Half Past Midnight

by Jeff Brackett

  Chief Kelland relaxed the roadblocks around the town to allow “qualified” refugees to settle into some of the newly emptied homes, and the survivors in many of the smaller surrounding towns trickled in to take advantage. Small towns soon became ghost towns, and scouts reported more and more of the neighboring municipalities were nothing more than empty buildings. Some of the inhabitants joined us in Rejas, and some moved elsewhere to try and find friends or family in other parts of the country. But no one seemed to want to stay in a small town anymore.

  Those who came to Rejas were allowed one day to fill out the good old “Assimilation Form” and three days to settle in. Five days after they passed through the roadblock, they were to report to the community labor pool, located in the parking lot across from City Hall. Failure to comply resulted in Kelland and his “boys” visiting the offending party. If they had no reasonable excuse, they were unceremoniously railroaded out of town. Rejas had no time for freeloaders.

  Assuming they did follow the rules given when they passed the roadblocks, then during their settling-in period, their forms were examined to see if they had any critically needed skills or supplies. If they did, they or their supplies were sent where needed. It was considered the price of admission.

  If they had no skills or supplies, they paid for their new homes with menial labor until someone in a more skilled field needed a trainee. Not many wanted to spend the rest of their days as a grunt, so trainee positions were highly sought after. Commerce was all done in barter, and if you didn’t have goods to trade, you had to have a needed skill.

  Trainees were selected primarily by prior experience, and secondly by the amount of time they had served in the labor pool. But exceptions were made if necessary. For instance, to help construct and run a forge, I needed someone with a strong back and arms.

  The man I selected had obviously been a body builder before D-day and had the physique I felt would be necessary, but he had only been in town for a week. His name was Mark Roesch, a pre-D criminal trial lawyer. There wasn’t much demand for lawyers anymore, so he went into the pool. When I picked him for my trainee, it raised protests from Brad Stephenson, an older man who had been in for two months. Two months was longer than anyone else, so he would normally have gotten the next shot at an apprenticeship based on this seniority.

  Stephenson was in pretty fair shape himself, as anyone would be after two months at hard labor, but he was still not in the same league as Mark. I tried to explain that the job required a lot of strenuous activity. I didn’t want to come right out and say it but, with his age, I was afraid he might not be able to handle the work.

  “Take us both, then,” Brad pleaded. “I’m sixty-two years old, and I’m not getting any younger. I need to learn a trade that’ll help keep me alive, and there isn’t much call for accountants nowadays.”

  Seeing my hesitation, he pressed his case. “I might not be able to swing a hammer all day, but I can pump the bellows as well as the next man, and I guarantee you I’ll work till I drop if you just give me a chance.”

  I ended up taking both of them with the understanding that the one who performed best would keep the job, and the other would go back to the pool. I had no doubts as to which one of them would stay on, but I wanted to give Stephenson a fair chance. Both of them worked their tails off, and I fully expected them to develop a competitive animosity but, to my surprise, they quickly formed a tight friendship.

  They further surprised me one morning a week later when I came back from teaching my self-defense classes and found that they had begun construction on a second forge. Brad explained their logic. “This way, if you get loaded down with work, between the three of us we can have both forges running and get twice the work out in nearly the same amount of time. Mark can run you and me both into the ground, but you and I can take shifts on the second forge and keep up with him that way.”

  I thought for a second and nodded. “Whose idea was this?”

  Mark gestured to Brad. One thing I had noticed about Mark, he didn’t talk unnecessarily. I got the impression that something had happened to him on the road to Rejas, but I hadn’t asked, and he hadn’t offered. Everyone had a pre-D story. Most of them dealt with the deaths of friends and loved ones.

  I had also learned that everyone dealt with their losses in their own way. Mark had turned to reticence and was comfortable with things the way they were for the time being.

  I turned to Brad, who grinned affirmation. “Guess you figured I couldn’t afford to send you back to the labor pool this way, right?”

  His grin lost some of its confidence. “Well, the thought did cross my mind. But I figured it was a good idea any way you look at it.” Then he got serious. “Look, Leeland, I know you said you only have time to teach one of us, and that you were only going to keep the best worker. And I know that I’m an old man who’s never going to be able to keep up with you two on those forges. I agreed to those conditions, and I’ll stick to that agreement. But I would like to stay and learn the trade. Just because I’m older doesn’t mean I can’t help you out.” He laughed. “Hell, just cut my salary to whatever you think I’m worth.”

  I chuckled. Money was a thing of the past, and we all knew it. A person’s value now hinged on what he could do, not how much money he made. “Mark, he’ll cut into your learning time. How do you feel about it?”

  Mark never hesitated. “I’d like him to stay. We work pretty well together. He thinks like I do. Always knows what I’m trying to do or say nearly as soon as I do.” He paused to gather his thoughts before he went on. “You’re the boss. You have to make the decision. But if I get a vote, I vote to let him stay.”

  Until then, I didn’t think I had ever heard Mark string so many words together at one time. I figured he must feel pretty strongly about keeping Brad.

  I turned back to Brad. “Building a second forge was a good idea, and I like anyone who can think for themselves that way.” I offered my hand to seal the deal. “You stay as long as you want. I can afford a little more time when I know it’ll pay off in the long run.”

  And so I acquired two apprentices for a skill I barely knew myself. It was a hell of a world we lived in.

  ***

  After the mayor died, the town coasted along as if on autopilot for a while, but it soon became apparent that some sort of leadership would be necessary. On September twentieth, nominations were taken at a town meeting held in the Rejas Eagles Football Stadium, and on September twenty-seventh, Chief of Police James Kelland was elected mayor.

  I sheepishly recalled the day he had come to ask Amber to work at the hospital. Wanting the excuse to humiliate him, I had waited almost eagerly for him to attempt to draw his revolver. My feelings had changed since that day, and I was a little ashamed. The man had just been doing his job.

  That was what made Kelland such a good choice for mayor. He did whatever was necessary to get the job done. He didn’t care if he hurt somebody’s feelings, angered a mob, or stepped on somebody’s toes in the process. He got the job done.

  And if he didn’t know how to do it, he would find someone that did. The man knew his limitations and had learned to draw on the talents and knowledge of those around him, allocating jobs as necessary.

  One of the first things he did was appoint several committees to study the state of affairs locally and abroad. “I can’t get nothin’ done ’til I find out what needs doin’,” he’d proclaimed.

  The mayor coerced Ken into accepting a position as a “special advisor” to the new Chief of Police, Chris Henny, to help coordinate the town’s defenses. Ken’s experience in military tactics and weaponry made him a natural, and his popularity after the attack of the marauders didn’t hurt any. Everyone knew him, and everyone was more than willing to cooperate with him.

  I ended up as an aide to a couple of the mayor’s committees. Sort of a jack-of-all-trades, master of none, I could often help pinpoint problems and leave others to work out the solutions. Debra volunteered to he
lp organize reports from the committees to the new mayor, and as soon as her organizational abilities were recognized, Kelland snatched her up as his personal aide.

  I directed the Resources Committee’s attention to the fact that we needed to scrape the top few inches of soil off of as much of the farmland as was possible. If we waited much longer, the autumn rains would mix the fallout-contaminated topsoil with the deeper, cleaner soil too well to separate the two. Ken and his construction crew worked at the chore with bulldozers, dump trucks, and gas masks.

  I also convinced them to supplement the present food stockpile, to which the Dawcett clan had finally donated a van full of provisions we had gotten from the pantries of many of the surrounding abandoned homes, with a hunting team. There was considerable opposition to that idea at first since the fear of fallout was still paramount in everyone’s mind. Everyone knew the dangers of ingesting fallout, and most knew that local wildlife would have had to have eaten contaminated flora at some point since D-day in order to survive. So, they were understandably hesitant to risk eating “contaminated” meat. With the help of one of the doctors from the hospital and several books from my personal library, I finally convinced them it was safe as long as proper precautions were taken.

  The chosen hunters were instructed to pick only the healthiest-looking animals. They would field strip the animals as soon as they made the kill and leave behind any organ meat, as well as the muscle closest to the bone. Organ tissue and bone marrow were where any fallout the animal had inhaled or consumed would be concentrated. That would provide Rejas with safe meat and leave some of the hardier scavengers with some extra food as well.

  The bishop of the Mormon Church and several hundred of his followers searched every abandoned home in the area, gathering any supplies that might have been left behind, and locating several small gardens that still had some usable fruits and vegetables. They added everything they found to the stockpile, canning the fruits and veggies in mason jars.

  The LDS group grew by leaps and bounds as the locals saw that they weren’t some outlandish cult, but just good God-fearing people whose beliefs, though quite different in some respects, did happen to include preparing for whatever tests God might fling at them. The LDS congregation before the bombs had numbered about two hundred strong in Rejas. The day after, Rejas found that caravans of Mormon refugees had arrived in the night to swell their ranks to nearly eight hundred. Others had trickled in over the last few weeks, and there had been a rash of conversions, as well, swelling their ranks to more than fifteen hundred members.

  Though Rejas had begun rationing immediately after D-day, fuel was another immediate concern, and all of the stations were quickly down to critical levels. In reality, this was actually a threefold problem.

  First, we had to find enough fuel to keep Rejas functional over the next few years. That should be enough time to determine whether the country was ever going to get back on its feet, or if the U.S.A. was gone for good. If the former, we could probably count on some kind of assistance eventually. If the latter, we were on our own and would have to search for long-term solutions.

  Next, after we found enough fuel to keep us going for a while, we would have to find a way to preserve it. That problem was more difficult. Fossil fuel would store only for a matter of months before autoxidation set in, the decomposition process which would break the fuel down into a variety of lacquers and gums, rendering it unsuitable for use. I had read about it years ago and purchased two sixteen-ounce bottles of a fuel preservative that might prove to be the answer. Each bottle was guaranteed to prevent autoxidation for up to five years. Unfortunately, thirty-two ounces would only treat a hundred gallons, hardly enough to supply a whole town.

  Enter Wayne Kelley, Rejas High School chemistry teacher. Wayne was able to analyze and duplicate enough of the preservative to treat millions of gallons. He claimed it was actually a simple compound to copy, made of alcohols and other fairly common substances, and he soon had a small production facility set up in an abandoned warehouse.

  The third part of the problem was transportation. None of that fuel would do us a bit of good in surrounding towns. We had to get it back to Rejas. So Kelland sent out an appeal through the Chronicle for volunteers.

  First, we needed scouts to check neighboring towns and locate fuel, as well as any other usable items. They would take with them enough fuel preservative to treat any fuel tanks found.

  Next, truck drivers were called for, anyone with experience in driving eighteen-wheelers.

  Volunteers began pouring in immediately. Hundreds volunteered for the scouting runs, and fifty-eight truck drivers came forward, including three that had previous experience hauling gasoline. From those fifty-eight, Kelland selected the forty-eight that were in the best physical condition and divided them into two teams of twenty-four for our sixteen trucks. The remainder would serve as standby drivers.

  Each team would take half of the trucks, three men per vehicle: one driver, one sleeping, and one riding shotgun- literally. Each truck had one person awake at all times, besides the driver, with a loaded firearm to discourage hijackers.

  Within a month, the scouts had located and preserved enough gasoline and diesel to last Rejas for at least six years with a minimum of rationing.

  So every few weeks one of two groups of twenty-four men armed with rifles, fuel pumps, radiation detectors and gas masks, went to nearby towns and returned with enough gasoline to fill the empty tanks at any of the twelve gas stations around town.

  As expected, they did occasionally run into minor trouble. One of the first teams ventured too close to the suburbs of Houston during a bad storm and was scared silly when the winds blowing across the remains caused their PRDs to glow. Discretion being the better part of valor, they immediately donned their masks and turned tail.

  On another occasion, a team ran into a small band of armed marauders that tried to hijack the convoy. Unfortunately for the would-be hijackers, the truck ran into them, and the team never looked back.

  It began to look as if we might actually make it. Just like a mythical Phoenix rising from the ashes of its destruction, Rejas too began to gather its strength.

  Chapter 10

  April / Year 3

  Le changement sera fort difficile,

  Cite, prouince au change gain fera:

  Coeur haut, prudent mis, chasse luy habile,

  Mer, terre, peuple son estat changera.

  The change will be very difficult:

  City and province will gain by the change:

  Heart high, prudent established, chased out one cunning,

  Sea, land, people will change their state.

  Nostradamus — Century 4, Quatrain 21

  Two years later, life had settled into a kind of routine. Amber, Ken, Cindy, Debra, Megan, Zach, and I had turned Amber’s little goat ranch into more of a fortress by hiding caches of supplies and weapons in various places around the property. We were actually beginning to adapt to our new lifestyle, and I sometimes wondered how I had ever coped with the frantic pace of pre-D life.

  “Debra? We’re heading into town. Anything in particular I should look for?”

  She came out of the kitchen wiping her hands on a shabby dishtowel before draping it over her shoulder. “See if you can find a hydrometer. Cindy says she thinks a couple of the car batteries are going bad.” She paused, thinking a second. “Oh, and see if Sarah has any more cans of that condensed milk that she found. Maybe we can make some ice cream and get a little relief from this heat.”

  I gaped for a moment. “Is the freezer working?”

  “Yep. Cindy hooked the invertor into the circuit so we’d have enough power to run a couple of appliances. I thought we could celebrate with some ice cream.”

  “Sounds amazing. I think I’m drooling a little.” I tried to remember what else we needed for homemade ice cream. “What about rock salt?”

  “I’ll break up a piece of the salt lick.”

  “All r
ight. The kids’ll be tickled. Hell, I’m tickled.” I kissed her and started to pull away, but she grabbed my shirt and extended the kiss for several seconds longer.

  “Come on, Dad!” Zach shouted impatiently from outside. “Let’s go already!”

  I scowled as Debra giggled at me.

  “How about we pick this back up later?” She waggled her eyebrows suggestively.

  I grinned. “Sounds like a date.”

  “Daaaaddd!”

  “How old are you, Zachary?” I yelled.

  He hesitated. “Ten.”

  “If you ever want to make it to eleven, you’d better quit yelling at your dad when he’s trying to smooch your mom!”

  “Ewww!”

  “Go on.” Debra pushed me back and turned me toward the open door. “I’ll see you when you get back.” As I stepped away, she popped me with the damp dishtowel.

  “Hey!” I jumped and grabbed my hindquarters, rubbing briskly to take the sting out.

  I turned to find her already turning away. “Hurry back,” she shot over her shoulder, “and I’ll be happy to take a look at that injury for you.”

  I smiled at the implied promise and walked out the door.

  Five minutes later, I had the cart hitched to the back of the motorcycle. I tossed a few bundles of trade goods in it, and Zach clambered aboard to sit in on top of them. Megan climbed on the motorcycle seat behind me and, as we pulled slowly down the street, she yelled in my ear, “You think she knows what we’re up to?”

  I twitched my shoulder in a lazy shrug. “She probably knows something’s up, but there’s no way she could know exactly what.”

  “Um, have you met Mom?”