by Stan Morris
“I pledge allegiance to the flag…”
Most of the assembly joined in, many remembering those they had lost. At midnight Mike embraced Howard. Mike was no longer the Chief.
Mike found the next few days to be a little awkward. People kept coming to him for advice, or for help, or to ask his opinion, when they should have been going to Howard. Howard suggested that Mike should become the Admin, but Mike firmly declined. One day, he decided to take a walk down to the guard post at Logging Road junction. He took his backpack, and after staying overnight in the RV, he decided to walk up to Davis Brown Farm. He arrived at the farm at supper time. Mary insisted that he eat in the house and not in the solar apartment building with the members of the Brown Farm guard post. After dinner, he asked Ralph if he could hang around for a few days.
Ralph shrugged. “No problem.”
A few days turned into a couple of weeks. Mike was enjoying his stay. He helped around the farm. He did what Ralph asked, and he resisted the urge to give Ralph unasked for advice.
Howard wasn’t happy that Mike had left, but he understood why. Still, with Mike gone, Howard was doing the work that had previously been done by two people. He wondered who he could appoint as Admin. Jean laughed in his face when he asked her. He asked Eric, who looked back at him as if he was from outer space. Eventually, Ahmad agreed to serve as Admin.
“Temporarily,” Ahmad insisted.
Howard’s first big test came just after the middle of July. Jacob and Jean had gone upriver to keep an eye on the Retreat. They hastened into Petersburg with the news that the remaining people at the Retreat were on the move.
“They’re headed this way,” Jean reported during Council. “They must have run out of supplies. They’re headed for the river. I think they know there are people down river. Meaning us.”
“I counted three men, six women and five children,” said Jacob. “Two of the kids are teenagers, like us.”
“What do you think, LT?” Howard asked Kennedy.
“I think we better meet them on the way, and not wait until they get here,” Kennedy said. “We know the terrain between where they are and here. We need to pick a spot that will give us the most effective opportunity to contain them and send them back, or to disarm them with a minimum of danger to our people.”
“Which brings up the question. What should we do about them?” Howard asked.
“If they’ve committed murder, and it looks like they have, we don’t want them in our village,” Rasul said.
“But the children are innocent,” said Yuie. “And the women might be victims.”
“True,” Jean said. “For starters, we should decide what to do about the men. We can deal with the women and children later.”
“I agree with Jean,” said Kathy. “Disarm the men. Send them to Major Collins. Let the women and children stay with us until we see what kind of people they are.”
There was a murmur of agreement.
Then Ahmad spoke. “Don’t you think that we should inform the Chief, uh, Mike?”
There was silence. Howard could see that several of them were thinking that same thought.
“Well?” he asked mildly.
“No!” To everyone’s surprise this outburst came from Jacob. “The Chief has done his part. If we can’t figure this out on our own, we don’t deserve to be who we are. He showed us the way. Let’s show him that we know what to do.”
“Yes,” John said. “He expects us to be able to handle anything that’s thrown at us. That’s why he’s the Chief.”
There were smiles and murmurs of agreement.
“All right,” said Howard. “We’ll leave Mike out of this. Lieutenant Kennedy, when will you leave?”
“Tomorrow morning at first light,” Kennedy replied. “We’ll take the most experienced Spears, except for John, and we will take the best archers. I would like to handle this with a minimum of weapons fire.”
After Council, John approached Kennedy who was issuing orders in preparation for his troop’s departure the following day.
“Why am I staying?” John asked. “Is it because of…” he stopped.
“You’re staying because you’ll be in charge of village security, John,” Kennedy replied impatiently. “There’s no guarantee that one of these guys won’t evade us and get here. If one of them does, I doubt he’ll be friendly. I need you to take him out.”
“Oh,” said John with a look of relief. “I thought that it must be something like that.”
Kennedy smiled. “You’re the Chief’s best friend, John,” he said. “And he put you in charge of the Spears, so I know that I can trust your competence.” John blushed.
Four Rangers, two scouts, two archers, four Spears, and Diana set out the next morning. They traveled up the river for five days, and on the evening of the fifth day, Jacob reported that the people of the Retreat were ahead, and they were coming towards the troop. Kennedy, after checking his position, decided that his troop’s present location was a good place to confront them. They were in a small glen that was wooded at the upper end but clear of trees at the lower end. The slopes on either side were somewhat steep, but they were still climbable. He placed an archer in the trees on either side of the glen, and with each archer was a Ranger carrying a rifle. Corporal Carson stayed with Kennedy. Kennedy assembled the scouts and the Spears for his final instructions.
“Jacob, I want you to lead your people around and behind their group. I suspect that the men will stay together out front. I seriously doubt that these kind of guys will leave someone to protect their women and their children. But they might, so be careful. And watch out for the older boys. They may have weapons, and we don’t know what they’ll do if it comes to a fight. Diana, you stay with me, but stay back in the trees.”
“I need to be close enough to help if someone is injured,” Diana insisted.
“You will be, but you won’t be any help if you’re the one injured. Jacob, wait until you hear a shout that it’s all clear, or until you hear shots. If you hear an ‘all clear’ shout, and if there are no weapons present on your side, then secure the women and children. If they have weapons, then use your best judgment. There’s no use taking chances on an accident, if the men surrender.”
“Okay.”
“If you hear a shot and you can secure the women and children, then do so and prepare for one or more of the men to come back to you. If you can’t secure the women and children for any reason, stay back in the trees and wait for us. Clear?” Jacob nodded.
“One more thing,” Kennedy said. “If those men are together, I don’t intend to let them get back to you. But I can’t promise that they won’t. Stay focused. Okay, go.”
Jacob nodded and led his group into the trees.
Kennedy looked up at the side of the hill where Yuie was hidden. He hadn’t had time to say anything to her, and besides it would have been inappropriate given the circumstances. Or so he told himself. Keep your head down, Yuie. Stay safe.
He and Corporal Carson waited at the lower end of the glen, where grass, tall but thin and sparse, had taken root. Carson knelt on one knee next to Kennedy, who stood. Soon, they heard the sounds of people moving through the trees as they made their way down the glen. A man carrying a rifle came into view. At first, he didn’t see them. He moved farther into the open glen. He said something over his shoulder. Two more men moved into the view of the officers. They were also armed with rifles which were leveled and swinging from side to side. They stopped when they were several paces behind the first man. The men wore ragged clothing; one had a boot on one foot and a shoe on the other. Their hair was long. The nearer man was heavily bearded, while the beards of the other two were scraggly. They moved several more paces down the glen and then froze when they saw the officers.
The man in the front remained calm, the Lieutenant noted, but the other two men became agitated. They began looking around, as if they suspected that the two men they faced were not the only men around. The man in
front motioned to the others to stay in place, and then he walked toward the Rangers and stopped just within a loud talking distance.
“Hello,” he called.
“I am Lieutenant Lincoln Kennedy, Ranger, United States Army,” Kennedy stated. “Please, lower your weapons.”
The man considered the officer’s request for minutes before speaking again.
“You are Army? Do you know what happened to the world?”
“Not really. Some kind of Fog. It’s going down. It’s down to six thousand feet now. It’s dropping about three hundred feet a year,” the Lieutenant replied.
The man stiffened as thought over those words.
“So. One day it’s back to normal, maybe.”
“Maybe.”
“Hard to say what will happen then.”
“Hard to say.”
“People doing whatever they can to survive. Got to look out for themselves first. They make mistakes sometimes,” the man opined.
The Lieutenant did not answer. But in that moment, he understood what the people of Petersburg meant when they said, “He’s the Chief,” and he understood why they said it. It was not about his power. It was about his intentions. Some people will do whatever is expedient to survive. Some people won’t.
The man was looking around the glen. “Where’s the rest of your men?” he asked.
“In the trees,” Kennedy replied. “Waiting to see what you do.”
“They’re real quiet.”
“They’re supposed to be.”
“Maybe there’s no one there.”
“They’re there. Now, by my authority as an officer in the Army of the United States of America, I order you to lay down your weapons,” Kennedy commanded.
“I’ll tell my friends,” the man said as he pointed his rifle at the ground. He began moving backwards.
“Get ready, Corporal,” Kennedy said quietly.
The man reached his friends. They began to speak, and after some moments they seemed to be arguing, even as they cast occasional surreptitious glances in the direction of the officers. Then the men lifted their rifles over their heads. They moved toward the Rangers.
“Looks like they’re surrendering, LT,” Carson said.
With sudden blazing speed, the leading man brought his rifle down to his side and fired a stream of bullets at the soldiers. Anticipating this, Kennedy flung himself to the ground at the first movement and aimed his rifle, but a bullet intended for his chest nicked his torso, causing him to groan as a sharp pain exploded in his side. Carson fired back.
Carson’s bullet travel much faster than Yuie’s arrow, but they arrived at the same time. The arrow pierced the man’s ear, and the bullet lodged in his chest. The other men were firing wildly, one toward the officers, and the other into the trees from where the arrow had been shot. The two Rangers hiding in the trees were firing, too. One of the men from the Retreat took several rounds in his body and toppled over. The other man followed him to the ground a few seconds later, just missed by a following arrow. The men emitted loud cries, and then fainter moans, and then they lay still.
“Yuie!” groaned the Lieutenant, as he struggled to his feet before dropping back to a knee.
From behind the gasping Lieutenant, Diana came running from the trees. From one side, Yuie was slipping and sliding down the slope, still carrying her bow and quiver. Corporal Carson knelt by Kennedy’s side, holding the Lieutenant up. Diana slid to her knees beside Kennedy and yanked his shirt up to examine the side of his body.
“He has a small wound,” she said to Yuie who arrived, white faced. “He’ll be all right, but I’ll need to stitch him up.”
“Corporal Carson, take your men and find Jacob,” Kennedy gasped as the nurse wrapped a long cloth bandage around his body.
“Yes, sir,” Carson acknowledged and gathered the troop.
Meanwhile, above a small clearing well away from the short battle, Jacob and his people were watching the six women and the five children. The two older boys were carrying rifles. The first shot had caused the boys to spring to their feet, and as they listened to the firefight, they had stiffened like stone, trying desperately to make sense of what they were hearing. Then there was silence. The women and the children became agitated.
“What’s happening?” cried one of the women.
“Dad! Dad!” one of the teenage boys yelled.
“Put your weapons down,” Jacob shouted.
The two boys swung their rifles in the direction of the voice but did not fire.
“Who’s there?” the bigger boy called loudly.
“It’s Jacob,” he heard someone yell back.
The frightened boy scanned the trees, trying to determine the direction of the voice.
“We have guns,” the boy said.
“I see that. We don’t have any guns. Put your guns down, and we’ll talk.”
“Maybe, you should do what they say,” one of the women suggested.
“You, shut up,” a different woman snarled, and then she said to the boys, “Don’t listen to her. You heard him. We have guns, and they don’t. There’s nothing they can do. Wait until your father gets back.”
“If you put down your weapons, we’ll give you food,” Jacob shouted.
He could see how emaciated some of these people were and reckoned that they were probably hungry.
“Mom?” the smaller teen said, and in the trembling of his voice was a plaintive plea.
“Don’t listen to him,” his mother snapped. “They’re trying to trick you. They probably don’t have any food.”
“We’ll wait while you think it over,” said Jacob. “We’re going to eat now. Here’s something to drink.”
From a different direction, a plastic bottle was tossed into the clearing. The smaller teenager picked it up and opened it. He sniffed, and then he drank, just as his mother yelled, “Leave it alone! It might be poisoned.”
“It’s Kool-Aid,” he announced. “Mom they have food!”
Up in the trees, Jacob was talking to Corporal Carson and the Rangers who had advanced to find Jacobs’s squad.
“The Lieutenant was shot,” the Corporal whispered. “But not seriously. The nurse is tending to him. We left the archers there. How are you doing here?”
“Two rifles,” Jacob said. “Taking it slow.”
“Your call,” responded Carson with a nod.
Down below, the boys and their mother were arguing. The three were obviously in charge. The other women and the other kids kept silent.
“When’s Dad coming back?” the older teen asked, but the woman didn’t answer.
She was wondering what had happened. The shots had unnerved her. She had expected her husband to be back by now.
“I’m hungry,” a little boy whined, almost oblivious to the tension. “When are we gonna eat?”
“Keep your brat quiet,” the woman in charge snarled.
The mother of the small child gathered him into her arms, as the little boy began to sniffle.
“Mom, we don’t have anything more to eat,” the younger teenager said, desperation in his voice. “Where’s Dad?”
“Shut up!” his mother yelled. “Let me think.”
Then she called, “One of you, come down here and bring us some food, and I’ll let a couple of these kids go.”
“Alright,” Jacob said.
He moved forward to the edge of the trees, so they could see him. He held up a large bag and shook it.
“I hope you like egg and lettuce sandwiches,” he said.
The woman in charge caught her breath, and her mouth began to water. These people have fresh food. She turned from side to side, trying to see how many people were hidden in the trees, wondering again where her husband was, starting to fear the worst had happened.
“Let that lady and her kid leave,” Jacob said.
The woman’s brow wrinkled with indecision, and then she nodded. The mother of the small child quickly stood, grabbed the hungry child and ano
ther child by the hand, and started hobbling towards the trees.
“Just one brat,” the woman in charge said.
“Both of them,” Jacob responded, and the woman and her children hurried into the trees.
“Now give us the food,” the woman in charge said.
Jacob motioned to the younger boy. The teen shuffled over to Jacob, afraid to come close to this stranger, but too hungry to balk. Jacob handed him the bag.
“Give me your rifle,” Jacob said quietly.
After a moment’s hesitation, the young man did so. “We don’t have any bullets anyway,” the boy whispered, his mouth watering as he clutched the bag of food.
Jacob quickly slipped back into the trees, as the woman in charge began to squawk angrily at her son.
Jacob returned to his group and handed the rifle to Carson, and then he turned to watch the people below eat. He saw how the woman in charge took the lion’s share for herself and for her two boys, leaving little for the other women and children, and when he saw this, his anger overcame his caution.
“That’s enough of that,” he said.
He strode back into the clearing and went directly to the older teenager. The older boy was larger and heavier than Jacob, and when he saw Jacob coming, he pointed his rifle, but Jacob ignored him. The Petersburg scout reached the boy and snatched the rifle away with contemptuous ease. The boy’s mother sprang to her feet blocking Jacob’s retreat, but the Rangers and the Spears rushed into the clearing, as angry now as Jacob. The woman and her sons sat down, subdued by the sight of the rifles and the sharp spears.
The Eagle’s Nest group was herded down to the glen where the bodies of the men had been placed, side by side. When the woman in charge saw her husband’s body, she emitted a cry of anguish and knelt by his side, as did her boys. The other women ignored her and the other bodies. They were overjoyed to see Diana and to be reunited with the nurse. They hugged each other, and cried, and profusely thanked the people of Petersburg for their deliverance.
The Lieutenant was lying on the ground. His upper clothing had been removed, and he had a bandage around his torso. Yuie sat next to him watching Lincoln anxiously and repeatedly questioning Diana.