Aeryn screamed and jumped on her brother. Toby grunted with the extra weight on his chest. She popped Charles on the ear, which gave Toby the opening he needed to throw the siblings from him. He rolled away, not wanting to fight Aeryn’s brother as no good would come of it. He took the high road and held out his hands, begging him to stop, but Charles was still on the ground, in a catfight with Aeryn.
Toby grabbed the young woman and pulled her upright, pinning her arms to her side. He held her between himself and Charles, using her as a shield. She continued screaming at her brother. If Toby hadn’t been in the middle of it, he might have found it pretty entertaining.
“Later, we’re going to laugh about this,” he ventured. It was as if neither heard. He didn’t repeat himself.
“You can’t have my bear rug!” Charles spit.
“We don’t want your damn bear rug. Maybe we’ll just get one of our own, you ever think about that?” she spit right back.
“So there!” he yelled.
“Let me go!” she snarled. Toby instantly removed his hands and held them up in surrender. “Isn’t there a bear waiting for us?”
Charles grunted and returned to his cart, walking off in a huff. Aeryn grabbed the other cart and followed. Toby walked meekly behind her, wondering what had just happened. He felt the tenderness in his face, knowing that a black eye was coming.
THE COUNCIL
Chris had been the chair from the outset. He was starting to look tired, although he was a good twenty years younger than me. I didn’t ask what I looked like to him.
When we walked in, he made a beeline for me as I’d expected.
“Hey. No beating around the bush. I heard what happened. Nik probably deserved it. Don’t do it again, please. Moving on. So, how have you been, Chuck?” Chris asked sincerely.
“Been better, but I’ve been worse, too. Yeah, I’m sorry about the Nikolai business, but this is crunch time. We need to finish getting ready for winter and can’t be dicking around with stupid things like differences of opinion,” I told him. Chris shook his head.
“Differences of opinion make the world go round, Chuck. You always preached about determining the shared goal first, then you could hammer out the steps to get there,” Chris reminded me. How could I have forgotten that? “Glad to have you back. Do you know where Aeryn is? She usually makes these and we’re happy to have her here. She’s the only young person who’s shown any interest in the overall welfare of the group.”
“I don’t, but we’d better get started, don’t want to keep these people too long,” I said, watching the seats fill up. Chris nodded as he returned to the head table.
We were using a building that had been an administrative office complex in the time before. It had been refit for our needs. It wasn’t heated very well, so we used it almost exclusively when it was warm out. In the winters, we used someone’s home for the meetings, rotating it so the same person wasn’t inconvenienced each week. In this room, there were rows of chairs with about half of them occupied. When I last came over a year ago, every chair had been filled.
With the loss of the latest airplane, the agenda was exclusively related to going it alone. Chris called the group to order. Amber was there to handwrite the meeting notes as she always did. With three kids now, she didn’t want more of a commitment than that. Her husband Lucas was probably in the power plant working with Shane on something. He rarely came to the meetings, usually only if there was something related to the power distribution and then he would show up with their chief engineer.
Shane and Tanya were married all those years ago, the first couple to do so after the liberation of the Denali victims. And since she stayed, her father had provided continual support, but even that was growing limited this past year. The depression was taking its toll on his business.
Terri was there as she always was. She moved close and then sat next to me. “I’m glad you’re back. It’s been too long,” she whispered, close to my ear. I leaned away so I could better see her face.
“Good to see you, too, Terri.” She laughed at my obvious discomfort before slapping my leg and then leaving her hand there. Unless I wanted to hold hands, I had to sit with my arms crossed. It was a warm evening and I started to sweat, so I surrendered and put her hand in mine.
Chris was navigating the issues with his usual acumen, but the overall tone of the meeting was set when one of the newcomers interrupted.
I referred to anyone outside of the original Community as a newcomer. This gentleman had been with us for nearly ten years. Pavel Kashirin was a Russian naturalist. He spent most of his time outside, studying nature and mapping the areas that provided edibles. He worked in the fields to help the harvest, especially since working machinery was scarce. The more time passed, the more our efforts resulted in physical labor, a return to medieval times.
“We must increase manpower in fields!” Pavel declared slamming a fist on the table. “The harvest is good this year, but we need people to work.”
“No one said we weren’t going to help, but we’re still in the middle of surveying what we have, trying to balance our technology with our needs. One tractor is worth fifty people, Pavel. If we put ten people to work on the tractor, then it more than pays for itself with better production.” Chris leaned back. He figured they’d end up agreeing to disagree, unless the repair parts didn’t fix the tractor. The fuel tanks had not ruptured in the crash, so a couple of the town’s mechanics were in the process of recovering the remaining avgas. If they could get one or both of the tractors running, that would solve the manpower issue.
“I wait two days, then we draft people!” Pavel stated boldly from the front row where he sat with his wife and two Russian friends.
“If the time comes, the Council will take care of getting people into the fields. You know me, Pavel. You know that I’ll be right at the front of the parade, so please, no threats. We’ll work with you to make sure your harvest finds its way into the processing facility. My compliments to you on another banner year, Pavel! You are doing a great job improving your yields,” Chris said smoothly. The Russian nodded abruptly and sat down. His wife patted him on the back. Chris had bought himself a few days. He wrote a small note in the book that he always carried that he needed to check on the tractor repairs.
Aeryn tried to sneak in, but the door squeaked. Everyone turned and watched her enter. When she saw me, she worked her way forward and took the seat next to me, her eyes fixed on Terri’s hand on my leg and my hand on hers. She smiled and hugged me.
Chris acknowledged her. “Aeryn, your report?” he asked. That caught me off guard. What would she report on?
“The strategic direction of the Community of Fairbanks remains challenged. With the latest crash, our logistics chain has been severed completely. We have radio, but we are cut off. If we don’t have it now, we don’t have it. Our fabrication shop is looking for new volunteers as they expect the demands on them will increase. Local harvests are at an all-time high. Pavel is leading the way and has helped a number of others increase their yields.” She walked as she talked, trying to get up front where she could be seen by all.
She was only three inches over five feet tall and probably wouldn’t get any taller. She was lean and probably only weighed one hundred ten pounds. I smiled broadly as she spoke clearly and concisely. She motivated the crowd as she made eye contact with everyone. No one moved as people were riveted by what should have been a dry supply report.
Aeryn didn’t see me beaming as she continued, slapping Pavel on the shoulder as she passed. “My brother shot a big grizzly on the hill just past the Millers’ cabin. That’s why I was late. We were recovering the meat. A good haul, enough to get two or three families through the winter. And maybe the moose won’t be afraid to come nice and close to the town, since there isn’t a bear to hold them off,” she said with a big smile. Then she pulled a sheet of paper
from her pocket and read off numbers regarding estimated firewood stocks, overall meat weight, power generation, and more.
The Fairbanks settlement was not a commune. We didn’t combine our food and firewood for redistribution. First and foremost, people took care of their own families. Excess was offered for trade. A small amount was donated, never more than ten percent into a communal stockpile. From this, Shane and some of the others were provided for. How could Bill and Nikolai feed themselves while still running the warehouse?
Many had others over for meals. I thought that Shane, Tanya and their children ate at other homes five nights a week. They had become the popular couple. It used to be us, Madison, the twins, and I, while my wife was still alive. Since then, I declined all the invitations. Many people still dropped off food with us. Not so much lately, but at first.
Aeryn walked back and forth in front of the head table, watching as the council members took notes on various people to talk with regarding the numbers. If someone was falling short, they’d work to shore them up. If someone was simply slacking off, this group had no mercy. People who went it alone, suffered. I would have had it had it not been for Aeryn and Charles. They were the strength of the family.
Aeryn smiled pleasantly as the members each thanked her for the thoroughness and timeliness of her report. Time remained before winter to fix things. The look on Chris’ face said that he bore the burden of getting the issues resolved.
The meeting broke up after forty-five minutes. Those people farthest out had to travel a couple miles to get home. Chris made sure they had the time to get there in the daylight. There was the usual glad-handing afterwards, but people meandered away fairly quickly. No one was a career bureaucrat. There simply wasn’t room for anyone who couldn’t work with their hands. Less talk and more do, that was our motto. The Council and the meetings were necessary evils, and as long as everyone continued to think of them in that way, then it wouldn’t become a self-serving, life-sucking entity.
Aeryn and Terri both waited with me. Terri tried to hold my hand, but I put it in my pocket instead. Aeryn rolled her eyes at me.
She was too old, too mature for her years. I was sure she’d tell me later that it was time to move on. Terri had been waiting patiently for the past year. But I wasn’t ready. It still hurt too much. I did what every man throughout history had done, I mumbled some sort of apology and excuse for needing to leave and I walked away.
Aeryn talked with Terri briefly before running after me.
“You gave a great presentation in there,” I told her when she arrived, before she could take the conversation elsewhere. “So, Charles bagged a grizzly?”
She looked at me sideways. “Fine. Yes, Charles bagged a big grizzly. Toby and I helped him get the meat back down the hill. It took two trips for them. I didn’t help on the second one because I needed to be here,” she added.
“Yes, you needed to be here. What you’re doing for the Community is incredible. I’m really proud of you,” I told my daughter.
“Thanks, Dad, and now let’s talk about you.” The dreaded words rolled smoothly from her mouth as we walked, my arm draped over her shoulder. “Terri could be good for you. All you have to do is say the word and she’s yours.”
We stopped and picked up our bikes, but she pushed hers, not wanting to finish our conversation. I pushed mine, too.
I was appalled at such candid talk. “What?” was all I could come up with in response. Aeryn knew what that meant.
“Just think about it, Dad. You deserve to be happy. We’ve all mourned and now it’s time to move on.” She stopped and turned toward me. My little girl was an adult.
“Toby,” I said, to break the stalemate. She looked away quickly. “Tell me about him.”
“I really like him. He’s funny and smart and always willing to help others. And he likes me, too,” she probed tentatively.
“How could he not? Look at the young woman walking next to me. He’d be stupid if he didn’t like you. Just be careful, if you know what I mean,” I ventured.
“Is that your idea of the birds and the bees talk, Dad?” she asked.
“Does it make my point?”
“Yes, it does,” she answered with a smirk.
“Then that’s exactly what it was. Go see Colleen if you have any questions or need anything. This is way out of my league.” I shuffled forward quickly.
“I can tell,” she laughed, just like her mother. It almost broke me, but I held firm. It wasn’t super strength, only time that tempered my feelings. Maybe the decision earlier that day that I needed to move on helped, too. The ache in my heart was there, only a little duller than yesterday.
We continued in silence, but heard some rustling in the undergrowth not far from the path we were taking. An Alaskan Husky jumped out, wild-eyed and frothing. Aeryn rolled her bike around, putting it between her and the dog. I let go of my bike and pulled my .45 from its shoulder holster. I never went anywhere without my pistol, ever.
“Stay!” I yelled at Floyd, who had already headed for the sound. “Come!” His hackles were up and he snarled at the newcomer.
The dog snapped and bared its fangs while Aeryn held it at bay using her bike. I stepped around her and it leapt for me as I looked at it down the barrel of my pistol. I squeezed, and one round tore through its chest. The dog yipped as it bounced off me and hit the ground. It started to run, but only a couple steps before collapsing and sighing its last breath.
“Rabies,” I said out loud. “From where?”
Aeryn went to the animal, resting her hand on its now still side. I watched as she closed her eyes and said a prayer.
I suspected this had been someone’s pet, but got loose. There were far more dogs than we could take care of, but the puppies kept coming. We only had two people who remotely resembled veterinarians. Abigail, from the original Community and her partner, Phillip. We’d been able to get as much material as we could for them, the entire veterinarian course from the Washington State University, including videos and diagrams. It had been ten years that they’d been learning, and they were pretty good, but they didn’t have the time to spend solely in treating animals, and there were too many who weren’t spayed or neutered. Now this.
“Let’s go see Abigail,” I told Aeryn. We wrapped the sled-dog-looking mutt in a game bag and strapped it on the back rack of my bike. We took off, Aeryn quickly outpacing me. Once I started wheezing, I slowed down to barely faster than a walk.
When I joined the Marines nearly forty years prior, I’d had asthma, but I didn’t know, and the doctors didn’t find it. I served, always thinking that I would easily get out of shape. I’d power through because the asthma wasn’t bad and my lungs never seized up. Then I earned my commission and after that, physical fitness tests were few and far between because I served in joint duty assignments. No one ever suspected, not even me, until late in my career when I couldn’t walk up one flight of stairs without getting out of breath. A civilian I worked with had a heart attack and that was his only symptom. So I went in for a battery of tests on my heart.
My heart was fine, but once they diagnosed me with asthma and gave me the broad spectrum of inhaled steroids and other medicines, life became a great deal easier. I was at the eighteen-year point in my career and only needed to make it the last two so I could retire. I did not want a medical retirement, or to get discharged short of twenty. That would have been catastrophic financially. All that time and no retirement pay. But I made it and retired at almost twenty-one years.
I married Madison, ten years younger than me, and a few years after I retired we had the twins. When they were two, our world changed in its entirety. Now they were sixteen, going on seventeen, and Aeryn was an accepted leader among the members of the Community.
And she had a boyfriend. I wasn’t sure how I felt about that.
All these thoughts came rushing into my head a
s I struggled to breathe. I had to stop as an asthma attack was coming on. If I kept trying to ride, I’d probably start shaking and fall over. Aeryn turned around and came back.
“Your asthma?” she asked, but it wasn’t a question. I’d had the stem cell treatments, but asthma got the best of me over the past ten years. I was back to where I’d started. It made some things difficult and others impossible. When they went into the fields to help harvest Pavel’s crops, I wouldn’t be with them. When we went hunting, I didn’t have to carry anything, but isn’t that why we have children? Charles got to carry a full load every time. He didn’t mind. He was strong, as tall as me and wider. He wasn’t afraid of anything and it seemed the latest, a grizzly, couldn’t even cause him any grief.
“I’ll go ahead. Catch up when you can,” she said while she moved the dog to her bike and quickly scratched Floyd behind his ears as he sniffed at the bag. She looked closely at me to make sure I wasn’t blue, then stood on her pedals as she raced into the distance. My kids, moving forward without me.
And suddenly, I was depressed again, almost overwhelmingly as I stood on the trail, alone with my dog.
THE GHOST IN THE DARK
With the grizzly gone, the moose soon made their way into the area. We were pleased at how easy it had become to fill the freezers year over year. We had to keep some people from overhunting, but all in all, no one wanted for meat.
Abigail suspected that infected fox were in the area and they were giving rabies to the other animals. She put in an emergency order for as much rabies vaccine as she could get, but Aeryn delivered the bad news that we were probably cut off for the duration. Unless something drastically changed outside, defined as anywhere not Alaska, she suspected there wouldn’t be any more shipments. If they couldn’t grow it or build it themselves, they would have to do without.
Fury (End Times Alaska Book 4) Page 3