by Payne, T. L.
Mitchell sat to the left of Aims and Recovery Division Director, Tom Ford, sat on the right. Aims pulled out his chair and placed his notebook on the table. He looked around the room. The seriousness of the situation was written on the faces of everyone around the table.
“Okay. Now that we are all here. I would like for the mayor to explain to you what he has just told me. Mayor?” Harding asked, gesturing to Inmon.
"Thank you, Administrator Harding,” Inmon said, standing.
Inmon was a short, pudgy man with salt and pepper hair and a five o’clock shadow. He wore a rumpled suit and tie, despite the heat. He cleared his throat and adjusted his tie before speaking.
“As you all may know, Chicago is a city of nearly three million residents. Although my people have done the best they could, today we lost the battle with the criminal gangs and were forced to flee the city. For days now, residents have been flooding the roads out of town. The guard units were unable to persuade them to return to their homes. At first, they were directed to go to the Red Cross shelters in Rockport or Aurora. The shelters were flooded with desperate people fleeing gang violence and seeking food and shelter.”
Inmon paused to take a drink of water.
“To make a long story short, thousands of people are migrating this way as we speak. They were told that help could be found here at this facility. That the national guard soldiers here were their only hope against the violence that has driven them from their homes. Among these fleeing people, however, are groups of armed criminal elements. They have been looting and robbing houses along their route. I’d say, in a day or two at max, the main group of refugees will be arriving at your door.”
When Inmon concluded his statement, he sat down and turned to Harding.
“Now, they are your problem,” Inmon smirked.
“Thank you, Mayor,” Harding said before turning his attention to the group gathered at the table.
“All right, we all now know the situation. General Dempsey, you have the floor.”
Aims was shocked that Harding allowed Dempsey to go first. He knew as well has Aims did that Dempsey had his own agenda that did not include helping any of those refugees.
“Thank you, Administrator Harding,” Dempsey said, standing. “First, I would like to thank you, Mayor, for coming to inform us of this crisis. I know your folks did their best to contain an impossible situation. We all knew it was only a matter of time until our resources and manpower wouldn’t support caring for so many refugees. We just do not have the resources to contain a crisis of this magnitude. I have, however, planned for this milestone event and my troops are ready to escort FEMA and DHS staff to a secure location so that recovery operations can continue. We have secured facilities in Springfield to house your staff and provide a place to set up a new command center.”
Aims looked for a reaction from Harding. He saw none. He glanced over to Perez, who sat in a chair along the wall behind Mitchell. She did not look surprised that Dempsey had already prepared for this.
“Thank you, General Dempsey. How soon would we need to be prepared to move?” Harding asked.
“As soon as possible. My staff is available to assist anyone needing help packing up. But I need to have everyone loaded up and on the road to Springfield by 0800 hours tomorrow,” Dempsey said, as he took his seat.
“All right folks, it looks like we will be moving down to Springfield. I want everyone to pitch in and help one another as we wrap things up here. Let’s all be ready to pull out at 0800 tomorrow.”
Harding then turned to his chief of staff.
“Send a courier to the governor and let him know that we are coming and why. I don’t want him blindsided by troops rolling into his town. Ask him for a time to meet to discuss who can best help the refugees fleeing Chicago. We should get his input before we proceed.”
Dempsey and Mitchell looked at one another. Perez was staring a hole through Dempsey.
“Let’s get busy folks. If you need anything, let one of my staff know, and we will do our best to help. And folks, don’t alarm anyone. Just explain that we are moving for efficiency’s sake. We don’t want to cause a panic.”
“Um—Harding. We won’t have room tomorrow for everyone. We will need to take department heads and their immediate staff first and return for the others later in the day.”
“All right, Dempsey. You heard him. Let your staff know,” Harding said, standing and pushing his chair under the table.
Aims rushed over to Perez before she could follow Dempsey and Mitchell out of the tent.
“All right, Perez, time to tell me what you know,” Aims said, grabbing Perez by the arm and leading her out the back.
“Okay. Okay. No need for manhandling. Just ask, Aims,” Perez said, pulling her arm loose from his grasp.
“I know Dempsey and Mitchell have been diverting resources, and the governor knows too. How long they have kept Harding in the dark, I don’t know. I need to know if their plan puts my staff and others in danger. Is Dempsey really moving the Joint Field Office staff to Springfield?”
Perez looked over her shoulder before answering.
“Yes and no.”
“Yes? Are we in danger or what?”
“Sorry. Yes, we are moving the JFO to Springfield, and no—no one is in danger. Dempsey isn’t prepared to fully implement his continuity plan yet.”
“What is he waiting for?” Aims said, his voice shrill.
He looked around to see if anyone heard him then looked Perez in the eyes.
“Is he waiting for more innocent civilians to die of starvation while he hoards supplies for himself and his cronies?”
“He is waiting for more troops. To maintain the security of a new headquarters, you need troops. He has people rounding up soldiers, marines, and anyone who has served in the military. He is offering them and their families food and safety in exchange for returning to active duty.”
“I imagine, before long, he won’t have trouble getting people to take him up on that offer. So, Samone, what is Dempsey and Mitchell’s plan to feed the people? Does he intend to let them all starve?”
“You cannot stop him, Aims. He has the military. He has thousands of troops heading this way. The troops from Fort Leonard Wood in Missouri should be here in days. He thinks he will have enough at that time to initiate stage one.”
“My God, Samone. What the hell are you people thinking? Do you have no heart?” Aims asked with a hitch in his throat.
Perez turned and looked him in the eyes. Her dark brown eyes were cold and hard. She drew in a slow, steady breath, then exhaled slowly.
“I’m not sure what you think you know, Aims. Dempsey is concerned with the long-term survival of the nation. Your short-sighted approach to this crisis will not result in more people surviving. You know what the report says—ninety percent of the population will not survive the first year—no matter what we do. We simply cannot feed over three hundred million people.”
“So, we are now to the point of deciding who lives and who dies? Based on what, Samone? Who gets to decide?” Aims asked, throwing his hands in the air.
Perez lifted her shoulder in a half shrug.
“I don’t know. That is above my pay grade.”
Aims stood with his mouth open as he watched her walk away.
Chapter 5
Langston Cabin
Evening Shade, Missouri
Event + 12 days
Against doctor’s orders, Ryan joined the group around the dining table to discuss the news about the military leaving their post and heading north. The discussion stopped as Maddie and Zach helped Harmony serve dinner. Harmony had prepared a feast—something Maddie would need to discuss with her. They needed to make sure that they had enough to last at least a month.
“Is that pot pie?” Rank asked, spooning mashed potatoes onto his plate.
“It is,” Harmony said. Her face flushed as she dished some out for him.
“How did you manage that?” Mad
die asked, sliding onto the bench next to Ron.
“It is just a couple of cans of soup and a homemade crust. The mashed potatoes are from a box, but I added evaporated milk so they’d come out creamier.”
After everyone was served and Harmony took her seat, Maddie brought up the subject of security.
“Rank, I know you are not 100 percent yet, but we need you to conduct firearms training with Jason and Harmony. The sooner we can get them trained, the better for all of us,” Maddie said, washing down the pot pie with mint tea.
“This is amazing tea. Is this a secret concoction?” Maddie asked.
“No, it is off-the-shelf tea. It is the kind you normally drink hot. I just made a pitcher full like you would iced tea, but without the ice,” Harmony said.
“It is very good,” Jason said. “And whatever that is cooking in there now smells like heaven.”
“I can do the firearms training,” Ryan said.
Both Jason and Ron turned to face him.
“I can do it sitting down. I can’t do anything else. What does it matter if I am sitting on the sofa or in the chaise lounge in the backyard?”
Jason and Ron looked at each other, then to Maddie.
“What? I’m no doctor. I say put his butt to work.”
A huge smile crossed Ryan’s face as he wiped mashed potatoes from his beard. He was a better firearms trainer than Rank. Rank was an excellent shot. He just wasn’t a patient teacher.
“If Ryan is doing firearms training, what am I doing?” Rank asked.
“You get to feed the animals and haul water. You can do all that with one hand, right?” Maddie asked.
“Animals?” Rank asked. He furrowed his brow and scrunched his face. “Animals, as in farm critters? Dirty, smelly critters?”
“Yes, and they are all your responsibility until you’re fit for active patrol duties,” Maddie said, looking to Jason.
Lugnut snickered.
Maddie turned and glared at Lugnut.
“You can clean the stalls if you don’t hush.”
Rank and Jason discussed a fit-for-duty release as Zach helped Harmony clear the dinner dishes. Rank had just about worn Jason down as Harmony returned with a pan of peach cobbler and a stack of bowls.
“Harmony, I think we will be the fattest people in the apocalypse if you keep cooking like this,” Ryan said.
“This is amazing, Harmony,” Maddie agreed. She was just about to turn up her bowl and lick it when the sound of an engine interrupted her.
Lugnut and Zack already had their rifles and were heading to the front door before Maddie got her legs thrown over the bench seat to get up.
Rank handed Ryan a rifle and pulled his pistol from his holster.
“Rank, get Harmony and Jason into the back,” Lugnut called over his shoulder.
Before Maddie could even get her rifle and run to the door, Zach and Lugnut were out on the porch. A man on a dirt bike stopped at the bottom of the steps. Maddie stepped out onto the wrap-around porch as the man was dismounting the bike.
“Sheriff Stoddard sent me to round up volunteers. Noble Henson’s daughter, Clara, is missing. He and his boy were out hunting, and when they returned she was missing. They looked everywhere on their place and checked with her friends. No one has seen her since this morning. The sheriff is rounding up a search party before it gets dark.”
Maddie looked at Lugnut. Ron stepped forward.
“Tell Stoddard that I’ll help. I need to run home and get my pack.”
“I’ll go,” Zach said, turning to go inside.
Lugnut shrugged his shoulders.
“Sounds like the neighborly thing to do,” he said, turning to follow Zach.
“If everyone runs off, who is going to take watch here?”
“I will, right, Doc?” Rank asked, looking to Jason who had just stepped through the doorway.
“I’d prefer you to give it another week, but if you are determined, I cannot stop you.”
“See, I’m fit for duty.” Rank smiled and went inside.
“Well, I guess I will go help search for the girl too, then,” Maddie said.
“Tell the sheriff that four of us will come.”
“I can help,” Harmony said from over Maddie’s shoulder.
Maddie turned toward her. She tried to think of a reason that Harmony couldn’t go but didn’t want to tell her it was because she talked too much.
“Sure, you have to stick with Zach, though, since you don’t know how to use a gun yet.” Maddie was pleased with herself. She put the two of them together and spared her ears hours of chatter.
“I’ll tell the sheriff. We are meeting up at the Henson’s barn, so check in there first, and someone will tell you what grid to cover,” the deputy said.
Maddie was staring at the man as he slid his helmet back on. When he looked up, Maddie’s face turned red. She turned quickly and rushed inside and shut the door.
I hope I get paired with him.
“Why is your face so red Maddie?” Zach asked as he laced up his hiking boots.
“Shut up, Zach.”
“Maybe she is coming down with something,” Ryan teased.
“Yeah, maybe she is lovesick,” Zach chuckled.
Maddie picked up a pillow from the sofa and threw it at Zach just as Jason walked in front of him. It hit Jason square in the head and the shocked look on his face made Maddie burst into laughter.
“I’m sorry. I really am. That was meant for my soon-to-be-deceased brother.”
Jason turned and looked at Maddie, then bent over and retrieved the pillow from the floor. He fluffed it in his hands and then launched it back across the room, hitting Maddie in the head.
Maddie pushed wayward strands of hair from her face and placed her hands on her hips. She puffed out her cheeks then burst into laughter once again.
“What is so funny?” Harmony asked as she walked into the room.
She had changed into a pair of Zach’s jeans and his old hiking boots from when he was eleven. He’d had huge feet for a kid.
Maddie grabbed her day pack and headed for the porch as Ron rode up on a black gelding quarter horse named Midnight. She wondered why he’d changed horses. Bluejeans was a fine horse.
“I brought Ellie and Buckeye for Lugnut and Zach. Harmony can ride Bluejeans. I didn’t know if she could ride so I thought he’d be best for her,” Ron said, pulling on the reins and turning Midnight in the direction of the barn.
Maddie was happy to be riding Spirit. He was one of her favorites. Ron had twelve horses when she’d last been to the cabin three years before. They’d been out in the pasture when she’d visited him earlier in the day, so she had no idea how many he had now, but she realized that their group would all need horses when they ran out of fuel for the humvee and jeep.
As the group crossed the creek, Maddie stared down at the tire tracks that led across the field made by their humvee and her mom’s jeep. A separate single track made by the dirt bike could be seen a few feet away. The tracks were sure to stand out in an age of little-to-no motorized transportation. As they approached the gate, Maddie made a mental note to put building a more secure fence on their to-do list.
As the first hooves hit the road, Maddie realized that travel by horseback was not all that quiet. The clip-clop of twenty hooves on gravel was astoundingly loud as it echoed through the valley.
Thirty minutes later, they arrived at the Henson farm. Nobel Henson farmed three hundred acres of one of the flattest pieces of land in the Ozark uplands. He and his extended family lived on the acreage and raised cattle and hay. Maddie and the group met Sheriff Stoddard at the large red barn behind Noble’s house. Maddie estimated that there were twenty people present. A table had been set up, and a female deputy sat in a folding chair taking names and handing out grid maps. Even in the apocalypse, the Texas County sheriff’s department was organized, equipped, and ran things by the book.
Maddie dismounted and tied the reins to a pipe fence, then t
ook her place in line behind the others.
“Maddie Langston,” she told the deputy.
“Langston?” the woman deputy asked, looking at her over her horn-rimmed glasses.
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Are you Greg and Beth’s daughter?”
“Yes, ma’am. And this is my brother, Zach,” Maddie said, pointing over her shoulder to her brother.
“That is little Zachary? My, you both have grown.”
The woman smiled a broad smile then returned her attention to her task. There was something familiar about her, but Maddie couldn’t place it.
“You knew my dad?” Maddie finally asked.
“Oh, yes. Everyone out here knew your dad. He made sure of that. Every weekend, he visited a different family. He also hung out at the feed store in town and at the general store, before it sold. Oh, that was after.” Her smile faded, and she looked down at her paperwork.
“Before he passed, you mean?” Maddie didn’t want her to feel bad for bringing it up.
“Yeah. Your dad got along with everyone. He was what I would call a facilitator—a born leader. He’d hear that someone needed a part for their tractor and he would know off the top of his head who had one. If someone needed assistance hauling hay, your dad knew who needed work. What amazed me was that he was only out here on weekends. If he’d been a full-time resident, he’d been crowned the mayor, even though we don’t have one, being unincorporated and all.”
“My dad knew this crap could happen, and he wanted to be able to bring people together to help one another if it did. He always said that you couldn’t survive without community,” Maddie said as she took the piece of paper with her grid coordinates from the deputy.
“I’m sorry to say, but I don’t remember your name,” Maddie said as she turned to go.
“Rosland, dear. My name is Rosland Henson. Clara is my niece—and I thank you for coming out to help find her.”
Rosland choked as she spoke her niece’s name.
“We will do our best, ma’am,” Maddie said, handing the coordinates to Lugnut.