“Maybe. Which one of you is Jeff?” Jeff slowly raised his hand and the man continued speaking. “We’re here to make sure you stay on this side of the gate until we verify you are who you say you are. If you wouldn’t mind stepping out of the vehicle, we need to measure your height. We also need your social. The rest of you can stay where you are. Try not to make any sudden moves or anything. We’ve got guys in the woods watching.”
Despite his pessimism about the reception that they were going to receive Jeff didn’t hesitate to climb down out of the truck. One of the men used a tape measure to check his height. He rattled off his social and waited patiently while they transmitted his measurements and social back to the base. It wasn’t exactly biometrically scanning his retina to identify him, but it passed for fairly high tech in this new normal. They waited a few minutes before the radio came back to life confirming he was who he said he was.
“Congratulations. Turns out you’re you after all.” One of their greeters joked.
“Nope. Yue is up in the cab.” Jeff tried to joke back. A joke that was completely lost on the two men in shorts. Up in the cab Yue was unsuccessfully trying to get her eye rolling habit under control while Gus and LeBron dutifully snickered at the lame joke. They were told to drive through the gate and park in the lot beside the dam. Jeff nodded and climbed back in.
Following the directions that they’d been given Gus drove them up the narrow road to where it widened out into a large parking lot overlooking a massive lake. They’d caught glimpses of the lake through the woods as they drove. They’d gotten to check it out from the bridges they’d gone over as well. It was much more enjoyable taking in the view when you weren’t expecting to die at any second. From their vantage point in the truck, they could just make out where the dam began. There was a stack of shipping containers on the other side of the parking lot blocking the view of the dam itself.
“Full of MRES, tools, weapons and other supplies. I was thinking they’d bring their families here to live with them. My goal was to have enough stored here to use it as a smaller distribution depot. We tried to build in redundancy after redundancy. One of my men was a huge NASA nerd. He liked to talk about the safeguards NASA uses where every system has to be redundant. It makes sense when you’re planning for what may be the end of the world. We didn’t know what shape that may end up taking but assumed it was going to be violent and messy. I don’t think any of us really thought it was going to end up like this though.” Jeff said reflectively. LeBron was listening with interest. It was the most he’d really heard Jeff talk about his job from before everything went down.
“What were the more likely scenarios?” LeBron asked with interest. He was keeping it light. He hoped if he kept Jeff talking, he’d pick up on some more knowledge nuggets that could help them in the future.
“Sun flares were a common concern. Asteroids, some sort of pandemic but nothing like this. Maybe something more like Captain Trips from that Stephen King book.” Jeff was snapping his fingers as he tried to come up with the name of the book that was on the tip of his tongue.
“Is it the one with the clown?” Yue asked laughingly. She wasn’t a big reader, but she enjoyed going to the movies.
“The Stand, right?” LeBron supplied the name of the book. Jeff pointed at LeBron and smiled as the crinkles fell away from his forehead.
“That’s it! Anyway, something like that. We’re riding around on a big blob of dirt spinning through space at a zillion miles per hour. It’s really pretty weird that we’ve survived this long when you think about it. Our job was to spend every day thinking about ways we could all die and then coming up with ways to survive those eventualities if they occurred. We created all kinds of plans that went straight into the politicians recycling bins. Some of our stuff was used though. Agencies like FEMA spent millions on our staging plans to have supplies staged near major population centers in the event of super storms or tsunamis. We did all that work, but we never really thought anything like this would happen.” Jeff stopped talking when he noticed the park service ruggedized electric golf cart zipping their way.
A man with short dark hair and a thick mustache was driving the cart. If he switched out his khaki uniform for a Hawaiian shirt, he’d easily pass for Magnum PI. He resonated that loose seventies vibe. As he got closer, they could see the Magnum PI persona was built on top of a lot of muscle.
“There must be a ton of fish in those crates to feed all of the SEALs up here.” Gus said. Between the guys with the shorts and the roided up mustache walking over to greet them it hadn’t taken much to guess they were SEALs. Those guys lived to work out. They’d spend the morning exercising as a team then then hit the gym on their lunch break.
“You men can shut off the trucks and come on down now. I’m Captain Sheridan of the United States Navy. I’m the commanding officer for this installation. I understand you’re in charge of this convoy?” The captain walked over to talk to Jeff.
“That’s correct. I’m the Secretary of the Department for the continuation of the United States government. You can call me Jeff.”
“Well. I just spoke with one of the assistants to the President. He told me you’ve been relieved of your authority. I’m supposed to detain you until he has the opportunity to question you. It sounds like you may have access to information that he needs.” Captain Sheridan said.
“The President’s alive? We’re talking about the former VP, right?” Jeff asked. He’d been caught completely flat footed by the news. He hadn’t quite processed yet that the captain was going to be taking him into custody.
Everyone else in the small group had caught the incarceration comment. They were all busily processing the President being alive as well.
“This is the same VP who flew off the Ford and left the whole crew to die? He left us without even trying to send back the helicopter to help us get off? That’s the dirtbag you’re taking orders from? The guy who ordered Marines to risk their lives to drag his dead wife out of the ship?” Yue asked angrily. Sheridan dismissed Yue’s comments with a shrug.
“I honestly have no idea what you’re talking about. I thought the Ford and the other carriers had probably been pressed into service to help with all of this. Makes sense. I don’t know any of you though. I do know my commander in chief has ordered me to place Jeff here under arrest. That’s going to happen now. My men will show the rest of you down to the powerhouse and get you squared away down there. You’re all our guests until we figure out what to do with you.” Sheridan said. He didn’t look thrilled at the prospect of having to deal with them.
Sheridan was even less excited when he saw the number of kids sitting in the back of the trucks. A few of the Marine officers tried to get preferential treatment or at least get their ranks acknowledged. They were told that they were also just going to be guests for now. The parking lot had rapidly filled up with men from the base with guns who were trying to boss around the men from the trucks who also had guns.
“This isn’t going to end well.” Drew said as he casually disengaged the safety on his rifle.
Yue turned to see Harley, Mikey and Drew had all walked up to see what was going on. A few of the SEALS from the dam were forming a loose circle around them. These weren’t the pleasant short shorts wearing men from the gate. These were hard faced killers wearing full on battle rattle.
“They want to arrest Jeff.” Yue hissed.
“Who wants to arrest Jeff? Why?” Drew was confused. Confusion made him tighten his grip on his rifle.
“The President ordered him to be arrested.” Yue said.
“He’s alive?” Harley asked. Drew had told him the President had died back at the warehouse.
“We thought he was dead. His helicopter was sitting outside the warehouse with nobody in it.” Yue answered. Drew looked like a monkey with a hammer trying to figure out a calculus problem.
“He must’ve flown to the base then had them rollout a plane to take him somewhere else. The base could
’ve fallen after he left.” LeBron had been chewing on the question of how the President could still be alive since Sheridan had mentioned it. It made perfect sense that the warehouse wasn’t the President’s final destination. They were finding out slowly but surely that there were a lot of these little secret spots sprinkled around the country courtesy of taxpayer money and Jeff’s foresight.
Yue gasped and rushed towards Jeff. No one had noticed that he’d been ushered to the side. He’d been in a conversation with Sheridan and now a SEAL was putting zip ties around his wrists. That may have been forgivable but one of the other SEALs moved aggressively to confront Yue before she could reach Jeff. Captain Sheridan didn’t seem concerned by Yue approaching him at all. He did appear concerned a second later when multiple weapons were drawn and pointed in his direction. The SEALs belatedly pulled their own weapons and aimed them back at the newcomers. Yue stopped in her tracks staring over at a restrained Jeff.
“I told you this wasn’t going to end well.” Drew said with his rifle up and ready.
Chapter 5: Fontana Standoff
“I need you all to lower your weapons immediately!” Captain Sheridan barked out the command with his pistol aimed somewhere between Yue and LeBron.
“How about you lower yours first captain?” Mikey piped up. He had his AR-15 heavy barreled rifle aimed right at the captain’s face.
LeBron was shaking like a leaf. Fighting the crawlerz was one thing but this was ridiculous. Every man here was a hugely valuable resource in rebuilding civilization. Killing each other was a huge waste. He couldn’t stop staring at the barrels of the men facing them. His heart was racing at the thought of the bullets that might start ripping through him at any second. His shaking body made his rifle sway a little side to side, but it stayed up and aimed. He may be scared out of his mind, but these scumbags had threatened his sister. He tried to think of some way out of this situation, but the analytical part of his mind didn’t want to kick in.
“There’s little kids here you freakin morons!” A red-faced Carl had popped out of nowhere to let them all have it.
“They started it.” Drew deadpanned.
“All of you idiots put your damned guns down right now!” Carl huffed standing between the two groups with his arms crossed and shooting Drew a dirty look. The old man standing there like that could’ve ended in bullets and blood. Instead, it did what Carl had wanted it to do. The situation rapidly deescalated. Captain Sheridan lowered his weapon and the rest of his men followed suit. As soon as those weapons went down the other side dropped theirs as well. Trying to control his harsh breathing LeBron lowered his own weapon. He allowed himself to be cautiously optimistic he might survive the next few minutes.
“Alright let’s start over. I’m the commanding officer for this outpost. I’ve been charged with maintaining and protecting this facility until such time as relieved of that duty. You’re a bunch of refugees following a man the President of the United States just ordered me to lock up. Your turn.” Sheridan stood his ground calmly waiting for one of them to speak up. You’d never know by looking at him that he’d just narrowly avoided eating a whole lot of lead.
Yue was still standing a little in front of everyone from where she’d started to approach Jeff to defend him. That’s why it took her a moment to realize everyone was waiting for her to respond. Everyone except Mikey and LeBron. They were alternately looking at Yue to respond then shifting their attention back to Drew to signal him to keep his mouth shut. So far, he was doing a good job of not saying anything, but Yue really needed to start talking soon. She finally felt all the eyes boring into her back and realized no one else was going to say anything.
“Thank you, captain. We appreciate your willingness to talk. Jeff’s the man who architected the plan you’re following right now to guard this dam. He coordinated which outposts were supplied and set up as depots or whatever. We were all on board the Ford when the infection got loose there. The President was turned, and the Vice President became the President. The Ford ran aground and long story short we’ve been collecting refugees and trying to get them where they’ll be safe. Jeff’s focused on trying to save what’s left of the country while the new President is focused on consolidating his power.” Yue tried to phrase everything in a way that wouldn’t offend the group of overly armed killers facing them.
“You understand we have to take him into custody, right? We’ll all go down to the powerhouse and get situated then figure out what comes next. We’re going to keep Jeff here restrained like we’ve been ordered to do. You have my word that nothing will happen to him until we have this all figured out. Is that acceptable?” The captain asked. He was speaking in a firm yet understanding tone. Yue pictured the smug pretty boy reading the instructions for dealing with armed refugees out of the SEAL handbook in between doing one armed pushups.
“That works for me. Let’s get inside before the crawlerz show up. I’m looking forward to chatting with the President. Would love to hear why he left us and all those sailors and Marines to die after we rescued him.” Jeff said. He could see that Yue was having a hard time agreeing to any deal that left him with his hands tied behind his back.
“No hurry. We actually haven’t seen any of the infected out here yet. We were deployed here before the infection made it out of Texas. Hopefully they didn’t follow you guys in. That’s one of the key reasons no one was supposed to know we were out here.” Sheridan said shooting Jeff a pissed off look.
The next thirty minutes were spent moving children down paths that were intended more for mountain goats than rambunctious tweens. Most of the kids ended up getting carried because no one could stomach watching them walk so close to the sheer drops down to the river far below. The powerhouse was located near the bottom of the dam. It was well lit via thick dirty glass inset between massive steel and concrete beams. This was the building where the generators were housed to harness the power of the water flowing through the dam. Massive power lines ran from the dam out to substations where the power was then distributed on the grid.
The building had been retrofitted to support the SEALs and the technicians responsible for keeping the dam in working order along with their immediate family. Oversized bunk beds had been built along the sides of the powerhouse. In places they ran all the way to the ceiling of the cavernous room. Massive ladders in between each section were the primary means of access. It must suck having to get a kid up and down if you got stuck in one of the top bunks. LeBron supposed the millions of families that’d been infected or devoured by the crawlerz would’ve been happy to only have to worry about falling off high bunks. They wouldn’t have minded having to climb a ladder to get there.
“How come there are so many extra beds?” Drew asked Mikey as they were being shown around the massive space. One of the SEALs that’d guided them down to the trailer overheard the question and filled them in.
“Some of the people who were ordered to come never showed up. We were only allowed immediate family like spouses and kids. In some cases, maybe the wives refused to leave their moms, so those people never showed up. Mostly stuff like that mixed in with how they seriously overdid the construction of beds in here. Another bucket of money for some senator’s cousin.” The SEAL answered. He was one of the guys wearing shorts despite the chill in the air.
They were all assigned bunks. The ‘beds’ were each about a hundred square feet of living space where families could store their gear and have a little room to move around. Many of the bunks even had privacy screens with a door and everything. Others had rigged up sheets to provide them with some limited privacy. This meant that the newcomers were getting the bunks that required the longest climbs and had the least amount of privacy.
It was a safe warm place for the refugees from Charleston to start over. They’d be guarded around the clock by a team of highly motivated SEALs. After all the SEALs families were living in the same compound. There was an infinite supply of fresh drinking water. The lake was overflowing
with fish and the woods were teeming with deer and wild turkeys. They had virtually unlimited electricity to do with as they wished. Of course, they couldn’t stop complaining about the living conditions.
Not all of them were complaining. Amita and Carl were both appreciative. Carl especially as his granddaughter scurried up and down the ladder to their designated bunk about ten times per minute. He couldn’t stop smiling. Amita was loving the concept of living inside a clean energy producing structure. She was already huddled in the corner with the chief engineer extracting every bit of knowledge the poor man had about how the dam worked. Other families were similarly content to explore the space and arrange their meager possessions in their assigned bunks
A very vocal minority was loudly proclaiming the conditions were intolerable, and they didn’t expect to be made to stay. These were the scions of wealth and privilege. Old money that could trace their roots back to storied families in the old country. They’d been able to adjust to living in their large estates in Charleston. Even as the ‘help’ left them to rejoin their families. They’d each had stock rooms full of provisions to last them at least the next six months. Many of them also had at least partial electricity provided by the solar panels on their roofs. The builder had made experimental solar roofing an option and many of them had taken advantage of it. A tax credit that lowered your electricity bill and let you act like you were ‘woke’ at cocktail parties. Why wouldn’t you check that box?
Crawlerz: Book 3: The Mountains Are Calling Page 4