“The name is Butch,” Butch said as he extended his right hand. “I use to run Camp Zion, down in Southern Utah. I’ve heard a lot about you. Please to finally meet the man behind the stories.”
“I’ve come to learn that stories are something that you tell your kids at night, to entertain or frighten. However, once the light of day comes, they seem to lose their purpose. As to your Camp Zion, I am truly sorry for what happened. I heard y’all put up one Hell of a fight though.” Stonewall said as he shook the hand of Butch. He then turned his attention and continued, “You must be the Ms. White I’ve heard talk about.”
“I am,” Ms. White said with a big smile.
“So,” Stonewall said as he crossed his arms, still holding onto the rains of Diz, “Why exactly am I here?”
“Well,” Geisha started as she slightly turned to face Ms. White and Butch, “To be honest, I’m not 100% sure. What I do know is that there is something going on, bigger than you and I and our territories. Our new visitors here, seem to know what that something is. I figured it was better if they gave their presentation at once, to the both of us, then we could decide how to go from there, together.”
Stonewall stood there a moment, as he scratched his thick beard. Diz, stood next to him, nibbling on some of the tall grass in the park. “Very well, if y’all don’t mind I’d like to get right to it then. As mentioned, I have some issues back home I need to get back to.”
“Tee?” Geisha quickly asked.
Stonewall just nodded as he calmly petted the neck of Diz. “As you mentioned, things have been a bit, squirrelly lately, with everyone.”
“I can go get my team right now and meet everyone at the Post Office, say in ten minutes?” Ms. White said.
The four of them split up, Geisha and Stonewall heading one direction while Butch and Ms. White headed in the other. It didn’t take long for the rest of the group to get together and start heading over to the Post Office.
Along with Ms. White and Butch, there was the Commander, Miguel, Alberto, Dave, the Sheriff, Jonathan, and Ariella, as well as the newly arrived Lt. Preen, and finally Lance and Zeke from the Hive. The group walked over to the meeting in relative silence. Only a few comments could be heard between Alberto and Jonathan as they discussed the various techniques of code writing, and the ever-entertaining allegories of C+ and C++ coding.
Gathered together, they walked into the parking lot of the dilapidated Post Office and past a gathering of three old blue post office boxes. All three had holes in them from what looked like gunfire. Specs of orange rust had already begun to take up residence around the center of the holes, where the faded blue paint had flecked off. It’s unknown if these holes were made during the Fox Wars, or if they were made by someone who with the downfall of society finally saw their opportunity to shoot up a post office box. Either way, these three old metal boxes now became symbolic tombstones of sorts for the world that was, as well as a warning of how the world is now.
Butch was the first to reach the glass double doors which protected the inner sanctum of the Post Office. Just past the first set of glass double doors was another set, allowing a continued sally port of sorts, for one to dust off any snow before officially entering the building. Finally, past the dual layer of glass protection, the group stood in the main entryway of the old Post Office. Not sure where to go next they all just mulled around trying to figure out the correct course of direction.
Off to the left was the main room of the Post Office, where customers use to line up for an unknown amount of time, waiting to send their parcels the land to various locations. However, since the blackout, this room had been turned into a makeshift storage room for things that people really didn’t need, but wasn’t ready to depart yet with. To the right was an entryway which opened up into a vast room with PO Box doors lining the walls. The miniature doors ranged from one large enough to hold bigger packages on the bottom and tapered upwards towards the envelope-sized ones at the top. Again, just like the main portion of the building, this area too sat quiet and empty. Some of the box’s still had indicators showing that mail was waiting for its owner. Though now it was clear, that the recipients of those parcels will never be back to collect their goods. They now are memorial to all the lives lost since the lights went out.
The group still stood around as they looked at one another, unsure where to go. The current room they stood in was about one hundred square feet in size and had a single door straight ahead. It was the type of door that could be opened completely, or just the top portion could open while keeping the bottom part still locked in place. At where the two halves split, there was a counter of sorts attached to the bottom half, so that if only the top was open, there could be a place to work or to let packages rest. Just to the right of the door was a doorbell looking buzzer and a sign that read, “Buzz For Help.”
Butch walked over to it, extended his right index finger towards it, then hesitated as he turned around towards the group. “Should I ring it?” He asked.
Instinctively Ms. White reached for her sidearm, placing an open palm upon the grip. “I guess that’s why we are here.”
Butch then turned back around and pushed the buzzer, as it made a stinging buzzing sound. It was so scathing that Butch quickly released his finger and took a step back. A moment later, the door cracked open as a short black man, with a black cowboy hat on, peeked around the corner of the open door.
“Good, Y'all are here,” Tim said as he opened the door all the way, and motioned for the group to pass through. Even in his Justin boots and his Stetson on, he still stood shy of six feet tall, causing him to look up towards most who had just arrived.
“Nice buckle,” Jonathan said as he passed.
Tim let out a large smile as he replied, “Thanks, won it a few years ago at the Wrangler Team Roping Championship in Billings.” Tim looked down at the golden buckle with pride as the last of the recent arrivals entered. Once all in, he shut the door once again and locked it before quickly making his way to the front of the group. “In through here folks,” He said as he opened up a pair of swinging doors.
The group walked past Tim once again and entered the main sorting room for the old Post Office. It was in here that another dozen Free Montana members sat around as they waited fro the others to arrive. Some sat next to an elongated fold up table, while others sat in old rolling office chairs. The only two standing were Geisha, who stood at the head of the table, her hands braced on the table as she looked over a map of the town, and Stonewall who stood nearby.
“Good, we can start now,” Geisha said with a bit of disdain in her voice. She stood upright, motioned for the others to gather around the table. Once everyone found a seat she started right in. “We all basically know why we are all here. Things have been, how should I say, active again. We have been seeing more activity from both the Russian’s as well as the Highwaymen around here, and some of the other outposts have been reporting more aggressive sweeps from the Regionals.” She paused as she grabbed a nearby notepad. “We just got this in from the Carolina’s,” She said as she held up the notepad, then proceeded to read, “Two outposts hit, both abandoned.” She lowered the notepad and looked back up. “One of those outposts was the Port Royal group. Losing that one hurts. Now, as we all know, we recently took in some new survivors, from both the Hive and Camp Zion. We have Lance and Butch, respectively representing them. Also, they seemingly brought along a few extra surprises. So white that, I turn it over to them.”
Lance stood up and nodded towards Geisha. “First off, I can’t say thank you enough for your help. As just reiterated, things are getting crazy out there. I personally saw Russian jets buzz the Hive. I have nothing to back it up, but my gut tells me that a fight is coming. Like it or not, I think one way or another we have to be ready. We all have to be ready.” He paused a moment as he thought about it, then sat down before finishing up, “I heading out tomorrow to head back to the Hive. What ever is decided here, I will pass along back
to Brother Ben, and then from there we will make our decision.”
Butch sat there for a moment as everyone now looked at him and waited for him to speak. “Most of you know me, or at least know of me and my group. I don’t have much time or need for B.S., so to put it to you straight, I, like Lance, have seen whats coming firsthand. We saw it ourselves. I lost a lot of good people and would have lost a lot more if it wasn’t for Ms. White and her group. I know that y’all might feel safe in your little bubble of freedom, but I promise you, if they want you, they will come and get you. The only way to stop that is to beat them to the punch.” He sat there a moment, hands clasped together resting the table, “I’ve never been much of a fighter, always been more of a thinker. It served me well all these years, but I can’t deny, the time for thinking is over. Now is the time for action. That’s all I have to say.”
Geisha nodded politely towards the two men. “Thank you, gentlemen, for your honesty and your dedication to keeping the American dream alive.” She then turned her attention towards Ms. White. “Now for Ms. White,” she paused a second longer before speaking as her right hand went towards her chest, where her fingers could feel her husband's dog tags under her shirt. Finally, she spoke up, “To be honest, I don’t much trust you or even like you. That being said, I do respect your determination and passion towards the destruction of the King. I have many faults, I admit that. I’m short-tempered, emotional at times, and very protective. Like many others, I suffered when the lights went out, but to be honest, I didn’t lose anything I couldn’t live without. It wasn’t till the Fox Wars, and the loss of my husband that I truly understood what pain could feel like. I admit, a part of me just wants to hide and keep pretending that we will be able to survive. So, what I am saying is that I’m not blind, I know something is coming. I just want to make sure that we are not running blindly into another massacre. I already lost my husband, I don’t want to lose my Nation.” She then turned towards Stonewall, “Do you have anything to add before I turn it over to them?” she asked as she hooked a thumb towards Ms. White.
Stonewall sat there, his weathered gray hat sat next to him on the table, as he ran his fingers through his hair. They raked his scalp and weaved in and out of his thick mane as he looked at Ms. White and the rest of the team members. “My family has been in the Badlands since before it was even apart of America. My geology can be traced back to the formation of Deadwood and beyond. Many of my namesakes have laid down their lives for nothing more than dirt and rocks. I’m not going to be the first in my line to stand by and let someone else come in and take what is mine, not without a fight.” He turned slightly towards Geisha as he continued, “I’m with her though, I want to know what you have planned, other than running blind into the devil's den.”
Ms. White sat there as she contemplated the question. She looked at the Commander then back in the direction of Geisha. “To be honest, we don’t have a concrete plan as of yet, more of a work in progress.”
“How much work?” One of the other Free Montana members asked.
“We have data gathered during our time at Camp Zion that we need to go through. Plus there is a book we are looking for in North Dakota, that I want to get before we go much further. Right now, though, we need to start lining our ducks up, you might say.” Ms. White quickly replied.
“So what do you need from us,” Geisha started to ask, “plus how long will it take to get said ducks in a row?”
“I would like to send a team to North Dakota, Harvey to be precise, we uncovered some information a little bit back, and want to follow up on it. It might be the key to bring it all down, then again it might be nothing. Plus the information on the hard drive recovered from the Vegas hospital, overall we might need a few weeks. In which time, we could start preparing everyone to get ready to fight. As for what we need, some form of transportation for my team to North Dakota would help speed things up, and if you have any type of computer that my man Jonathan could start dissecting all the information gathered, that would go a long way to speeding things up.” Ms. White replied.
“We do have a computer, the internet connection is a bit spotty at best, but your man is welcome to it.” Geisha paused as she looked over towards Stonewall, “As for transpiration, we really don’t have much to spare."
Stonewall thought about it then turned towards Ms. White, “How many people are you sending?”
Ms. White thought about the question for a moment, as she tried to calculate it in her mind, “Not a 100% sure yet, but approximately a dozen.”
“I can leave a dozen men here, they can help out and such, you can use their mounts.” Stonewall said, before turning towards Geisha, “Is that good for you?”
“We are always happy to take on more help.” Geisha quickly replied.
“That is perfect,” Ms. White replied. “Let's get started.”
23 Sanctuary
Harvey North Dakota
It took three more days of meetings and negotiations before a team was finally sent on from Free Montana to Harvey, North Dakota. Despite their willingness to help, both Geisha and Stonewall had little hope of any resemblance of success. In their minds, the whole trip to Harvey was not only foolish but a waste of good resources. In the end, though, they agreed it was better to try and fail, then not try at all.
Once on the road, it took another five days of riding in ever increasing cold and snow to reach their destination. Lucky for the group though, the horses used, were used to working in these conditions. Unfortunately, not all involved in the trip were as acclimated as their mounts. The inexperience of some of the crew members added two extra days to their trip. Two extra days of being exposed to a never ending barrage of snow and wind continually chipped away at the group. The freezing wind stabbed at their exposed skin ruthlessly, making some of the most mundane tasks, nearly imposable. Each second in the tumultuous environment lasted for hours.
In the end, only ten people were sent on the journey, instead of the original estimated twelve. They included Miguel, his son Alberto, Conall, Dave, AJ, Commander, Lt. Preen, Thumper, and Digger. Also included as one of Stonewalls men, Jacob, who was touted as one of the best trackers. Others, including the Sheriff, Ariella, as well as the rest of Lt. Preen’s team from the Michigan stayed behind to help train those in Free Montana for the fight that was coming.
Each team member struggled in their own way, dealing with the constant snow, minimal supply of food, and bone splitting wind. They all agreed though, that it was the wind that was the worse of all. It was never ceasing, relentless and sliced through everything. It didn’t matter how much clothing they had on, or even if they found some form of rudimentary shelter. The wind seeped through everything and penetrated all the way down to the soul. That wasn’t even the worst part though. The worst part was when it would pick up loose debris, and use the natural foliage as shrapnel. At times, even fragile snowflakes would be used as piercing shards of ice.
Now after five days of struggling, freezing and teetering on the edge of starvation, the ten-man team reached the outer limits of the provincial town of Harvey, North Dakota. The sun was already stretching out towards the horizon by the time they got into what might have been considered the heart of the town. During this time of year, actual sunlight was in short supply, as the sun merely peeked its head above the horizon before quickly ducking back down, leaving the town and its residents in a dark cold slumber. They planned on staying on the outskirts of the town's limits, not wanting to draw any unwanted attention. However, as they looked for the library, it was difficult to determine where the town started and the edge began. Because the town was so broken, and abandoned, the entire group was standing in the center of town before they even realized it.
With the sun completely tucked away, they stood in near darkness, unsure of where to go or what to do. There was no longer Google maps to pull up on a smartphone, no Siri or Alexa to ask for directions, they were left to wonder, nearly blind, in unknown territory. For all they knew
, a force of regionals, or even still a Russian patrol, could come around any corner at any time. They had neither the paperwork or the energy to deflect or take on such an obstacle.
“Now what?” Miguel asked as he pulled a tattered blue jacket closer to his body. He held the top of the jacket closed with his left hand, while he held the reins of his horse with his right. The gloves supplied were sufficient for a few hours out in the bitter cold, however at this point, they only seemed to add another figged layer to his body.
“Looks like nothing tonight,” The Commander started, as he looked around the nearly empty town center. “All I know is we need a place to store these horses, and hopefully get some warm food and maybe some rest.”
“There,” Alberto said before he was overcome with another coughing attack. The bitter, damp cold had settled heavily upon his chest and was showing early signs of turning into pneumonia.
Muster Page 23