Rise From the Ashes: Lena's Story

by Laura Franklin

  The other task the soldiers had was to winterize Burlington: the colony so to speak. They were setting up a few warehouses with non-perishable food stuffs. They were putting enough hay in watertight garages and sheds to feed not only the many horses they now had, but also cattle. They said there were a few dairy barns on the outskirts of town that they were going to include in their circle soon. That everyone there would have fresh milk and cheese throughout the winter but everyone had to do their part as far as work went. All skills were expected to be used. It was lucky that the dirty bombs hit toward the end of the year because any farmers out there not killed by Taliban or criminals would have already put up hay for the year and stocked up woodpiles. Major Morna was in high hopes that come spring they would be meeting many of these farmers and filling them in on what was going on and expanding the safety zone as they moved on south. Most farmers may not have had solar panels or wind turbines but they were closer to the rhythm of the earth. They knew what was important to have stocked up and how to live out a winter storm. This may be a long and hard winter for them, but most farmers would make it with most of their animals alive as long as they were not attacked by people.

  Lena had listened to most of this as Mick had been talking. She noticed Major Morna come strolling up. He had caught just the last part of the talk about the farms.

  “So what do you call yourself?”

  “Major Morna.” He looked right into her eyes. She hadn’t been clear with her question, but the edge in her voice had been clear enough.

  “I mean, your position here in Burlington. What would you call that?”

  “Right now I would call that the Commanding Officer, what the soldiers call The CO.”

  He left his words hanging. Seeing if she would continue her challenge.

  “Isn’t there a mayor here?”

  “No.”

  “Is the President of the United States alive?”

  “Not that I know of.”

  “Have you talked to anyone higher up in the army than you are?”

  “No.”

  “So you are the highest ranking person in the whole United States?”

  “It seems so at this time.”

  So far Major Morna had not broken eye contact with Lena, and she in turn was locked onto him with her piercing green eyes.

  “I think it is very important that the military be directed by a civilian in power.”

  “I do too.”

  Lena was pleasantly surprised at that answer, given so quickly and honestly.

  “Really? So if we elected a new President you would follow his orders?”

  “That’s fair to say. We would need a checks and balances system so that this future President wouldn’t turn into a power hungry loon.” He finally allowed a smile to play over his lips.

  Lena grinned at him.

  “So, did I pass?”

  “Yes, Major, you did. I guess you could have been calling yourself the President of the United States. Then we would have had a problem. But I’m going to hold you to what you just said when we get a good President again.”

  “I hope you do.”

  Mick had gone from tense to relaxed back to tense during this exchange. He was smart enough to know this was an important issue. Military commanders had a history of going rogue and becoming dictators stretching back more than 2,000 years. So he was glad about this answer too. He also knew this was really what Lena was going to be good at – finding the ways to get a new, solid, safe society set up again.

  At their first bonfire that night Lena picked up the thread with Sergeant Mills now part of their group. “You know, I bet there are lots of little places with gangs. Each one with a leader. Lots of little towns like Ferrisburg with a strong Sheriff or local cop or whatever type of leader. Each one of these places is surviving and creating their own little network of relationships. Each one is going to like how they helped to form things. They are going to like how they have recreated their little piece of the world.”

  “Sounds about right to me,” mumbled Ed.

  Mick gave her a ‘go ahead’ look.

  “The thing is, they won’t be wrong. They will have created a little micro-country where they all agree to the rules. They will be happy with the ways things are. The problem will be if the Taliban is still around, or China or some freaky drug lord is still around who may come in and try to take over. They may have tanks, and will for sure have automatic guns and stuff like that. Don’t you think?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Yes, I’d thought a little about that already.”

  “You guys are depressing,” Doug complained. “But I think you are right, this is a real danger and we should have some sort of plan and way to keep fighting them back.”

  “Right, but just us here in Burlington? Or keep the whole Eastern United States safe? Right now we can barely keep one decent sized city safe. I think we need a Republic System. I set up the ground work when we were in Ferrisburg. I’ve been thinking about this even more the last few days. We have to have a basic set of laws – our new constitution. Then each of the other places can make their own laws as long as they don’t go against the few Federal laws. Each place, so far I’ve been calling them Republic Towns, each R-Town will have to support the Federal Army with people, supplies or some kind of contribution to make sure we are all safe. It will be very similar to the old United States, but we won’t have money or taxes. I’m still working out the details, but we have to be united in some form in order to make sure we are all defended.”

  “That’s going to be tricky. It is going to take all your PR skills to get some of the R-towns on board.” They all grinned at the use of the new word.

  Even Major Morna said he was in agreement with this plan over all. They had all winter to hash out the details.

  Chapter Thirteen

  The second snow storm caught all of them by surprise. They had seen the first one coming from miles off. It hit last week and the sky from the west was so dark with such an obvious line of storm clouds marching forward, they had time to speed up their pedaling and sort of race the storm until they found a house. In order to be able to stay in that house, they had to wrap up one decomposing body and put it out back. They layered lots of blankets on top of the couch where this person had died and that seemed to cover the smell.

  They even had time for them all to bring in arms full of branches and wood and light up a roaring fire in the fireplace. They all had to stay in the living room around the fireplace to stay warm enough. Most of the heat went right up the chimney. The bedrooms down the hall were just too cold for comfort. But the living room was toasty. It was like an adult sleep over, they were all feeling safe inside a house, not camped out open to wind, animals and crazy people. They even found some old popcorn and popped it over the fire. Then they all dropped off to sleep all over the living room.

  Steve had thought they didn’t do too bad for a group of city folk who had lived near the ocean most of their lives. Sure, Rhode Island did get a little bit of snow once or twice a year. Things would ice up and a light dusting of snow would stay around for a day or two. But basically they never had to deal with snow.

  Ah, the false pride, Steve chastised himself. They had seen this second storm coming too. They had not been able to race this one and reach a shelter before it hit them. They may have thought it was cute to be stretched out with arms flung over someone else’s foot or what have you during that other storm. Well, now they were all huddled against a rock cliff with blankets overlapped over their heads and shoulders. Any extra blankets or pieces of clothing were under them or covering their legs. They were all crammed against each other and shivering so badly it was going to be impossible for any of them to get any sleep.

  The snow was not only falling heavily, it was being whipped up, swirled and dropped back down in drifts or on their huddled mass of a shivering human blob. No one was saying anything, but the literal chattering of teeth could be heard. Steve hoped they all could make
it through this night. He was sure it was not much below the freezing mark; the day had not felt that cold. It was the wind that was going to be the worst.

  Mind over matter. He had heard that many times. Everyone was freezing and he knew they were all wondering if they would make it through the night. He remembered when he was a boy how he couldn’t wait for a snow storm. It was the best day of the year when he could run out into the falling snow and run and grab hands full of slushy snow to make snowballs. One thing his mother always did with him when he came in all frozen was sing Christmas songs as she fixed him some hot chocolate. Whether it was before or after Christmas, it never made a difference. They belted out Jingle Bells and all the other carols they knew. Even that thought warmed him.

  Steve knew the others didn’t have this history to fall back on, but everybody loved Christmas songs. He began with Let it Snow…

  Oh the weather outside is frightful

  But the fire is so delightful

  He heard a choking laugh.

  And since we’ve no place to go

  He was shocked when half the group chattered the next line with him.

  Let it Snow! Let it Snow! Let it Snow!

  Then they all laughed. They may have thought he was done, but he let the laughter die down just a little and after he got out the first two words of the next sentence, they all joined him for the rest of the song.

  It doesn’t show signs of stopping

  And I’ve brought some corn for popping ….

  He went right into Jingle Bells after that. Then he had each one of them name their favorite Christmas song. Often they would sing a song over again if someone said it was really their favorite.

  They sang for hours. It must have been after midnight when they were settling down. Their bodies were becoming used to the cold. The rock wall they were huddled against must have finally been holding some heat. They were by no means comfortable, but crammed shoulder to shoulder and arm to arm, they were able to fall asleep sitting straight up.

  The night was restless; they all would wake up at various times. No one was willing to break the circle to go to the bathroom; there were many uncomfortable bladders that night.

  The cold morning light was just coloring everything in black and white when they had to break their circle and head behind trees to pee. The wind had died down and now the snow was coming down in light and sporadic flakes. The storm seemed over.

  Still shivering and cold to the bones, they left their bikes where they had dropped them the night before. The left their blankets in a wet heap. They headed back to the road in search of the closest house to make camp in for at least a day to dry out and warm up and get some new blankets.

  Steve was amazed at how Kim had not made any fuss but suffered in silence. She really had learned her lesson and knew now what was important.

  Glenn waited until they were all gathered in another stranger’s living room and settled down and bundled up in new dry layers.

  “Father Polus, I want to thank you for saving our lives last night.”

  Steve blushed from the unexpected compliment. While he knew he would risk his life for his parishioners, he didn’t know how to take this thanks.

  “It was…well…my duty. I was inspired by my own memories that warmed my heart. All I did was share what I knew. I don’t think I can take the credit for saving lives. We all stuck together and kept each other warm.”

  “You, Father, are our spiritual leader. You, Father, knew our spirit had hit rock bottom. You, Father, were the one to reach out and spark our spirits back to life. Just…thank you.”

  Steve wiped the water from his eyes. The room fell into a comfortable silence. It was still early morning. Everyone napped and snacked on and off the whole day and all slept through the night.

  It was a quiet 24 hours. Everyone was somber, realizing they had been merely hours away from death.

  “Good morning everyone!”

  “Good morning, Father.”

  “I want us all to think about some choices today. It looks warmer; we will see if the snow will start to melt today as soon as the sun gets higher. For now, I want you all to think about our next step. Shall we keep on towards this goal of mine? Or, shall we search out a bigger house and see if we can set aside enough supplies to keep our large group fed through the winter? I suppose that if we all go out every day and gather wood – we could get enough to make sure we had a fire every day. It would be hard, because now is not the time to do this, it probably takes nearly a whole year to put away enough stuff to keep a family comfortable through a whole winter. I have new respect for our pioneer ancestors.”

  “Amen.”

  “So, you all think about that while I boil up some pasta for our breakfast.”

  He got a few smiles for that. They were now used to eating untraditional foods for their different meals. Whatever a house had stocked that would keep without refrigeration was what they ate.

  By the time their spaghetti breakfast was finished the sun was beating in the window and the room was actually getting hot. The snow had completely melted. One hard storm and two days later it was gone. But now Steve knew they could get a snow storm at any time. And there was no guarantee they would be near any suitable shelter.

  He pulled out a map he found in the house, spread it out on the kitchen table and called the others to gather around. It was a map of the entire state of Vermont. The priest knew they had been biking in Vermont for days now, but he no idea of where exactly they were.

  “Can someone look around the house for mail? See if we can figure out where we are and if there are any big towns nearby.”

  Someone handed him a letter. “Says here the town is Waterbury. Let’s look that up.”

  “Waterberry? Maybe that big lake from your dreams is near here?”

  “Bury – like the water may be buried underground. Here it is, well we are pretty far up into the state. Looks like we have been moving west lately, a change from my going north.” Steve plunked his finger down on Waterbury on the map. Then he started tracking it along the paper west. He sucked in his breath when he realized a slit of blue was not too far west of Waterbury.

  “What is it Father?” ask a usually quiet older lady.

  “A lake. A big one.”

  They all leaned over the map.

  “Just looking the map, my eyes never really thought about what this blue slit really was. Sure my brain knew it meant some kind of water. But just now, when my finger covered the whole town of Waterbury and I slid it across the paper, I realized that this lake is huge! It is almost big enough to be like Lake Ontario or Huron. If we were standing at one shore of this lake, we could barely see to the other side. This has to be lake of my dreams. Lake Champlain.”

  “It looks like a two or three day walk. If our bikes are still in good shape, oh my God, if the bikes work, we might be able to make it in just one day!” He sat down hard in a chair.

  Now it was time for the others to gather around him and lift his spirits.

  Steve had bulled through this, leading them, worrying about them. Now that the pressure was close to being lifted he had just run out of energy. But they were touching him on the arm, shoulder and even his head. Their very hands seeming to transfer their own energy and excitement to him.

  He got up and looked at them. He knew the answer just from seeing their happy expressions.

  “So, I take it you all are ready for one more day of travel?”

  “Hell yes! Oh, um, sorry Father.”

  “Hell yes is right, Sam. It is time to put on our boots and get moving!”

  ~ ~ ~

  The group of bundled up bikers crested the hill near what was once a lovely university campus. The finely planned and laid out buildings stretched off to their right. A study in brick perfection. The entire campus was made up of matching red brick buildings with forest green trim. In the twilight it look like a model train village.

  The hill was huge and looking down and straight
forward they saw a big lake stretched out along the horizon. The road looked like it ran straight down into the lake.

  They gave out a whoop of joy!

  At this point Steve could not contain himself. He pointed forward like a little kid and shouted, “The bonfire! Look, the bonfire is right there on the beach like I saw.” Sure enough, against the dark grey sky and just before the sparkling of the grey/blue lake was a flash of orange. Just where a bonfire would be set up to enjoy the evening.