though getting ready to go.
Never you mind, it'll be good for you.
_______________________________
It is supper time in the tent city, where the group has gathered around a
glowing camp fire in the center of the makeshift tents. Martha is ladling out
soup, handing bowl after bowl to the group as they come up one at a time.
Some members of the group eat heartily, others sniff and hesitate. Herman
says,
What's in this?
He receives no answer nor even a nod from Martha. All eventually start
eating.
Billy and Tammy who are sitting in the grass behind and somewhat to the side
of Martha as she stands next to the fire and soup pot. Billy takes a bowl to
his sister Tammy, sitting without motion or expression at the perimeter. Tammy
says,
Thanks.
Tammy starts eating matter of factly in a casual manner. Martha has stopped
ladling, her ladle frozen in the air, tears forming in her eyes. She catches
herself, taking a deep breath and tries to disguise the emotion in her voice.
Anyone for more?
Tammy glances at her brother and giggles, sharing a joke, both of them unaware
of the waves of emotion buffeting their placid and reliable mother.
Len and Big Tom sitting at a table. Len says,
There are a lot of stories going around about these
camps. Trucks were seen going in on a regular basis
just ahead of the upheavals.
Big Tom is intrigued.
50
Maybe we should get together a scouting party and find
out what's what?
Always loving a good gossip line, Len continues.
Repeatedly, repeatedly and sometimes on a daily basis!
Jed ain't the only one who seed it either, plenty
others seed it too.
Len scoops some soup up with a piece of bread and after biting a piece off
continues with great seriousness.
I'm telling you, they've got a camp there, they got
supplies, and that's where we should be heading.
What they find is not a warm welcome, but interrogation.
_______________________________
Crossing an open field, Big Tom, Len, Herman, and Jane who has insisted that
the woman's touch was needed, are trudging through the overcast day, backpacks
or cloth sacks thrown over shoulders, boots on and jackets open, wearing their
clothing supplies rather than carrying them in suitcases.
Jane brings up the rear, though she is following Len who is actually the slow
one. Jane is doing this out of consideration, steadying him now and then if
he loses his balance by putting a hand up against his back pack, unbeknownst
to him. A kind hearted person, she can see this veteran is a weakened man,
struggling not to show it.
Len is pointing toward a cleft in the hills looming up ahead.
Over there, they drove up and just plumb disappeared
between those hills. Ain't nothing in there that
anyone knows, and the signs say ‘Private Property’.
A lookout on the hilltop is watching the four-some trudging toward him. He
picks up a portable phone and talks into it, softly.
Incoming, 4 o'clock.
The group is approaching a cleft in the hills, trees on both sides. Len is
talking animatedly, waving his arm in this direction or that while he
describes what he or others have seen from a distance. Jane is glancing slowly
from side to side, scanning the skimpy forest they are approaching with a
half-curious look on her face. Suddenly Jane freezes, her hand raising in the
direction of the woods they are fast approaching, her warning frozen in her
throat as a military warning booms out.
Halt! Halt or be fired upon! Identify yourselves.
_______________________________
51
A single table is furnished in the large bare room, the lights dim everywhere
but in the center of the room over the table. The foursome come stumbling
into the room, glancing over their shoulders, more worried about what is
behind them than in front of them. General Flood comes walking out of the
shadows opposite their entry.
Who led you here? This installation isn't on the map!
Who led you here!
His voice is firm and his questions posed as though he didn't expect any
resistance. Len is almost squirming, and the others glance at him.
Well Sir, I was formerly in the military and ..
At which point Len gets rudely interrupted by General Flood.
Stick to the point! Who led you here!
Len gulps.
I did.
Big Tom and Jane have been taken aside to another interrogation room by a
group of military interrogators in shirt sleeves with their sleeves rolled up
past their elbows, ties off and shirt collars open. This room is small and
close, so the interrogators are literally in the faces of those they are
questioning. Big Tom and Jane are being questioned relentlessly with staccato
questions meant to rattle them. The questions are broadly based. Colonel Cage
asks,
How many in your group?
Big Tom responds.
My family? Are you including the townsfolk?
Another interrogator asks,
Where did you say you were when it happened?
Big Tom starts to respond.
I was at the ranch, but ..
But is interrupted by a second interrogator.
Herman, who?
Still struggling to answer the questions put to him, Big Tom says,
He’s, he’s the major of the town.
Big Tom is trying to answer the question as though they are factual, not
understanding, as Jane does intuitively, that they are intended to rattle
them. She is composed, and finally confronts them in a clear calm voice.
How long do you think it will be before the whole town
arrives? What will you do with them?
Her question silences the interrogators, as she has seen past their bravado to
their point of panic.
52
_______________________________
Finally allowed out into the camp yard, Big Tom and Jane come out a door to
join Herman and Len. They are all standing close together, waiting, in the
center of a complex of bland colored huts.
General Flood and his ever present attaché, Sergeant Hammond, are to the side,
being briefed by the interrogators, Colonel Cage among them. Colonel Cage is
shaking his head slightly as he walks up to the group, indicating their lack
of success. General Flood reports.
It doesn't matter, the little rat broke. They came