Pandemic Reboot: Survivors

by Krause, J. F.

  “I believe that we must do our best to put an end to these outrageous acts of violence against the citizens of Indianapolis. I will personally volunteer to serve on a medical team to treat the injured and the abused.”

  Mary Truitt is only five feet three or four and weighs about 100 pounds if that, but right then she was a giant.

  Of course, George had to be an “against” speaker. “I don’t want to send people to their deaths based on hearsay, even volunteers. And I’m also very concerned to hear that Mr. Caldwell is now giving recommendations. This sounds like one more of his self aggrandizing opportunistic power grabs to me.”

  Michelle Tsang was the next “for speaker”. “I believe we are still the United States of America; I also believe that we cannot allow our fellow citizens to be enslaved; and I don’t believe this is hearsay. We have recordings of this man saying outrageous and dangerous things. We must put a stop to this before even more people are harmed.”

  There wasn’t an “against” speaker so George tried to speak again. When I told him he couldn’t talk twice as an “against” speaker, he went ahead and talked anyway. So I called him out of order. Once again he questioned my right to call him out of order. I shrugged my shoulders and said, “The chair has been challenged again by George Francis for calling him out of order. I called him out of order because if he is the only person speaking against this motion, and if he keeps speaking against it over and over, he is, in effect, attempting a filibuster to avoid a vote that he appears to be losing. George, do you have anything to say on your behalf?”

  He looked around the room and seeing all the annoyed and irritated faces decided to give in. “Never mind. You’ve stacked the deck against me.”

  I continued. “The challenge has been withdrawn. Now, is there anyone else who wishes to speak against this advisory recommendation? Seeing none, the question is called. All in favor of the recommendation to send volunteers as quickly as possible to end the violence against women and girls in Indianapolis, please say ‘yes’. All those opposed please say ‘no’.” The voice vote was everyone “yes” and George “no”. I didn’t bother with having people vote by standing.

  “Please remember that the vote we just took was an advisory vote and is non binding on the Leadership Council. Now, do I have a motion and a second from the members of the Leadership Council that we send volunteers as soon as possible to help put an end to the tyranny in Indianapolis?”

  “So moved” came from Carl Markowitz.

  “Second” came from April Watanabe.

  “It’s been moved and seconded that we send volunteers as soon as possible to help put an end to the tyranny in Indianapolis.”

  There was no discussion, and the vote was exactly as expected. “The motion carried.” I don’t know what I was expecting after that, but applause wouldn’t have been on the list. I asked for and got a motion to adjourn. We voted and they left. I was suddenly exhausted. We shouldn’t be happy about going to war. I expressed my concern to Lydia. Her take was very different from mine.

  “I think they clapped because they were happy that we’re still a society ruled by law. We could have become an anarchy today, but we didn’t. That’s why they applauded.”

  That was a much better way to view the applause.

  As I was leaving for my office, Todd rushed up to ask if he could broadcast the meeting over the intercom system. I’d forgotten that he was recording, so I was a little taken aback. Part of me wanted to keep it quiet, but then I remembered that I said I wouldn’t keep meetings secret. I also knew that everything said would be on the ‘grapevine’ and maybe incorrect, or it could be the authentic meeting itself. I gave my go ahead so he happily trotted off. The whole meeting had only taken 30 or so minutes anyway.

  I needed to get to the housing work team. Now that we had electricity, we needed to start getting ourselves out of the motor homes. We needed a sense of permanency. I had purposely stayed out of the decision-making process on where the community would move. I thought it would be somewhere near the university, but that was only conjecture on my part.

  I ate a sandwich at my desk and met Jane and Lydia just outside the work area in the lobby by the coffee maker. Enrique joined us, too. I’d been wondering why Enrique was always around lately so I just asked him about it.

  “Enrique, I enjoy your company, but don’t you need to be helping with the training program or something?”

  Enrique looked a little discomfited by my question. First he looked one direction then another, sort of as if he were looking for a way to escape.

  “Sir, I’m here in case there’s a problem.”

  I noticed that Jane and Lydia had similar uncomfortable looks on their faces so I guessed there was more going on than “a problem”.

  “Okay, what kind of problem? Does Marco know? Never mind, of course he knows.”

  Enrique looked very uncomfortable and looked hard at Lydia. I guess she decided to rescue him. “The one when you were threatened.”

  In every suspenseful book and movie I’ve ever read or seen, the person who is about to be harmed does the stupid thing and refuses to believe they are in danger or refuses to accept help and gets themselves or someone else hurt. I don’t want to be that person, but I was in the dark about any threat I’d received.

  “Okay. Who threatened me? George?”

  “No, although I wouldn’t put it past him. It was Governor Hawkins.” Lydia continued.

  I was flabbergasted. “How could he threaten me? He doesn’t even know me! And he’s thousands of miles from here!”

  “It was when he declared martial law. You didn’t actually listen to all of our recording did you? You’d have heard it if you did. And yes he does know you, or of you. He called you a traitor and a would be dictator. Kind of like George on steroids. I was going to suggest you listen to the full recording of that speech of his, but maybe not. It’s pretty nasty.” Lydia didn’t hold much back.

  She had more to say, but I was a little too stunned to absorb it. I wish I could say I have a thick skin, but I don’t, and it hurt. I don’t think anyone likes to hear bad things about themselves, but to hear that someone wants you dead is on a whole new level compared to anything I’d heard before. Frankly, I’ve spent my whole life just trying to fit in, not be noticed, and certainly to not make waves, and now this!

  I sat quietly for a couple of minutes as I collected my thoughts. I did what I felt like I had to do. Threat or no threat, I would still have said what I did that first day at Hillcrest Hospital. I’d have still organized the searchlight groups and everything else I’d done. There wasn’t anyone else ready to do it and time was our worst enemy. It still was. I’m also realistic enough to know that, right or wrong, mine was the name people associated with as the new authority, the person to turn to when a group decision had to be made. I certainly hadn’t planned it to happen this way, but there was no turning back now. I just had to be the toughest person I could be and stand tall.

  “Okay then. Thank you Enrique. I appreciate you looking after my safety. I guess I should listen to the recording when we get back to the office. And, Enrique, you do what you have to do, and I’ll listen to what you tell me. I hope I’m not in danger and I really hope I don’t put any of you in danger. But we still have to do what we’ve been doing. Thank you, Lydia. Who else knows about the threat.”

  Jane answered this time. “I don’t think anyone knew here in San Luis Obispo before our meeting, but I think many or most of the other communities have either heard about Hawkin’s broadcast, or they’ve heard the broadcast from their radio stations. We’re out of Indiana’s broadcast range here in SLO, but all the local radios have been broadcasting their own news as well as rebroadcasting each other’s so by this time, all of them have or are in the process of broadcasting Hawkin’s speech from Sunday.”

  This somehow finally made me angry, coldly angry. I now knew that nothing was going to make me back down.

  We’d arrived a few minu
tes earlier at the old home crafts hall which the housing and salvage work group made their home base. Like most of the other exhibit halls in the fairgrounds there was a small lobby and then a big room for all the exhibits. We were met almost immediately by Lisa Rodriguez. Liza was dressed in cargo pants, a checked flannel shirt with rolled up sleeves, and boots. In addition she sported several tattoos on each bare forearm as well as ear, nose, eye and lip piercings. With her very short hair and fire plug build, I couldn’t help but wonder how she managed to get chosen as the leader of this group of mostly men who ranged from clean cut to male versions of her.

  And then she introduced herself to us. “Lisa Rodriguez.” She held out her hand and gave me one of the firmest yet comforting handshakes I could remember. “People, this is Bobby Caldwell and his crew.”

  As soon as she said it, they all stood together and began whistling and applauding. Moments later, Lisa quieted them down and continued. “I was honored to be in your meeting today, Sir. You made me proud to be able to do my part in bringing back a better country.”

  Maybe there was a God. I certainly needed Lisa right then. “Thank you Lisa, men and women. We will talk about all that later in our meeting if you like, but right now, I want to know what everyone else wants to know. Where have you decided we are going to move to now that we have the electricity problem worked out.”

  “Belleview. It’s a little neighborhood right next to the university. There’s an elementary school smack dab in the middle, a middle school a block from the elementary school, and a high school can be set up in the athletic buildings. College and vocational classes can just go on at the university. There are dorms for high school kids and college kids to use while they’re studying and apprenticing. The university medical school is right there with a full clinic complete with hospital rooms, even better, there’s an almost brand new hospital just across the street. There’s enough houses that we can house everyone who wants one and the whole place is just two miles from here. Oh, and there are several frat houses for us to use as professional guilds. And the agriculture school is the next cluster on campus. There’s more too, but I’ll have to look it up in my notes.” She pointed to a clean cut man with curly sandy blonde hair and a trim mustache in the first row and introduced him to us.

  “Bobby, this is Rusty Holloway. Rusty has a lot of technical information if you need it. Rusty is from SLO.”

  “Good to meet you, Rusty. And this is Lydia Baca, Jane Spencer, and Corporal Enrique Sanchez. We’d like to hear everything, but first I want to thank you for finding us a new place to live. I know we don’t have many ways to repay everyone for their hard work, but we really know you deserve our heartfelt thanks. So now, Rusty, tell us about Belleview.”

  “Thank you, Mr. Caldwell, uh, Robert. Before I talk about Belleview, I want to thank you for what you’ve done for our community. We’ve been so busy getting things going that we didn’t have time to worry. You’ve done more than we can ever thank you for. We know that.”

  “Thank you, Rusty. I appreciate that.” This was turning out to be a really good experience for me after the meeting and the threat.

  “Well, Belleview is sort of an old neighborhood with upscale houses. Most of the houses also have good sized lots that can be used for gardens. Back in the 1920’s and 30’s when most of these houses were built, people often planted kitchen gardens. We think there are more than enough houses in the immediate area for our community, even if we keep adding more people.

  The education group and the hospital group will be able to utilize the buildings on campus for their uses, and the education facilities will be pretty close to each other like they requested. There’s even an ROTC facility right in that part of the campus. Just off to the east a bit is the agriculture department. Cal Poly had a great agriculture school before and it should be a good place for our farm group to use as a training facility and even for growing some crops. The farm people have already been there feeding the animals. The administration building is just to the south of the medical school and clinic so things will be pretty convenient for your offices. The president’s house is right next to the administration building down by the arboretum. The whole campus is also very bicycle friendly.

  Sergeant Coletti said we need a good neighborhood for defense and Belleview is the highest point in the city, at least part of Belleview is. There are only three roads that lead in and out of it. Before the sickness it had the lowest crime rate in SLO. I know that because I grew up there.”

  “Sounds good to me. Who’s going to make the presentation to the Council on Friday, Lisa?”

  “That would be us, Rusty and me. Pretty much what you just heard but with maps.”

  “Should be a piece of cake. Can we start moving in this weekend if we make the decision Friday?”

  “We’ve already begun to clean the elementary school and the middle school out. They were mostly empty of people so they can start moving soon. We also have the building they are going to use for day care, too. The administration building and the ROTC are good to go, too. And we cleaned the president’s house. Most of the houses are still, uh, occupied. But we have cleaned up the area closest to the president’s house. We thought we would clean up as much as we can and then allow the motor home parking areas to move one area at a time, starting with yours. Oh, by the way, Rusty already called dibs on his parents’ house. He lived about a block from the elementary school.” As Lisa said this, we all looked at Rusty who smiled sadly and looked at his feet.

  “Okay. Does anyone have any questions for us? We’re happy to tell you everything we know,” I asked.

  “When do we sign up for Indiana?” That was from Lisa.

  We answered everything we could over the next few minutes and we left with one final request. “When you come to the meeting, Lisa, Rusty, would you bring an approximate schedule of which motor home parks will be moving first and when and where they will move?”

  Before leaving the assembly area, we stopped to say hello to Lamont. After he took care of gathering scores of generators for us, both in Orange County and even more in SLO, he joined the housing and salvage work group since he had been in construction before the sickness.

  “Bobby, you be careful. I was real proud of you taking on that George fellow, but this crazy Governor is something else. There are a lot of messed up people right now, you know, what with losing everyone they loved and….You just be careful. And thank you, Bobby. You’re doing a good job.”

  Lamont sort of radiated normal. I hadn’t seen him much since we came to SLO, but seeing him now was a tonic.

  We drove back to the office in silence. I really needed to listen to that recording.

  As it turned out, I didn’t have to wait long. Just as we got back to my office, the music on the intercom came to an end, and the local announcer said that, in case we had missed the earlier broadcast of Governor Hawkins’ speech, they would replay excerpts next, and sure enough we heard the soon to be very familiar voice of Stanley Hawkins proclaiming his assumption of the governor’s office, and declaring martial law. He ordered all Indianans to report to Indianapolis immediately. Then he declared me, Robert Caldwell of the breakaway state of California to be a traitor and so on. It was nauseating, especially when he announced that the women of Indiana were waiting to personally reward all red-blooded American men who reported from across the country to stand with the New American Republic. Then he said there would be a special reward for the man or men who arrived with my head in a garbage bag. Instead of making me mad, it just fueled my resolve. That would not be my fate, or the fate of my fellow survivors.

  I walked back to my office with a list of things that needed to be done. It was two hours before I would be leaving to pick up the boys from school. I needed to focus on the job and forget the anger. Speaking with Jane, I asked her to set up a meeting with all the work heads on Thursday at noon and to make sure we had lunch brought in. Then I asked Enrique to ask Marco to join me in my office as soon as
he could pull himself away from his other duties. He was there in less than ten minutes.

  Marco looked a little pensive when he arrived. I’m pretty sure he ran, but I didn’t see any evidence of exertion. “Marco, thank you for coming so quickly. I want you to know that I appreciate your hard work on this very unpleasant problem. I’m sorry I was unaware of the personal threat. I should have listened to the Hawkins recording when you mentioned we had it. I’ll try to do better next time. Now that we have the go ahead to send volunteers as soon as possible I’d like to know your plans. You do have them don’t you?”

  Marco actually smiled. I think it might have been more of a grin. “Yes, sir. I have a rough plan and I’d like to talk to you about it. May I?”

  Something had changed in our relationship. It may not have been noticeable to anyone but Marco and me, but it was clear to the two of us. I was now his commander in chief. “Absolutely. Let’s get to work.”

  For the next half hour Marco talked and I listened, with an occasional nod, or short clarifying question. In a nutshell, now that we had made our decision to intervene, it appeared that every other community including all the larger groups were sending trained and reserve volunteers. It seemed that even the smallest community wanted to make the statement that they were united against this attempt at lawless tyranny. The larger communities were offering as many as one hundred fifty men and women. SLO already had over two hundred volunteers including three of our doctors, and two counseling psychologists. Since we were to be just a part of the overall group, we would limit our personnel contribution to fifty so as not to overshadow any of the other groups. All in all, except for the medical volunteers, we would be sending only militarily trained personnel into harm’s way. If a community had only one trained person in residence, we would only accept a reservist. All reservists were to be kept in support positions. Marco said his colleagues in Chicago where the main planning was being done were flying all fighting personnel and some reservists to forward locations that had small survivor communities. There would be some reservists held back in larger support positions outside the Indiana state borders. Soldiers were already arriving and California’s contingent, which amounted to over 160 trained men and women, reservists, and medical personnel would be leaving California no later than 9 AM the nest morning. Our SLO contingent was leaving at 6 AM sharp to drive to Edwards Air Base just outside Lancaster. They would practically walk from the bus to the transport planes. Once they arrived, they would go immediately to the forward posts not far from the city before quickly assembling at several positions already established in Indianapolis itself. All of those selected would be notified as soon as Marco had my go ahead.