by Lee Thomas
After completing the wall, there was one bridge to the north that we also blocked off, and luckily we could do so with three shipping containers. We simply placed them across the road over the water, and they stuck out over the edge a little so nothing could squeeze by. The western end of the wall had a bridge nearby that we destroyed, so the entire base was now officially secure. I had teams scouring every building, garage, sewer access, and shed, everywhere that an infected could hide. Once we had a clean bill of health, land would be cleared for gardens and a suitable area would be found for a livestock pen. Some of the homes had solar panels installed so they still had working appliances. The sailors had raided them early on of food stuffs, but with electricity there, they could be used easily as homes, storehouses, or rapid response guard shacks.
One more mission to be accomplished was also underway, in that we outfitted and supplied an LCS, the USS Freedom, for a rescue mission that I promised Michelle. Her sister, Nicole, was in Florida, and we made contact with her before the cell phones went down to gather as many supplies and people as she could and go to a small island just east of where she lived called Dog Island. It was a small community, only a few blocks worth of houses on it, but no land access. It seemed like a good place for her to hole up with survivors as they could fish and start gardens for food, and not have to worry about being attacked. We also told her to find some CB radios so we could contact them and let them know we were coming.
The last I had heard, the Freedom had rounded the southern point of Florida and was steaming back north towards their location. Their last status report said they were rationing food, but even so were starting to run low on food stuffs. We had sent them with plenty of body armor and ammo, so food and supply runs were definitely possible for them, and probably needed. Michelle was adamant about going, and I agreed since it was her sister. I sent Jeff along too to keep an eye on her, along with Roger, while I kept Tony here to maintain the safety of the base and the ship.
One day I was sitting in my quarters when a yeoman knocked and walked in, handing me a report with a repressed smile. I thanked him as I took it and he turned and walked out. As I flipped open the folder, I saw it was a report from the Freedom. I settled back and started reading. The first part was an inventory and status update, letting us know they were on the low side on food, so a resupply run was to be undertaken before heading back. What got my attention was a note from the captain about a supply mission that went slightly awry. Once I read that my heart got heavy, but I read on.
Due to food shortage, several supply runs have been initiated. One in particular had an issue. The one we were sent for, Nicole, told Michelle that there were some items she needed to recover from home. A team was assigned, however Michelle and Nicole both insisted on going. Jeff accompanied them, as well as a team of ten others. After acquiring the items from home, the team radioed back that Nicole and her husband stated they needed something from another location in Tallahassee. After consulting with the team captain, it was agreed that the risk was minimal due to lack of contact with infected so far, so they would make the trip. The Freedom would remain anchored offshore until the team returns. They were under orders to return in two days regardless of whether the mission is accomplished or not. Once they returned, the following report was given of an encounter with a small group of infected.
“After successfully reaching the location at approximately 1500, the items they were after were acquired successfully. On the return trip, a small group of infected were encountered at 1630. It was decided to not use firearms and Jeff took a baseball bat to the first infected to approach us. A second then turned on him and he took it out at the knees. Before killing it, Nicole and Michelle both stopped him. One other infected approached the group and was taken out. Jeff stepped back and looked at them, then back to the infected on the ground. His demeanor and expression changed then as he turned and walked back to the group. Michelle and Nicole began squabbling with each other over who should kill the disabled infected. During the argument, several men secured the infected to a nearby street light pole. The following is a transcript of the encounter starting with the argument:
“Jeff, stop!” Michelle yelled. Jeff stepped away from the infected woman, turned to look at Michelle, and then looked at the infected again. He walked back to the group as Michelle and her sister began arguing.
Michelle: “I want to do it”
Nicole: “No, I get to!”
M: “I had to deal with her longer, and put up with more shit than you did.”
N: “I had to live with her down here. You at least had other places to go, I had nobody.”
M: “I’m the older sister, I say I get to kill the bitch.”
N: “You have had your fights with her, and spoke your mind several times. You have had it out with her before, I never got that chance, so this is my turn.”
The squabbling turned physical at this point with the two of them slapping each other and pulling hair. Since they started getting louder, they were pulled apart and held.
Jeff: “Ladies, might I propose another idea? How about you both kill her at the same time?”
At this point, the two girls looked at each other, grudgingly agreed to it, and started walking to the restrained infected after being handed a bat and a length of rebar one of the sailors had found. They both walked calmly up to the infected, while Jeff hung back and spoke with the group.
AN2 Vasquez: “Just who was that infected?”
Jeff: “Their mother.” The rest of us were quiet and kept watch as Michelle and Nicole both began viciously beating their ‘mother’ over and over. They were careful not to hit her in the head for a while, obviously intending to cause as much pain as possible, even though it is unclear whether or not the infected actually feel pain. The almost constant thud of metal and wood on flesh went on for about thirty minutes before slowing down. The two finally looked at each other, nodded, and Nicole, who had the rebar, swung it high over her head and brought it down on top of her mothers’ head while Michelle swung the bat in an upward fashion like a golf swing, connecting with her lower jaw. The rebar cleaved into her skull, and since the impact from both was almost simultaneous, the upward force of the bat made the rebar sink into her face almost to her lips, while the bat pretty much shattered her lower jaw, dislocating it, and snapping her head up and back into the pole she was tied to. Once Michelle lowered the bat, Nicole let go of the rebar and left it lodged in what was left of the skull of their mother. They stepped back and just looked at what they had done. The woman hung from her arms, drooping against the pole. Her shoulders were now dislocated, arms broken, blood dripping from puncture wounds where broken ribs poked out, and her right leg was hanging at an off angle due to a fracture.
One sailor was brave enough to go remove the rope used to tie her to the pole, but the entire group watched him give the two sisters a wide berth. They inspected each other, noting a few blood trails on each other, but no wounds, and no blood sprayed anywhere other than their clothes. Once they discovered they were fine, they gave that girly scream and hugged each other. As they made their way back to the group, they were both smiling, and all the men eyed them with a mix of shock, horror, and gained respect. It was obvious that this woman who was supposed to nurture and care for these girls had instead made their lives a living hell. While revenge was not necessarily a trait that was fostered in the military, justice was, and it was apparent in the sisters’ reactions afterward, as well as Jeff’s, that this was obviously well deserved justice.
The report continued on with other information about the mission, but none of it was concerning, and it appeared they were headed home. I put the report back in the folder and left it in my desk drawer. I knew it would be another few days before the Freedom would be back in port. I headed down to the hangar bay where Roger and I had set up a sparring area for people who wanted to learn to swordfight. I wanted some practice before attending to other things.
Two days later the Fr
eedom pulled back into port, and there was a grateful reunion. I had read the report that said Nicole had managed to get a small group to stay on the island with her, and made a point to make sure I at least said hello to those newcomers as they departed the Freedom. We had a system in place now for new survivors to get settled, fed, and even new clothes the day they showed up. I sent them off in the capable hands of the personnel in charge of that and headed back to the Nimitz. I knew Michelle and the others would be tired, so I would give them a chance to rest before asking them to relate the details of their encounter in person.
It was now June 2nd, three weeks since we began the wall project, and all had been accomplished so far. The wall was completely finished, the base had been scoured and checked for infected, and we had found more survivors in the process. Nicole was finally retrieved safe, along with her husband Joey and their daughter Maggie, plus the fifteen others she convinced to stay with them. So far my plan was working, thanks entirely to the hard work of everyone.
One of my favorite things quickly became the marina we had managed to restore. Several sailboats had been left there, and the few boats that were adrift in the bay had been retrieved and docked at the marina. There were a couple of decent fishing boats, but the majority of them were simple day cruisers, meant for enjoyment only. The next few months were spent in training others to sail, fishing, and spreading out into the base so the ones who felt claustrophobic on the ship would be more at ease. Several of our supply runs netted us solar panels, and we began setting them up as we could. Our electricians also managed to isolate the base power lines from the rest of the city and connect power to the base from the Jefferson, so until we could set up a proper power grid from solar power, the base had electricity. That meant working refrigerators and freezers, fans and ac units since summer was in full swing, and radios could be set up for the guards. People also opted to move off the ship and into the many houses we now had available, and with the construction of the wall, people felt safe again.
At some point during all my planning and running around, a couple of our tech wizards somehow managed to get the Nimitz connected to long range communications satellites again. Even though there was probably no one to communicate with, it was a plus as it also allowed us to tap into reconnaissance and weather satellites as well. That meant we could see storms coming from longer distances, and with the arrival of two trained meteorologists, we had someone to help predict the weather for us. Since Norfolk had a major news station broadcasting out of it, they had requested a team to take them to the news station and acquire the necessary equipment for proper weather watching. While that was a major undertaking, the station had a helipad on top, so after the team secured the building and cleared it, completely blockading the lower floor, they could work in relative peace, disassembling the computers and labeling it all to be brought back and set back up. Ready Room 2 was now the Weather Room.
Ready Room 1 had been turned into a surveillance room earlier as we had acquired night vision cameras and installed them all around the outside of the ship, mostly tucked underneath the flight deck overhang. Even though we had not much use for it now that the base was secure, it was designed to be used for those times we were under attack, or extremely severe weather, and had to seal up the ship. The tech guys were supposed to be working on how to wire the wall with cameras and have the feeds routed wirelessly into that room as well, in order to cut down on the amount of guards needed at one time.
One of the duties of the radioman now was to maintain a recorded message being sent out, and occasionally send out a live message, instructing anyone that heard it to come to us, that we had safety and security. We broadcasted our message on ham radio, as well as every CB, FM, and AM frequency we could. One of the sailors had an idea as well that we adopted for a short time, and that was to fashion a small message packet with instructions to find us, and let them loose with tiny parachutes from the helicopter. We did that, including the message to find us, with our location, as well as the date so anyone who found it would hopefully not assume it was a joke. The pilots took them well away from the base, and as high as the choppers could go safely and let them go. The estimated coverage with wind patterns was most of Virginia, into West Virginia, and hopefully even into Tennessee.
My biggest worry soon became the weather, not the infected. I knew in Oklahoma, spring time was the worst, but here on the east coast, it would be late summer and fall. Hurricanes would do as much if not more damage than a tornado, and over a wider area. Flooding was also a concern with that. Even if we scraped by hurricane season with no problems, winter with no solid food production would not be easy on us. We had several small gardens started successfully, but no real decent sized crops yet. We managed to find some livestock to bring back, which included one cow, four chickens, two pigs, and three well trained horses. An area had been set up for animals, and it did not take much to build a coop for the chickens. There were several large lumber supply stores in the area, and we had raided them for wood of all sizes. There wasn’t much we couldn’t build to suit our purpose at this point, and we had the ability to acquire more if needed.
June gave way to July, which eventually turned into August. Christian was helping lead the charge on supply runs, but we had to continually go further and further away to find anything. We had discovered several of our people had excellent hunting skills, and they were assigned as a new team to focus solely on that purpose. We also quickly discovered that zoos had let the animals go, or they escaped, as more and more wild animals that were not native to this area began popping up. Many a night the guards reported hearing the sound of monkeys, or seeing large, gliding shadows that appeared to be feline in nature. Lions had been spotted during the day, as well as deer and antelope. Wolves were heard, and one guard shack swore they saw the neck of a giraffe one day over the roof of some nearby houses.
In order to fill the ranks out properly and make sure we had enough people on each job, we had to start looking at the older kids. Jeff’s kids and mine were all older teens and early twenties, and they all wanted to volunteer, so we found what they wanted to do, and trained them. His son Nathan turned out to be a pretty good shot, as well my daughter Desi. The other three of his kids, Dustin, Alexis, and Austin all wanted to help on the wall, so they were all assigned as guards. My youngest daughter, Angie, also wanted guard duty, so she joined them. Cassie was interested in the medical field, so she went to join Sickbay and learn what she could. My other kids Kenny and Katelynn, were unsure about what they wanted to do. Katelynn eventually decided she wanted to stay onboard, and since a girl she had befriended volunteered in the laundry, so did Katelynn.
Jeff had essentially taken over as second in command, as Christian made it clear he didn’t really want the job anymore, and I left him with much of the day to day operations of the ship. I spent most of my time reviewing my plans, trying to make future ones, and making sure no one felt misused, neglected, or ignored. While I was horrible with names, I had at least met with everyone on board and tried to make contact at least once a week. I also spent time working in each department and area, just to make sure everyone knew that I was just as willing to work just as hard as I asked them to. Except for the galley, Michelle made it clear I was to be nowhere near a kitchen.
It had been requested that we begin having a Sunday service for those who wished to keep up with their religion, so we found someone willing to take that over and made him the official Chaplin. From what I understood he did his best to keep it non-denominational, but I rarely attended a service. Any free time I ended up with I spent with the kids if they were available, sword practice, or on the sailboat. I had given clear boundaries on sailing, not leaving beyond the outer bridge, and no going upriver out of the bay without express permission. I followed these as well so no one thought I was playing favorites, or that I held myself above them.
Summer gave way to fall finally, and temperatures started dropping. Foreseeing the cold, we had built a small
barn for the animals to be stabled in and gathered as much hay from feed stores and such as we could, stockpiling it for later. The first cold snap was in October, as the temp dropped to 42 overnight. Not too cold, but enough for some people to be worried. We had not really celebrated much in the way of holidays this year, as no one really had the heart for it, but I started hearing rumors that the kids wanted a Halloween. It was actually brought up in one of the weekly meetings I insisted on with the department heads to make sure everything was running smoothly. We agreed it would probably be good for them, so Roger volunteered to start planning one, along with Val and a few others.
The next big thing was Thanksgiving. We discussed that one in length, as many felt we still had plenty to be thankful for, but others felt it was no longer relevant since America was no longer a country. I reminded them that America was still a country as long as we believed it was. We eventually decided, however, that due to lack of supplies, we would forgo a Thanksgiving feast, but would still take a few minutes at some part of the day to be thankful for whatever we wanted to be thankful for. It was also under discussion on whether we would do anything for Christmas as well. We probably would, for the kids’ sake, even if it wasn’t a lot.
As it got colder, we had managed to get some lawns cleared in order to plant small gardens in the spring. The animals had pens built, and those of us that had brought pets had places to keep them outside now. I had managed to bring my dog, Max, who the girls loved, and quite a few others also had dogs or cats they brought along as well. Many were concerned for pets that couldn’t be brought, birds usually I heard, but I assured them that as long as they had set them free before they left that they would be fine in the wild. I didn’t get to visit Max daily like I wanted, but there were several people who volunteered as caretakers and made sure he was fed and interacted with.