Jess’s finger flicked on the coffee pot switch and he noticed the silence. Where was the thumping about above him from an overslept Robbie who rushed to meet his start time of six am, a normal routine in the Slagel and Bowen home.
Thinking that Robbie got an early start, Jess reached to shut off the coffee pot. He stopped when he realized he would need that coffee and he walked out of the kitchen to head upstairs to shower.
Jess moved his way down the upstairs hall to the bedroom and stopped at Robbie’s door. He saw the corner of the bed. Jess never really thought them useful, with the exception of a place to corner tuck the blankets, but as Jess leaned in Robbie’s doorway with a snicker on his face, he saw that Robbie did make that corner of the bed useful.
Papers sprawled out across Robbie’s floor were the backdrop. Robbie, dressed, teetered face down over the corner of the bed. His stomach was pressed against the bed, his arms and head dangling, and his legs, one straight, the other bent to the floor. “Robbie. Don’t you have to be at work?”
Bang.
Robbie, in a startle, rolled onto the floor and to his papers. “Oh God,” he grumbled.
“What is wrong with you?”
“I haven’t been to bed yet.” Robbie stumbled to his feet and looked at the mess. “Shit. I didn’t finish this. I swore I finished it.”
“What is all this?” Jess walked in the room helping Robbie to pick up the papers.
“I had to copy a yearbook for my Dad. I did one and he calls me to ask me if I could copy three more for our suspect meeting. I didn’t think it would take so long, and I had to get it done so I could return the yearbook before Rev. Bob went to the chapel.”
“I see that you did.”
“Not entirely. I have to put them together. Fuck” Robbie stacked the papers. He looked at his watch. “I’ll have to do it later.”
“Why don’t I do it for you?”
“You have to sleep.”
“Not today.” Jess laid his stack on the bed. “Danny roped me into editing some of the new newspaper today so it’s close to being done when he gets back. I have to meet Trish in two hours at history.”
“Don’t be late. You know how she is.”
Jess grunted. “Tell me about it. But hey, at least Danny convinced her not to wear that visor while she works on the paper.”
“You still have to call her ‘Scoop’ though, don’t you?”
He winced first then Jess laughed. “Unfortunately.” He took the paper stack fanned out in Robbie’s hand and collated them. He then saw one neat pile on Robbie’s bed. “Is that the first copy of the yearbook?”
“Um, yeah.” Robbie looked at it.
“I’ll use that if I need help. Go get ready for work.”
“Jess, are you sure? This is really great of you.” Robbie walked to his door.
Jess smiled. “Robbie, for you, it’s not a problem.”
“Thanks.” Robbie grinned. “I owe you big time.”
“I’ll remember that.” Jess pointed, then after Robbie left, he looked back at all the papers. He scratched his head in bewilderment when the reality of the task set in. “Why do I do this to myself?” He spoke out loud and began to gather all the papers. “I’m too nice.”
^^^^
“Henry!”
Henry stopped in his hurried walk to tracking when he heard the call of his name. He turned around and saw one of the housing team, Luke, running to him. Luke was younger than thirty, but looked forty. He was a worker. He did anything menial, security part time, construction. He, like the other ten designated ‘workers’ were chosen for three things, focusing on work and just work when called for, their size. Though short, Luke was hefty and strong. And the clincher, a birth defect they seemed to all be born with, an inability to balance wits and common sense in everyday situations.
“Yeah Luke.”
“O.K.” Luke took a moment to think. “Have you seen Joe?”
“Have you checked distribution? He’s restocking.”
“Really?”
“Yes.” Henry turned to go back to Tracking.
“Well, since you’re gonna be the leader, can you sign these?” He handed Henry a clipboard and pen.
Henry read and lifted each sheet. “Reqs?”
“Yes.”
“Luke, these are requisitions for people. We don’t requisition people.”
“I thought we did.”
“No.” Henry handed him back the clipboard.
“But . . .” Luke closed his eyes and held his forefinger to his own temple, speaking slowly as if reading and rattling off a mental list. “We have to prep the extra housing for the new arrivals tomorrow. We have to do inventory in the furniture and housing supply warehouse. Do not take the men from plastics, metals, paper, armory, or food. Take them from the fields.” Luke opened his eyes.
Henry stared at him for a moment. “Are these things Joe instructed?”
“Yes.” Luke nodded.
“Then just go to the fields and get the men. You don’t need to requisition them.”
“I thought I did. Cole said no and when I left him, I thought.” Luke snapped his finger. “Gee whiz, no wonder he wouldn’t give me the guys. I didn’t have a req for them. So . . .” He handed Henry back the clipboard. “Could you sign it so I can have them? I really don’t want to be running late today. Neville competition kicks off at noon.”
“Cole won’t give up the men?”
“No.”
“Tell him I said that you are to have the men and you are to have them now. If I have to go down there and get them, there’ll be hell to pay.”
Luke closed his eyes and nodded. “Hell to pay. Got it.” He opened his eyes. “So, will I be like a tattle tale if I do this? I don’t want to come across as a tattle tale.”
“No, you won’t be, I’m not fully the leader yet so it doesn’t count.”
“Thanks, Henry.” Luke tucked his clipboard and hurried off.
Easy enough, Henry thought and walked to Tracking. He didn’t need to ask Mark about it when he walked in. There it was. The flashing, the beeping, the messed up underdeveloped section of Tracking. “Shit.” Henry stomped and stood behind Mark.
“Fucked up, Henry. When’s Danny get back?”
“Tomorrow. Have you tried turning it off and on?”
“Yep. I want to just turn it off but we can’t do that.”
Henry left out a slow huffing breath as he viewed the history notes the night shift has taken. “Well, we see it works even with the glitches.”
“I saw that.” Mark said. “Leroy noted a deer-like signal running across.”
“At a normal speed none-the-less.” Henry set the notes down. “There’s nothing mechanically I can find. There has to be a ton of rabbits up there. A ton.” He tapped Mark on the shoulder. “Let me sit there.”
“What are you doing?” Mark stood up.
“No need in annoying you all day again with this shit. I’m gonna reset the preferences for a higher weight signal. Not much more.” Henry’s fingers clicked as he went into the programming section. “Just enough so it stops picking up the rabbits.”
“But I thought you guys did that originally.”
“We did.” Henry said.
“So it has to be screwy if it’s picking up the rabbits anyhow.”
“Not necessarily. Not if the rabbits are bigger than what we put in.”
Mark laughed in ridicule. “Henry, how big can rabbits be?”
Henry’s eyes shifted and looked to Mark. “Even though Dean says it was only one time, I know he’s probably been feeding our fine furry creatures his new special protein feed so we can have huge rabbits for consumption.”
“Cool.” Mark nodded. “Never is enough meat on them when you roast them.”
Henry made a couple of final clicks. “Done.” He stood up. “All right.” Henry peered at the monitor and waited. Nothing happened. “I think problem solved.”
“Looks that way.” Mark sat dow
n. “Thank God.”
Henry snickered. “No please, even though it’s an honor, Henry will work just fine.”
“Huh?”
Henry shook his head. “Never mind. I’m out of here.”
“Hey Henry?” Mark called him. “What if these aren’t rabbits?”
“What else could they be?”
“Ever see the movie Tremors?” Mark’s tone picked up and grabbed some excitement. “What if like it’s the tentacles coming up out of the ground and snatching up its food. Whoa. And what if like it moves as fast as it did in the movie. We have that cliff. How awesome that would be if this huge creature thing came plowing out of that cliff, diving down into the under . . .”
“Mark?”
“Yeah.”
Henry shook his head ‘no’, waved goodbye, and left.
Mark shrugged. “Just a theory.”
^^^^
Bowman, North Dakota
Ellen’s nude body laid on Hal’s bed. A small section of the bed sheet draped over her backside exposing her bare back and bare legs. Hal, shirtless, stood at the side of the bed fixing the covers.
“Hold it.” He told her then reached for her hair.
“Like this?” Ellen asked raising her arms.
“Wait, let me look.” Hal hurried from the bedroom and into the living room. He stood there, looked at Ellen, and hurried back in. “Let me fix this.” Hal lifted up her hair, letting it drop more across her face. “Perfect.”
“Perfect?”
“Yes, stay like that. Keep your eyes closed.” Hal looked at his watch. “Now any . . .” There was a knock at his door. “Like clockwork.” He waited for another knock, grabbed his shirt, and walked to his bedroom door. “Thanks for doing this.”
“Oh you’re welcome. Anytime.”
Hal grinned and with his shirt in his hand he walked to his door and opened it. Sgt. Ryder and four other men stood there, Hal’s staff for the everyday meeting.
Sgt. Ryder watched Hal put his shirt on. “Are we early?”
“No.” Hal tied to appear groggy. “I slept in. Come on in.”
“You?” Sgt. Ryder questioned. “You never . . .” He stopped speaking when he saw into Hal’s bedroom.
Hal noticed that not only St. Ryder, but the other men in his living room stared in shock into his bedroom. Hiding his grin, Hal made his way through them. “Excuse me.” He reached forward and brought the door to the bedroom closed. “Let’s go to the table, shall we gentlemen.” Hal held out his hand in a pointing motion. Then, without letting them see his ‘so pleased it worked’ look on his face, Hal led the way to their morning meeting.
^^^^
Beginnings, Montana
He looked as if he could have been disgusted, but he wasn’t. He just looked that way. That was just Joe. In the clothing stock house, he walked around with a clipboard, barking orders to those who helped count and talked to Henry as he did all that.
“I don’t mind at all, Joe.” Henry took the sheet of paper Joe gave to him.
“Good, because inventory and distribution are big, too big to show you on top of everything else. I’ll handle it from now on, especially with the new people we’re getting. Should something happen to me, you pass this responsibility off to Robbie, He knows it as well as I do.”
“Got it.” Henry moved quickly to keep up with Joe.
“All right. Rough wear is running low. Clothing right now we’ll not be able to stock up fast enough for winter with all the new people. We won’t be able to make the items.”
“OK.” Henry took notes.
“We have to schedule a run. That’ll get us through until we train new people to help in making clothes and spooling cloth. I’ll go through the maps see what we haven’t hit lately.”
“O.K., just clothing. Anything else?”
“Everything else,” Joe stated. “We’re increasing population by ninety percent. Where we are good on food, we have to stockpile everything else again to meet our upcoming needs. Hal said they have items in Bowman. That’s good. We need, sorry, you need to send an inventory team down there to count up before they start to pack up.”
“O.K., when?”
“As soon as possible. Winter wear, I’m gonna assume is good for Bowman’s men, but we can’t take a chance.” Joe moved to the door with Henry and stopped. “Hold on.” He whistled out in the warehouse. “Hey Tony, when you come down from the coats, do me a favor. Get a hold of clothing and fabrics for me. Give them the numbers of what we need and get back to me on how many they estimate they need to run a crew to make the shit. And tell Ben do not exaggerate. We still have to run it skeleton.”
Tony saluted from the rafter. “Got it, Chief.”
“Let’s go, Henry.” Joe led him outside. “Now Bowman is sending us men. We know a lot are going in the fields, but we need them in other divisions as well. We can move them around as soon as the field areas get caught up but set up a meeting with Hal for some men for other divisions. Run it minimally. Tell him they can be temp workers. I’m not seeing him needing full force for the upcoming winter. But . . . who knows what his military strategy is gonna be.”
Henry reviewed his lists. He didn’t realize how much he was writing down of Joe’s rambling. “Joe, if you’re running these divisions, why are you telling me all the stuff?”
“You’re gonna be leader in this community.” Joe handed him another sheet. “It’s up to you to take the information I give you and schedule the runs.”
“Can’t you do it, Joe?”
“I could but it no longer will be part of my job. I’m doing most of the work here, Henry. This really isn’t all that difficult. I’m telling you what we need and where we are getting it from. You just need to schedule it out for me. And . . .” Joe handed him a final sheet. “That’s it for clothing, food distribution, and household.. All the needs. It’ll give you something to start on.” Joe gave him a pat to his back and moved on. “See you at my office in a little bit.”
“Start on, Joe?”
“Start on, Henry. I still have five other warehouses to look at . . .” Joe grinned. “Those sheets are only the beginning. I’ll see you later with the rest..”
Henry blinked harshly as he watched Joe move on to the supply warehouse. He looked at the large stack of ‘run’ reqs in his hands. “The beginning? Shit.” Henry struggled so much as he walked, while clipping the stack of reqs under his own notes on the clipboard, that he just wanted to keep on walking and find a place to hide out from another one of his days of ‘leader in training’.
^^^^
Binghamton, Alabama
The part of the phone you speak into, the part of the phone you are supposed to place your mouth near, was the same part of the phone that Frank pressed his middle finger to while he smirked and spoke to George. “Yeah.” Frank lifted the phone, curled his lip in disgust, and returned to him again. “Yeah . . . Yeah.”
“And then after they have settled in I need you to go to the mess hall and . . .”
“George.”
“Yes.”
“Can I speak?”
George went silent for a second. “Um, sure Frank. What’s up?”
“I have been trying to tell you. We had a slight problem this morning.”
“Problem?”
“Slight.”
“What happened?”
“Well I was out canvassing the outer area for training and I spotted two of those UWA soldiers camping out about three miles from here.”
“What!” George’s voice raised up. “You got to be shitting me? Son of a bitch. What did you do?”
“Brought them in and scared the hell out of them.”
George let out a breath. “Good. Did you get anything from them?”
“Like?”
“Like information, Frank.”
“Um yeah,” Frank said. “They got separated from their group about a month ago and were trying to make it back. I have them at interrogation.”
“Well get
rid of them before the ambassadors and scientists arrive. We don’t need any junk left around now. We’re pretty much settled.”
“Get rid of them?”
“Shoot them.”
“O.K. Thanks,” Frank said. “Talk to you next check in.”
Smiling and bobbing his head as if he sung a tune to himself, Frank hung up the phone and happily left his office.
Ten minutes hadn’t passed since his phone call with George, and Frank was leading the two remaining officers off the base. The officers were dressed in UWA uniforms--left over from the soldiers he freed--and they were blindfolded with a wide cloth around their faces. Frank led them out and, per George’s instructions, shot them both.
^^^^
Beginnings, Montana
Even though she promised Danny she wouldn’t, Trish wore that black visor as she sat in History reviewing the articles with Jess that would be placed in the new paper of Beginnings.
“Big first paper,” Trish commented to Jess. “Here you missed a error here. Please be more careful. People will read this you know.”
“Whoops.” Jess snickered. “Sorry. I’m trying. You’re the one typing these up.”
“Hey!” Trish tsked. “I’m very busy. I typed these up in between the competition forms, going to paper and requesting larger sheets of paper for this paper, amongst editing out bad writing in this paper and paper said . . .”
“Trish.” Jess held up his hand. “With all the ‘paper’ references, you’re starting to confuse me.”
The Big Ten: The First Ten Books of the Beginnings Series Page 412