by D A Carey
“Not that I wouldn’t have been happy to join with Mr. Tarpley,” Christy said. “I didn’t know him, though.”
“To answer your first question, Mr. Cavanaugh does have a strongly determined side of him that few people ever see. He will walk through walls to get what he thinks is right, not merely what he wants. On the rare occasions when he does need to walk through a wall, that’s where I come in.” For some reason, Levi felt compelled to look at Big Jim as he spoke. “Although I have never seen him walk over people to be self-serving.”
“I’m so happy to hear that. He is indeed one of the rare ones.”
“I hope he isn’t that rare. Our country needs more like him. Take Mr. Tarpley for example. He is wealthy in his own right. Yet here he is taking me for a walk and being great to all of us. That doesn’t appear self-serving, does it?”
“You’re right, it doesn’t look that way,” Christy said.
Persistence
Persistence
“Persistence is to the character of man as carbon is to steel.”
- Napolean Hill
<< Vince >>
The recovery from the surgery to remove his kidney had been long and painful. Vince’s employer had been very supportive. For a week in the hospital and then a couple of weeks after, he had been on his back or on drugs. It didn’t take him long to get moving with a walker. Thirty minutes of movement would be followed by a pain pill and three to four hours of sleep. Soon he graduated to a cane. By this time, he could do a couple hours of movement followed by a simple Tylenol instead of narcotics and then a few hours of sleep. Throughout it all, he was always cold. It didn’t make sense until one of his doctors told him how much blood he’d lost and how much time it would take to replenish it. Vince didn’t like feeling like an old man shuffling around with a cane and a sweater.
After a couple of weeks, he asked Don to drive him to work to “assure them he wasn’t dead.” After greeting people and shaking hands, being asked why he was there and told to go home and rest, Luke spoke straight to him.
“Vince, you need to go home. You look terrible.”
“Bearing in mind I went through a major surgery a couple weeks ago, I don’t look that bad, do I?”
“Man, you’re thirty pounds lighter than when we last saw you. You’re white as a ghost and sweating. And even though you may not realize it, you’ve showed a lot of people your staples.”
“They asked to see the staples. Heck, there are forty-seven of them on the outside alone. They took the whole kidney and cut close to my heart.”
“I know, man. That’s the drugs speaking. You’ve told this story already, and no, not everyone asked to see the staples.” Luke was clearly having fun.
“I guess you’re right. I only wanted to see everyone and let them know I didn’t die. Don is waiting downstairs with the car.”
“I’ll ride the elevator down with you. It’s no big deal. Go home and rest. We’re good here.”
Vince’s goal was to deer hunt on opening day. Five weeks to the day from his surgery, he did. Climbing that tree stand, taking the shot, and field dressing the deer had taken every ounce of his reserves. Vince went home and slept for three days when it was done, his mission accomplished.
A few weeks later while Vince was recovering, Liz called him. She’d been a good friend throughout the entire ordeal.
“I’m filming a new movie in the next few weeks with a lot of military and action scenes,” she told him. “I don’t know much about military things and combat, other than seeing you in action last year coming out of Chicago. Some of the scenes are kind of unreal, and the military action comes off as fake, so I asked the director to bring in an advisor.”
While most directors would blow up at any challenge to their plan, this one was reasonable and easy to work with. It helped that Liz was the star and good friends with the producer. Because she was known to be sensible and didn’t normally meddle with things on that side of the camera, her request went over smoothly.
Vince was her choice. She was aware of his military record, his knowledge was impeccable, and they were friends. She reasoned he could convalesce in California and earn some money, and she could show him the sights.
While Vince knew she felt like she was repaying a debt or throwing him a bone, at the same time he wasn’t ready mentally to go back to work at the cubicle farm full time. He couldn’t stand sitting around the big house alone and couldn’t do much manual work at Carrollton, either. This would be a good vacation. No one would know how close to death this bout with cancer had taken him and how happy he was to be alive. Living with cancer reminded him of tours in combat. While it was ominous and scary, it was similarly tinged with a sense of joie de vivre, or living in the moment. The joy of living wasn’t that he or others like him enjoyed war; it was that when death was so near and so constant, you could either become somber and morose or you could live each moment as a happy one and another victory over death.
Vince chose the latter. He would go to southern California and let a gorgeous movie star pamper him.
The time off from work was easier to accept knowing he had more short-term disability time left and Luke was managing his department. Luke had been a good neighbor during the events last year and was an up-and-coming leader in his company. Luke welcomed Vince’s advice and ran the department similar to the way Vince would have. They spoke regularly. While Luke was convinced everything in the country was virtually back to normal now, Vince wasn’t. Vince tried to convince Luke to join the Carrollton community at a huge discount. Luke was happy where he was and with the school system in Oldham County. They’d escaped the apocalypse, and now he was getting noticed at work, earning promotions, and life was going good.
<
Vince landed at LAX airport in Los Angeles, greeted personally by Liz and her bodyguard Bill. Liz wrapped him up in a hug of pure joy, like a family member greeting someone home from a long trip. It made Vince feel warm inside. He wasn’t used to letting down his emotional barriers.
Bill merely raised an eyebrow; there was too much going on here for him to start making guesses. Liz dated different men and didn’t open up like this to any of them. Vince was older than Liz and a crusty veteran like himself. Liz wore jeans, tennis shoes, a ball cap, and sunglasses, and though Bill wasn’t tall, he was an anvil of a man with a grim visage.
As Vince and Liz moved through the airport trailed by Bill, some people did a double take recognizing her. The pair were so intent on each other and where they were going that no one stopped them.
“Vince, I’m so glad you came! We’re going to have a ball!” Liz gushed.
“I’m happy to be here. Thanks for the invite,” Vince said, more stiffly than he intended. He was a little out of his element.
“I have tons of stuff planned for us to see and do. This will be fun!”
Vince was clearly confused. “I thought I was here to advise on a movie?”
“Of course you are, silly. We need you. This has the bones of being a good movie. However, some of it doesn’t come off as realistic. That’s where you come in. That doesn’t mean we can’t take a day off here and there or do things after work.”
“Oh, okay.” Vince wondered what he’d gotten himself into. “I would have thought they had plenty of military people on the studio payroll. You didn’t have to fly me all the way out here.”
“Vince, this self-deprecating crap is going to get old. You’re my friend, and I care about you. I wanted you, and that’s the end of it. I get lonely too out here, and it’s good to have someone here from home I can open up to and be myself. So will you lighten up and help me fix this movie and have some fun?”
Before it could get awkward, Vince leaned in for a friendly side-armed hug. “Sure, Liz. I need to find a hotel, then I’m at your disposal. I’m looking forward to this visit.”
“No hotels. You’re staying at my place. I have plenty of rooms.”
“Liz, I’m sleeping a lot, walking with a
cane, and being grumpy when I get tired,” Vince said, holding up a gnarled cane made from a tree root he’d purchased at a truck stop. “It’s embarrassing, to be honest.”
Liz squeezed his hand. “You’re fine. You’ve been through a lot. While we have work to do, this trip is primarily about rest and recuperation for you. You need the downtime and the rest, and my place is perfect for that.”
“I appreciate it, Liz. Eventually I need to get back to Kentucky and my job, though.”
“Not for three months.”
“I can’t stay out of work for three months, Liz. My benefits will run out.”
“You’re on full pay and benefits, ostensibly working out of your company’s southern California office for the next three months. You should have a text from your company clarifying it when you boot your phone back up.”
“Liz, what’d you do?” Vince asked, fumbling for his phone.
“I didn’t want you to worry, so I had my agent offer my services for free to make a commercial for your company. All I asked in return was three to six months of your time working for me in California. They didn’t even blink.”
“Wow, I don’t know what to say. I’ll get teased mercilessly when I get back, though, and I don’t know if I can take three straight months of California,” Vince joked.
“No one knows except your company’s senior leadership. People will think you’re convalescing or you’ve been assigned to another department. It’s not a big deal. Frankly, it should only take a few days to shoot a commercial. That’s a small price to pay for a friend.”
Liz’s home in the Hollywood hills was lavish by most standards, but compared to some homes in Hollywood, it was modest. In either event, it had plenty of room. Unlike many in the area, Liz didn’t employ a permanent household staff, only paying chefs and housekeepers to come on an as needed basis. Liz liked her privacy and keeping her own home up to a certain degree. However, that didn’t mean the home was quiet. At any given time, there was a gardener at work, a housecleaner stopping by, one of Liz’s assistants, or her agent John.
After showing Vince around, Liz led him to a concealed room in the basement. As soon as things had gotten better after last year’s chaos and Liz got back to Hollywood, she’d had this special room constructed. The builder shared that a lot of wealthy people were doing the same thing. It took some bonus money and flirting to move hers ahead of some others on his list.
She’d tasked Bill and Junior with stocking the room with the correct weapons and survival supplies. She’d even began enjoying an occasional weekend jaunt with Bill or Junior to an outdoor shooting range to practice. It wasn’t odd to see a good deal of other Hollywood elites there. There was a posh indoor range in Hollywood for handguns. They didn’t allow the larger calibers and assault rifles that Bill insisted she learn to handle. Glancing around the range at all the people with handguns and assault rifles who were exceptionally liberal in the public persona surprised Liz. For all their liberal values, they weren’t dumb, and many of them didn’t believe this recovery was for real, either. If things went bad, they wouldn’t be caught flatfooted needing to trust the goodness of their fellow neighbors to be kind once they got hungry and there were no police. They were preparing to defend themselves with deadly force.
<
The recent unrest had spurred other investors to join in the program. Dave was working with a group in Georgia about an hour northeast of Atlanta and another west of Salt Lake City and Ogden, Utah. While much of the country thought things were better, others didn’t share their optimism. Those people were driving the rapid growth of and interest in the Chartertowns.
The Georgia location near the Hollis Q Lathem Reservoir was already into the building process. Dave directed Jeff Granger to spend a good deal of his time there, and Andy Brown agreed to take a temporary duty in Georgia to help get their defenses fleshed out. Jeff was one of Dave’s top men and had led the construction of the chartertown at Carrollton. Andy grew up in Trimble County, Kentucky, near Chartertown Carrollton before joining the Army and becoming a Cav Scout. He and Dwight Granger had risked their lives helping Vince get Liz, Kate, and Malcolm out of Chicago last year.
The Georgia land purchase was complete and the plans drawn up. As with most locations, this one presented its own challenges. A little more than an hour from the heart of Atlanta, it was more suited for telecommuters than commuters. Dave hoped to get some commuters from the north side of Atlanta, though this location would depend heavily on the growth of telecommuting. While Atlanta desperately needed a chartertown, the urban sprawl was so wide it was hard to get close to the city and still be safe in an apocalypse. This location was the best option, and Dave was pleased with how it was shaping up. It was on the south side of the Hollis Q Lathem Reservoir off of Cowart Road. It was only separated from the Crystal Falls Lake and golf club by a small inlet of water. Dawson Forest was not huge, but it was close and could provide for hunting. Along with gardens and fishing in the reservoir, the community should have a renewable food source.
The Ho-Town location, as some were calling it, created an additional level of insight for Dave that he wanted to talk to Levi about. They needed community-wide bugout plans. While this location would have walls and be secure and off the beaten path, it was not hard to conceive of a situation in which hordes of hungry and depraved people could overrun the town. Dave instructed Jeff to purchase a small piece of property a few miles away in which they could cache some food and ammunition. After a charter was ratified for Ho-Town, key leaders would be made aware of the cache locations and a bugout plan, which would probably be a stop at the cache location, followed by a long trek to Carrollton, Kentucky.
The Utah location was on the East Canyon reservoir, east of both Ogden and Salt Lake City and less than an hour drive time from both. While technically the address was served by Morgan, Utah, this site would be called Saddle Rock Chartertown after the small mountain a short hike to the west of the building site. The land purchase had recently been completed, and the plans were being drawn up. If the local investor interest was as high as it was in other parts of the country, they could have people moved in soon. Dave had already sent out a team with supplies and construction trailers to set the boundaries and preposition supplies.
While Salt Lake City and Ogden didn’t have the crime that some major cities had, this location could be much needed in the event of an apocalyptic situation. The location was the epitome of what Dave had envisioned. It was truly beautiful and close to major population centers to support a commute during the good times and be reachable in the bad. Dave had to chuckle when contemplating how future residents might change this name as they were doing with some of the others. Could it be called Sad-Town? Or Rock-Town?
Dave and Louis divided their time between getting the communities built and staffed and getting the businesses that were creating much needed supplies running on overtime. He wanted to have as much gear, ammo, food, and equipment stored as possible and have the factories and businesses able to operate as long as possible, just in case.
<
Levi made the decision to drive from Turk-town to Utah. He’d already been there for the land purchase after he and Dave hiked the property and fell in love with the location. They’d easily been able to envision how this location would be laid out. Driving gave him time to settle his thoughts and plan next steps. Levi enjoyed the time to listen to audiobooks or catch up on some of the phone calls he was falling behind on.
He and Dave both shared a love for this phase of the project, alone with the land and envisioning what it would be like. Directing the surveyors and construction managers was like validating that vision. This location would need a road built to it and a compound built on the rise of land above the lake. Levi envisioned gardens and some livestock. He instructed Cavanaugh Corp. to find adjacent land to purchase for those herds. While driving north, he reached out to Jeff Granger in Georgia and asked him to send his best man up to Utah to get th
is location fast tracked. While they didn’t have a full investor group yet for this location, both Dave and Levi were convinced they didn’t have time to waste. This plan was taking off and investors were coming in faster than they could build. Once they had a good location in the right geographic area, the plan was to drive on full speed ahead and trust Dave and the Cavanaugh Corp. people to line up the investors. Louis had also asked Andrew Ballard, Dave’s head of legal for Cavanaugh Corp., to fly to Salt Lake City personally for the initial investors’ meeting.
<
In addition to SOP-town, Louis was focused on corporate acquisitions, delegating the contractual portion of this work to his assistant, Susan Willis. Susan had been so traumatized by the events and beating she’d taken in last year’s chaos that dealing face to face with the public became difficult for her. It turned out she was a wizard at the contractual minutia and negotiations; she just preferred to do it electronically instead of in person. When Dave asked Louis to move to SOP-town full time, Susan requested to move back home to Nebraska with her family and work remotely. Louis agreed, as she was virtually remote already and had become very valuable getting all the details sorted out.
They’d recently purchased a small company that made potbelly-style stoves. While they were a popular decorative item in many homes already, they were tremendously useful for heat in log homes and hunting cabins. Louis and Susan bought the company at a huge discount because their factory was in desperate need of retooling and the owners were cash strapped to make the investment. They had already purchased a building in Carrollton, Kentucky, and plans to move the operations from Oklahoma to Kentucky were in process. All the workers who wanted to move would be offered a stipend to help pay the relocation cost.