangering those around her. I am honestly having a hard time with it as well. What is the line? To me, if they represent a danger to our survival, the answer is clear.
“We’ll just have to deal with it as it comes I guess. I don’t think there’s a right answer here. At least not yet,” I say.
“Yeah, true. Let’s start getting those portable lights so we can get out of here when the transports arrive,” she says coming out of whatever hole she climbed into momentarily.
We gather the lights and long cords that led to a number of generators placed around the field and wait. Waiting makes me feel like a seven-year old on a family road trip — are we there yet? I want to get back to base and figure our next steps out. I feel the exhaustion set in. The post adrenaline and time awake is taking its toll. The chill of the morning air gives way to a warmer but humid mid-morning. The transports arrive and we start the laborious process of loading them up.
We arrive back in our own compound. It feels like weeks since I left but it is in fact just a matter of days. The place, although similar, has undergone and is still undergoing quite a few changes. I see people out in the grass fields to the south working on fencing. A lot of fences have gone up in the fields and a large concrete slab sits next to the parking lot to the north. They’ve been busy. The school buses are parked next to the other Humvee and transport trucks.
We help offload and then it’s time for rest. My muscles are still screaming their protest from the night prior and I feel the fogginess of no sleep settle in. Inside, the compartments Bannerman had constructed for quarters are complete. Bannerman and Frank are talking with the new arrivals to the side and I assume arranging places for them. We now have close to two hundred people with us. Lynn’s going to be quite busy with her training. I trudge upstairs past the congregation, find my cot, and collapse.
I finally awaken and spend a little time with the kids on the roof. The clouds have thickened and promise rain soon. A chill breeze blows across the rooftop but it’s nice to spend the time with them and I’m thankful we are able to do so. We chat for a while and head down earlier than we normally would as there is no glorious sunset to send the day off with. Robert and Bri eat and chat with Julie during our dinner and our leadership group meets afterwards. It seems like longer since we’ve met as the enormity of events over the past few days makes it seem like more time has passed.
I start by giving a synopsis of our little outing to catch everyone up on my side. Bannerman then relates the events here.
“We’ve started the fences and such for the livestock as I’m sure you saw upon your arrival. I expect we’ll be finished with those sometime tomorrow. We’ve also poured foundations for several large greenhouses. I found quite a few big ones at various nurseries that can be dismantled and carted easily. We can start bringing in any livestock that are left within the next couple of days. Building barns and stables will be next but with the amount of people we have to help now, that should be short work,” he reports.
“Nicely done! What about Watkins and the teams getting the windmill?” I ask.
“They report they’re able to remove the turbine and truck it north in pieces. They should actually be finished there in the next day or so,” Drescoll says.
“The challenge will be to engineer a solution for the water pump,” Bannerman adds. “But we’ll figure something out.”
“Good. How about supplies?” I ask.
“Well, we’ve gathered quite a few and have hit most of the stores around here and cleared out quite a few of them. To be honest, with this greater influx of people, we should start thinking bigger, Jack. We have enough food to get us through but feeding two hundred people a day will hit us pretty hard. Plus, there is a storage problem with that many. I worked in supply for a while so I know about that,” Bannerman says.
“So what are you suggesting?” Lynn asks.
“Well, first, we should be hitting any distribution centers in the area. They’ll have anything the stores have but in much greater quantities. Plus, I talked with Frank here and we think the there’s a chance that the security of the distribution centers should be in effect limiting any night runner activity inside. They are also usually built away from heavily populated areas. I think we should grab all we can, load them into trucks and haul them back. As far as storage, well, we should also grab shipping containers. They have some that are refrigerated as well,” Bannerman answers.
“Let’s not forget about hospital and medical equipment either,” Drescoll chimes in.
“They’ll have a lot of basic medical supplies plus meds for the pharmacies,” Bannerman replies.
“But I mean more of hospital equipment, you know, tables, and stuff like that,” Drescoll clarifies.
“Yeah, we’re going to need items like that as well. With the influx of people, and I think we’ll see more as time goes on, we’ll have to think about housing for all of them. It’s getting a little crowded here using this for storage and housing,” Frank adds.
All of these ideas and suggestions being thrown out are taking a toll on my psyche. Still so much to do and each will take time and resources. I’m pretty much done being in charge now and I’d like to go home. These are all valid points but it’s a matter of putting them into a priority basis. The problem is that all seem to have an equal priority. Food, water, and shelter remain high on the list. We have winter coming which means much shorter days and we aren’t in a position to be self-sufficient as yet. One thing is certain and that is we’ll have to have the barns, stables, greenhouses, and other buildings for the livestock in place before winter sets in.