by Eric Vall
“Yeah, and it totally fucking sucked,” Tara replied with a pouty tone.
“It will be cold,” I said. “But we’re going to focus on our pillars of survival. What’s our fourth pillar?”
“Comfort,” Tara nodded. “Wait, does that mean we’re going to figure out a way to keep warm? Cuz last year I about lost my mind I was so cold.”
“Yes,” I laughed. “We’re going to build a stove for ourselves.”
“Oh my god,” Tara sighed. “You are literally the best.”
“Don’t thank me yet,” I grinned.
“Let’s head out,” Anna gestured to Paige, then turned to face the group. “We’ll be back in a little bit.”
“Drive safe,” Rolly called out as the girls walked to one of the trucks.
“Don’t worry, we’ll give Betty a big kiss for you,” Anna called back with a laugh.
“Let’s leave the kissing to me,” the old man chuckled, but he still turned bright red.
Anna and Paige hopped in the truck and started down the drive, so I turned to Bailey and Tara.
“You guys can get back to gardening,” I told them.
“Good,” Tara grinned. “I have a lot of plants to threaten.”
“What all is growing over there?” I asked Bailey.
“We have some carrots, tomatoes, cabbage, squash, potatoes, and beets,” the blonde hippie answered.
“Next year we’ll have a bigger garden and start planting earlier,” I told her. “And you can grow whatever you want.”
“I’d love to grow some corn,” she sighed. “Canned corn just isn’t the same as sweet corn on the cob.”
“Beans too,” Rolly smiled. “I love some fresh beans.”
“Strawberries!” Tara squealed, and she threw her head back and moaned. “God, I love strawberries.”
“Okay,” I laughed. “That sounds like a great lineup for next year, but for now let’s focus on what we have this year.”
“Let’s go check on the seeds,” Bailey said to Tara, and she stood up and extended a hand to the platinum blonde.
“Can I bully them when they’re still in the packet?” Tara smiled, and she grabbed the other blonde’s hand to pull herself up.
“I’d prefer you do it then,” Bailey laughed, and they both headed toward the dorm building with Winchester behind them.
“What’s my agenda for the day, boss?” Rolly smiled at me.
“First things first, let’s make more coffee,” I told the old man.
“I’ll never say no to that,” he grinned and reached for the pot.
“We need to make some plans and draw some blueprints,” I told him. “I’ll go grab some paper if you’ll start the coffee.”
“Can do,” he said, and he stood to go fill the pot with water.
I made my way to the library and found a pencil and some graph paper, then I went back to the firepit and found Rolly already brewing a pot of coffee. The girls were right, his coffee was better than mine, and even the aroma was so pleasant I closed my eyes when it hit me.
“Smells good,” I told him as I took a seat next to him.
“It’ll taste even better,” he grinned. “Now what are we drawing up plans for?”
“We need a woodstove for the dorm building,” I said. “Winter will be a lot worse if we’re too cold to do anything.”
“Right,” he nodded.
“We also need a barn,” I told him. “Whether or not the farmers come here for winter, we’ll need one for the horses.”
“A loft in there would be a good place to store things too,” Rolly said.
“Yeah,” I nodded. “We’ll talk to Betty about the hay, but we’ll also look for some bags of feed when we go on runs.”
“The barn design will be easy,” Rolly said. “Getting the supplies will be the hardest part.”
“Make me a list of what you’ll need,” I nodded. “We’ll try to get it all on our runs.”
“Okay,” he said. “Now, the wood stove will be more difficult.”
“If we can find one that’s already built how difficult would it be to install?” I asked.
“Well,” Rolly pursed his lips and thought for a moment. “We might have to put a hole in the wall.”
“What about the vents?” I asked.
“We can check them out,” he said. “But we want to make sure that the building won’t fill with smoke while we’re sleeping.”
“Good point,” I told him. “Let’s have some coffee and do some sketches, then we’ll go check out the ducts in the building.”
“Sounds good,” Rolly said, and he poured us each a cup of coffee.
Rolly completed the barn sketch easily, so we finished our coffee and headed into the dorm building to scope out the vent system.
“Follow me,” Rolly said as he led me to a room I hadn’t been in before. “This is the maintenance room. There should be a diagram of the air ducts.”
“You’re a genius, old timer,” I grinned and clapped the man on the back.
“If I’m a genius, then so is every maintenance man,” he laughed, then he opened a file cabinet and started to look through it. “Here it is.”
“There’s a lot of ducts in here,” I frowned as I looked at the paper Rolly held up on the wall.
“There are,” he nodded. “But I have an idea.”
“Well don’t hold out on me,” I chuckled.
“I gotta find it first,” he laughed and continued to scan the diagram. “There it is.”
“What is it?” I asked as I looked to where his finger pointed.
“There’s a laundry room in this building,” he said. “And the vents from the dryers lead right outside.”
“I don’t think I’ve been in the laundry room,” I said.
“Well you never had a need for it,” he laughed, then he headed out the door. “Let’s go.”
Rolly led me to a small laundry room that had three washers and three driers, I helped him pull the driers away from the wall, and he undid the connection and looked through it.
“Looks like this will be our spot,” he smiled.
“Will this area be enough to keep the place warm?” I frowned.
“Yeah,” he nodded. “But we’ll need a fire going most of the time. And if we can get a couple stoves instead of just the one that would keep the place nice and toasty.”
“I’ll see what I can do,” I said.
“I’ll make a list of all the materials I’ll need,” the old man nodded.
“Thanks, Rolly,” I smiled. “Not just for this, but for everything. You work hard around here, and I really appreciate it.”
“I’m just doing my part,” he said with a wave, then his face grew serious. “Do you really think it will be better for the farmers to come here for the winter?”
“I do,” I nodded. “Either we band together and fortify this place, or we hit the road and head south to get ahead of this mess and never come back.”
“I don’t want to leave,” Rolly said.
“I’m not sure I do either,” I told him. “But we have to see what everyone else says too.”
“Alright,” he nodded.
“But there’s a bright side,” I told him.
“Yeah?” he laughed. “What’s that?”
“You get to see Betty today,” I grinned.
“Yes, I do,” he grinned back at me.
Chapter 2
We had all spent the remainder of the day working on various tasks around the college, but I put Anna on guard duty on the roof, and we had just finished dinner when the civilians and farmers began to arrive, so I called Anna down and we greeted the others in our tribe.
“Over here,” I waved our visitors to the fire after they parked.
“Good to see you,” Tara said, and she stood to give Jenny a hug.
“You too,” Jenny said, and she reached down to pet Winchester who stood in front of her with his tail wagging.
I looked over to see Rolly and Betty embrace and whisper softly to e
ach other.
“Good to see you,” Justin said, and he clapped me on the shoulder. His wife and their two boys were with him as well, along with Briar, the other farmer who lived near them.
“You too,” I smiled at the man. “Briar, you’re looking good.”
“Yeah, I’m almost back to my normal self,” the white-haired man said with a grin.
“Hey Jeff,” I said to the civilian as he approached, and I reached my hand out to shake his.
“Nice to see you,” Jeff smiled and shook my hand.
Cathy’s group made their way to the firepit, and I reached out my hand to the sandy blonde woman.
“How are you all doing up at the farm?” I asked.
“It’s nice,” she smiled. “We’re getting things growing and trying to heal.”
“Good,” I nodded and gave her a smile. “I’m glad you’re here.”
“Let’s all find a place to sit,” I said loud enough for the large group to hear. “A lot of us will probably end up sitting on the ground.”
Everyone found a seat, and the younger people all sat on the floor and gave the benches to Betty, Rolly, Briar, and Marla since she had her kids with her.
I sat down on the bench as well, and Winchester laid by my feet.
“We have some bad news,” I started.
“What did you find out?” Mike, one of the civilians, asked.
“The guard camp is bad like you all said,” I confirmed. “But we have another even bigger problem on our hands.”
“Bigger than the National Guard?” Briar asked, and his eyes widened.
“I’m afraid so,” I nodded. “The Guard is the only thing standing between us and a hundred thousand starving Canadians at the moment.”
“What does that mean?” Cathy asked, and her sandy blonde eyebrows pulled together.
“Yeah,” the dark-haired woman who I recalled was named Donna added. “What do you mean standing between us?”
“There’s too many Canadians,” Paige said. “If they get through, then they’ll swarm the area, and they’re cold and hungry and desperate.”
“She’s right,” I nodded. “But it’s not a matter of if they get through, it’s when.”
“What?” Jeff said, and he shook his head. “I thought you said the Guard is holding them off.”
“They are,” I confirmed. “For now, at least, but the guard is going to leave before winter comes.”
“How do you know?” Betty asked, and I saw her squeeze Rolly’s hand tighter.
“The wagons they’ve been building won’t work in the snow or mud,” I answered. “They’ll head out before winter, and when they do the Canadians won’t have anything standing in their way.”
I heard Marla whisper to her boys, she gave them a stick from the kindling pile and pointed to Winchester, and then to the courtyard.
“What do we do?” Marla asked, and she watched her boys as they ran into the grassy area and threw the stick for Winchester.
“The way I see it, we have two options,” I said.
“What’s option one?” Jeff asked, and he tugged lightly on his red beard.
“We can turtle up here,” I said. “Or we can head south before winter hits.”
“What about everyone in the camp?” Joanna asked. “Shouldn’t we try to save them?”
“There’s less people in the Guard camp,” Anna said. “But there’s a hundred thousand or more behind the border. I think we should focus on ourselves. If the Canadians weren’t there, I would be all for saving the people in the camp, but we need to make sure we’re safe first.”
“I agree,” Briar said. “Winter is coming sooner rather than later, and I plan on surviving through it.”
“You wouldn’t even be here without our help,” Marla scowled at Briar half-heartedly. “We should at least consider helping these people.”
“We could at least help those in the Guard camp,” Cathy interjected.
“We could try,” I said. “But it would be dangerous, and even if we freed them, we don’t have anywhere for them to go.”
“That’s true,” Jeff said. “And what’s the point of freeing them if we can’t help them anymore than that?”
“At least they would have a chance,” Jenny frowned.
“True,” Paige said. “But not everyone can take care of themselves, and they could become dangerous if they get desperate for supplies.”
“I think at least for now we should focus on ourselves,” Justin said, and Marla gave him a small look of disbelief, so he turned to her. “I know honey, but we need to remember how the world is now. We can’t help anyone if we aren’t prepared ourselves.”
“That’s true,” Donna agreed. “Like how when you fly, they tell you to put on your mask before assisting others.”
“So, we focus on ourselves for now,” I said. “Can everyone agree to that?”
“I don’t think I like the idea of leaving,” Mike said. “We just started growing food, and where would we even go?”
“We’ll continue to grow food and stockpile for winter,” I told him.
“Okay,” Betty said. “But I don’t like the idea of leaving either. We have no idea what is out there waiting for us.”
“Yeah,” Jeff nodded. “And like Mike said, where would we even go? There’s a lot of us to move now too.”
“If we want to stay here for the winter, then everyone will need to move to the college,” I said, and I waited for the protests.
I was not disappointed. The group grew loud, and all the farmers began to talk over one another, so I put my hand up and waited for everyone to quiet down.
“This is why we’re here,” I said. “We all need to make a plan we can agree on.”
“What are your concerns about moving here?” Anna asked, and she looked at each of the farmers.
“My farm is my life,” Betty said. “My family has lived there for three generations, I’m not just going to leave it to be ransacked.”
“We all have livestock,” Justin added. “And we have gardens there to keep us going.”
“Nothing will grow in winter,” Bailey said with a small voice.
“Yeah,” Paige agreed. “We’re not asking you to come here right now, but there’s too many people to defend against.”
“We can take care of ourselves,” Briar said in a gruff voice. “We’ve been takin’ care of ourselves and each other for years.”
“We know you’re tough, old man,” I laughed. “We’re not saying you can’t take care of yourselves, but a few trespassers are one thing, a mob of a hundred thousand is another thing entirely.”
“Well, I for one, would rather die defending my land,” Briar’s eyes narrowed, and his tone was serious.
“I can’t force you all to do anything,” I said and I raised my hands in a show of submission. “But I do need you to understand the gravity of the situation.”
“Your farms are out in the open plain,” Anna said. “They’re visible from the road, but this place isn’t, and we’re up the mountain with only one road in and out. We can defend this place.”
“If we’re all going to work together, then we need to be a community,” Paige said. “And it’s easier to fortify one place than it is to fortify four.”
“That’s true,” Jeff interjected, and he looked around to his group, who nodded. “We’re willing to relocate here.”
“We are too,” Cathy said, and her small group nodded behind her.
“It’s different for us though,” Joanna said in a small voice. “We aren’t attached to our new homes yet. These people have been living in theirs forever.”
“We have,” Marla smiled at the young sandy blonde girl. “And it is hard to think about leaving them.”
“We just want you to be safe,” Tara spoke for the first time since the discussion had begun. “We don’t want to take anything from you. And you can always go back to your farms after winter is over, we’ll even help you with the cleanup if they’ve been trashed.”
“That’s true,” I smiled at the platinum blonde. “You don’t have to stay here forever, we just don’t want to leave you to your own devices against a horde of hungry people.”
“What about our livestock?” Justin asked.
“We’re building a barn for our horses,” Rolly smiled at the man. “It will be big enough to house all the animals.”
“I’ve lost too much already,” Briar shook his head. “I won’t be leaving my farm.”
“Oh Briar,” Marla sighed. “I’m not happy about it either, but let’s be sensible, we have to consider what will be the best course for survival.”
“Your wife is a smart woman,” I smiled at Justin.
“I am,” Marla said, and she smiled back at me. “I also have two young boys to think about, and I won’t take any chances with them.”
“What do you think Grandma?” Dan asked Betty.
“I think Marla is right,” Betty sighed. “I don’t want to leave my home, but we need to think about what’s best to get through the winter.”
“There’s safety in numbers,” Bailey smiled.
“Once the snow hits, we won’t have to worry too much about people up here,” I nodded.
“Yeah,” Tara agreed. “The snow will block in this area since there aren’t any plows to clear the road up the mountain.”
“That’s true,” Justin said. “But won’t the snow do the same for the farms?”
“I don’t think so,” Paige shook her head. “The farms are too open, if someone saw them, they could make their way up there, even through the snow.”
“Even if snow would protect the farms, there’s a good chance they could be overrun before the first snow storm hits,” I said.
“This place is a lot more difficult to find,” Anna nodded.
“We’ll barricade the roads that lead to this place before the snowfall,” I said. “Then once the snow hits, it’s a waiting game.”
“What do you mean it’s a waiting game?” Donna asked.
“The guard will leave before the snowfall,” I said. “And they’ll take the civilians with them. That leaves the Canadians.”
“They won’t be able to survive the winter,” Paige nodded.
“Yes,” I agreed. “It’s too cold. If they’re smart, they’ll head further south to warmer weather, if not, then they won’t be set up enough to survive through winter.”