I knew Jenny was shaken by her crew's failure to protect Brian, Kevin, and Manny but I assured her that I still had faith in her and told Dave to get her back out there as soon as he could. I don't think he liked my decision but he knew why I made it. I didn't want to give her too much time to think about it. Otherwise, she might never go back out. It was obvious that Dave thought that would be okay but I depended on Jenny. We'd lost three already, I wasn't about to let it become four.
The next incident occurred four days later and, while it didn't result in any deaths, it did underscore the fact that we were running pretty low on the luck we had depended on so much. The Stinkies aren't affected by much. They are dead after all. Cold, rain, daylight or dark, they just wander around trying to find something to eat. They don't get tired; they aren't affected by the elements. That's one of the reasons we have twenty-four hour a day security regardless of the weather.
Sometime during the night of the fifteenth or early morning of the sixteenth, a Stinky wandered into the Dell. We were about two thirds finished with the wall and this rotten bastard wandered out of the woods and right into the middle of the village. Again, she was likely attracted by the noise of our construction. When the workers woke up that morning they were greeted by the sight of what had been a middle aged woman in the remains of a stylish dress standing in front of the General Store. She had no shoes and her hose were in shreds. Large chunks of flesh were missing and denuded bone showed on her arms, neck, and right shoulder. She was in an advanced state of decomposition and smelled to high heaven. Some of the guys said they smelled her before they ever saw her. Now you know why we call them Stinkies.
A sentry put her down without endangering anybody but it was obvious our secret was out. We had been found, our sense of security gone. We would not be safe until the wall and gate were finished and we were ensconced behind it. If one of these things could find us, then it was only a matter of time before others did. The pressure to get the wall finished now went into overdrive. I continued to caution the workers that rushing led to accidents and we had already had our share for the month. I couldn't remember a month in the recent past that we had suffered this many deaths. I prayed for July to hurry and end. I hoped August would be better.
August came to The Dell finally and we had experienced no more incidents. Work was back on track and while we had not forgotten the bad luck of July, we were concentrating on moving ahead. Construction on the wall was proceeding, although at a much slower pace. With two and a half sides completed, we were now working on the south wall that ran along the high ground south of the village. There were many more trees along this slope and they had to be cleared to make way for the wall. The felled trees were then cut up to provide some of the wood I knew we would need to survive this winter but it made progress on the wall more time consuming.
Once we got past this wooded area, progress should speed up and I hoped to be finished with the wall by the end of August. The foraging trips had been a major success and we now had a stock pile of building material and sundries that should last us a couple years. We were also concentrating on the stock piling of food stuff. This got harder and harder to do. The canned goods and most other packaged food products were way past their shelf life and we were taking the risk of food poisoning every time we ate some of it, but it’s better than starving.
The remaining supplies at the Lebanon compound had been moved to The Dell with the exception of what they needed to live on until the final move was made. We had traveled as far away as Fort Campbell in western Tennessee to get more of the meals, ready to eat. It looked like we would be depending on them to see us through the winter.
We had to get food production up and running by spring or we wouldn't last the summer. We were on the verge, right on the edge. If we survived the winter and could get crops to grow in the spring we just might make it. If the weather didn't cooperate and the crops didn't grow, we were finished. It was just that simple.
Dave had a discussion with L.B. and together they decided to abandon the wall on the south end for the time being. This would give the crew clearing the trees time to get their job done. L.B. would start on the wall at the south gate post and work back toward where the wall construction had stalled due to the tree clearing. By the time he got back to that area the trees would be clear and the wall could be completed. We had left a gap in the eastern wall to allow the trucks bringing the barriers to still enter from that direction instead of having to drive all the way around. Those would be the last barriers placed.
In the meantime, Dave began work on the rest of the outer defense. With the help of the backhoe he had an anti-vehicle ditch about four feet deep and four feet wide dug the entire width of the valley fifty yards out from the west wall. Between the ditch and the wall were two rows of barbed wire fence with more barbed wire crisscrossed between them. The fence itself continued on around the perimeter of the wall and would make it quite difficult, indeed, for anyone or anything to make it as far as the base of the wall. He planned to do the same on the eastern side once all the T-wall traffic was completed.
These additions to our defenses would give added security and would make our home that much more secure. The gate was now hung and I was impressed with the design. Although it had cost him his life, John Hendricks gate was a work of art. The six-by-six beams banded with steel and reinforced across the front and back was an extremely heavy affair. The barrel hinges were large and sturdy. They had to be to support the weight. A small wheel under the latch side helped to support the weight and made opening and closing the gate easier. The latch was made of steel and fit into a slot cut into the I-beam on the latch side. The gate had been intentionally kept close to the ground to prevent a human from being able to crawl under it. This was further aided by rebar welded to the bottom band and came within a couple of inches of the ground. It impressed me, but I still had concerns that it wouldn't hold up to ramming by a heavy vehicle, such as a semi-tractor.
Dave assured me that no vehicle with the mass or speed to break through the gate would ever get that close. I asked how he intended to prevent it and he replied that we would use a serpentine. I asked for an explanation. "We'll use the smaller concrete Jersey barriers with Hesco containers to add support and place them in a staggered fashion on the road in front of the gate,” Dave said. I knew the Jersey barriers, just like their bigger cousins, the T wall, is constructed of concrete and designed to support itself. It looks like an upside down Y.
Dave continued with his explanation. “We will set the spacing using one of our own semi rigs. Anyway, the design forces any vehicle approaching the gate to slow to a crawl in order to navigate through the slalom style barriers. We’ll start with the serpentine out at the anti-vehicle ditch and run it all the way back to the gate. That way any vehicle large enough will not be able to get the speed necessary to ram its way through the gate. Of course, it won't stop people but the vehicle problem will be solved."
I was always impressed with Dave’s knowledge of defensive works and he hadn't disappointed. I asked about the road that ran right up to the wall on the eastern side and he continued his explanation. "Once we close up the gap, I'm going to have the ditch cut across the road. That will solve the problem of anything other than a tank getting close. I'm also going to use some of the abandoned semi-trailers to build an abbattis at the cut through the hills where the road enters the valley. That will keep any vehicle traffic from being able to get into the valley on the eastern side."
I felt like an idiot as I had to ask again for an explanation of an abbattis. Dave explained that he would park the trailers in such a way that they would be interconnected and pointed out at an angle toward any incoming vehicles. This way nothing would be able to ram its way through. They would have to take the time to move each trailer. It would take a considerable amount of time and couldn't be done without alerting us. I felt better about the fact that the only way anyone could get close would be on foot and I was confident that we
could handle any assault of that nature.
Not that I hadn't been sure before, but I was positive now that the barrier construction was well in hand. So, I turned my attention to the interior preparations. I found Jim and his wife Gwen at the old Post Office which had now been turned into the village offices. It was large enough and there were three small offices in back that made it the perfect choice to use as a sort of government office. They would handle the day to day operations of keeping The Dell running in an orderly manner from these offices. I had already laid claim to what had been the community center and had Dave turning it into the Emergency Operations Center. The security force would be managed out of there as well as planning and classes for the security folks. There had been some push back from some of the people when we announced the plan to move the EOC in there. They had wanted to keep it a community center and use it for meetings and festivals. It kind of surprised me that they were already thinking that far ahead. I didn't think we should be concerned about festivals just yet.
After talking with Jim, I was relieved to find that the interior work was progressing at an even faster pace than the outer works. He informed me that Judy Aikens had already finished the corral for our animals and that they were being moved to The Dell that day. Judy had a degree in agriculture from Purdue University in Indiana and knew her business. I had noticed as I walked around that she had been busy. In addition to the pasture for our animals, she had organized the barn and led a foraging party to some of the nearby old farms and recovered a farm tractor and some implements that would be needed to prepare the fields for planting. She had also overseen the digging of the pond for the livestock and busied herself with inventorying any canned goods found in the cellars that were part of nearly every house in the village. According to her, if properly prepared and sealed in glass jars the fruit and vegetables that her and her crew pulled out of the cellars would be good for quite some time. There was now a wide selection of preserved fruit, jellies and jams as well as vegetables of every description in the old General Store.
This added to the mystery surrounding this place. Why would the residents move out and leave so much valuable material behind. After spending the time preparing the food for canning and storing it in their cellars, why would they just walk away and leave it? Everything about this place caused me to have questions.
It's September now and fall is right around the corner. September and October are usually beautiful months in this part of the country with the really cold weather not hitting until January and February. I'm hoping for a mild winter this year but we’re preparing for the worst. Jim assures me that we have a large enough food stock to last us until spring but we aren't going to use it until it’s absolutely necessary. That means we still have to send out foraging parties each day to find food. To the best of my knowledge we have stripped Lebanon clean. There's not a scrap of edible food left in the place. We’re ranging further and further out each trip and have now resorted to checking individual homes for anything left that might still be edible. So far, were making it but that feeling of being on the edge continues to haunt me. It's been a lean year and the leanness will continue until we are able to sustain ourselves.
It appears our good luck has returned, although I'm cautious about saying it out loud for fear of jinxing it. We haven't had any more accidents or incidents that resulted in casualties. Of course, there have been minor accidents. With the amount of work completed in the last three months it would be hard not to have a few scraps. There have been a few broken bones and one of the guy's working on the wall lost a finger while guiding two T-walls together. We haven't seen any more Stinkies in or around the valley and there has been nothing from any of the Road Gangs in the area. Maybe the battle we had back in May did pay off. As long as they think we are too strong for them to attack easily, they'll look for easier pickings elsewhere.
The last of the T-walls went in a few days ago and the outer defense work is complete. The Dell is now secure. With the village finally cut off from the surrounding area, I told Dave to organize a clearing party and go through the entire village with a fine tooth comb. I didn't want there to be any possibility that a Stinky might be trapped or hidden in any of the out buildings and been over looked during the construction phase. The clearing operation went off without a hitch and nothing was found. I can finally relax a trifle now that I'm sure that we are safe inside the wall. Outside is still another story.
There are still a few smaller projects being worked on but the majority of the inner perpetrations are complete. More people have come out to The Dell on a fulltime basis to help and the Lebanon compound is now down to a skeleton crew. Jim has designated houses for families and houses that can be used as dorms for single males and females. Dave and Jenny have finally announced that they are together and decided to move in with each other once the final move is made. He has picked out a charming place for them close to what used to be the community center and is now the EOC. Kat has brought most of our meager belongings out and has moved them into our little cottage in the woods. I haven't had a lot of time for fixing the place up but have managed to lay in an acceptable supply of wood for the winter and scavenged us a camp stove to cook on and an old percolator type coffee pot so we can still enjoy a cup in the mornings. During the big shopping trips, I had raided every Starbucks I could find. Thankfully, there's one on every corner and I now had a good stock of coffee.
The big shopping trips also brought in the other needed household items that all of our people would need. Towels, bed linen, and the lower-tech kitchen appliances. We were reverting back to a time when the most hi tech gadget in the kitchen was a wood burning cook stove. I’m sure that some of the women would be lost when it came to cooking and preparing meals in this new (old) way but I bet they'll get the hang of it. As far as the guys having to cook, I didn't see much problem. They were burning meals before and now they'd actually have an excuse for burning them. So that was good.
We are about as ready to move into The Dell as we can be. It's becoming more of a problem trying to maintain the two different locations. Now that the wall is finished, I can't think of any reason to delay the move any longer. The few remaining projects that need completion shouldn’t keep us from moving. We will still have to send out foraging parties and there will be little things pop up that will need to be handled but that's no different than things were when we all lived at the Lebanon compound. I know everyone’s waiting for me to make the final decision and it appears that we are at that point. Yeah, I think it's time to move.
Chapter 12
Happening Elsewhere
The KH-12 “Improved Crystal” satellite silently sped through the cold vacuum of space. The satellite, code named “Key Hole” was in a polar to polar orbit at an altitude of six-hundred-and- ninety kilometers above the Earth and was capable, because of the great speed at which it traveled, of completing fourteen orbits each day. The space vehicle was about the size of a city bus and weighed eighteen tons. Its two solar arrays provided power for its internal electronics and a large rocket engine provided the maneuverability. It’s capable of stealthily watching everything over a swath hundreds of kilometers wide with each pass.
On this day "Key Hole” began its first orbit in almost six months over what had been the central United States. Five months and four days had passed since a silent command had been sent to the satellites electronic brain telling it to shift its orbit a few degrees east each twenty-four hour period. It had followed its orders and over the intervening period had looked at every inch of planet Earth's surface. Weeks before the journey started, a new computer program had been uploaded asking "Key Hole' to compare the images it saw as it made its fourteen passes each day over the planet to images it had taken before events rendered such things unnecessary. Parameters had been built into the program to account for changes in the Earth's surface due to weather and natural disasters and it was only to sound an alert if it saw a change its brain determined to be man's interve
ntion. The journey had consumed a considerable amount of fuel and 'Key Hole' had only a few days’ supply left.
As the space vehicle made its first pass of the day over North America and the old United States, the two and a half meter wide 'eye' stared unblinking down on the Ohio River Valley, across Kentucky, and on to Tennessee before continuing south and over the pole. During its pass over central Tennessee, the electronic brain identified an anomaly and immediately compared its current image to those stored in its memory. Yes, ”Key Hole” was sure there had been a change and that change fit the parameters set in its new program. Instantaneously, an alert was sent to a console on a desk deep underground. Along with the alert went two date and time stamped images to a high speed high resolution photo printer. One image was the old stored image; the other was the new fresh image with the anomaly outlined in a highlighted box.
On the console a red light, that until this moment had been dark, started to blink. A soft chime accompanied the blinking red light and a message box appeared on the computer screen. The message was simple:
“Anomaly detected. 36 degrees, 16 minutes, 5 seconds North Latitude
86 degrees, 1 minute, 26 seconds West Longitude”
The text box stayed on the computer screen and the blinking red light and accompanying chime continued to signal the alert as “Key Hole” sped south and minutes later was on the backside of the planet.
A technician wearing a pair of tan board shorts, flip flops, and a blue Cal Tech t-shirt sat leaned back reading a paperback and listening to an IPod. Even with the ear buds in Bob Marley's “Jamming” could be heard from five-feet away. Beside him in another chair a second technician, a virtual clone except the t-shirt was yellow and had a silk screened photo of Bozo the Clown on it, sat dozing. The first technician closed his eyes and leaned his head back and after taking a deep breath released it in a long, slow exhale. Turning his head to the side and opening his eye's, he looked at his sleeping partner and considered taking a nap himself.
We Go On (THE DELL) Page 14