by Lynn Lamb
“You all know that Colonel Jackson is military - Army, to be exact. He has been working with some other military members, keeping us as safe as they could from behind the scenes. Some of those people were living in the hills above the Village, and some have joined us. I will start with those people who have been living with us, using their expertise to keep us moving in the right direction. Thomas Stevenson is an army major, and as we know, an engineer. He has been working on making us less reliant on oil and gasoline. Courtney and Gary, who spilt from us to pick up another gas tanker, are also military. I am not sure of their ranks, but they have been very helpful working on the security and Out-bounder teams, as well as the hunting team.
“My brother, Jake, is not military; however, he was a police officer and was asked to help Jackson’s team with various tasks that have made us all safer.”
I finally looked at the faces that were being illuminated by lanterns. Jaws were agape, hair yet to be combed was tousled, and eyes were wide. People were shivering.
I turned to Bri and quietly asked her to get a bonfire going outside of the tent in the hope that it would warm everyone up physically and hopefully, emotionally. Eventually, the body heat of everyone crammed into one large tent would begin to do the trick.
I continued, not waiting for audience participation. “Curtis Owens, who joined us just before we left, is Major Owens. I know all of this comes as a surprise, but just think back at what these people have done for us.
“There are several other people on their way to help us, and they are military, too.”
“So, how about the mayor and her kid, are they military?” yelled Rolette.
And that’s when what I had been worried about began. “Yeah, how many of you are government?” shouted someone else.
“How can we trust people who lie to us?” I recognized that voice as Levi Samuels.
I stood silently and let the random shouting go on for about two more minutes, until the objections petered out.
“There is a reason that we woke you up in the middle of the night,” I said. All eyes were on me, and I felt the heavy weight of what I was about to say.
“I am going to let Jackson explain exactly what is going on and how we are going to handle it,” I told them.
As Jackson started to pass me, I whispered, “Be calm and understanding. They need to be reassured, and this time by the person they feel the most betrayed by.”
He gave me a slight nod and stood in front of the angry Villagers. All they needed were torches and pitch forks.
“Thank you for giving me the opportunity to explain what is happening. First, I need to say, I am sorry. I have kept things from everyone. This is not Laura’s fault. Like she said, she didn’t know anything until very recently. And she didn’t know everything. Just this morning we told her about the people we had living in the Village. To her credit, she didn’t kick the lot of us out. I am not fooling myself that she just loves us too much to be mad at our transgressions. Laura understands that you need us to survive what’s coming.
“Now, I am going to jump into why we woke you this morning. With our military grade radios, we intercepted a message from the people we believe were responsible for the attacks on the U.S. We believe they are going to be flying through in the next few days to finish off anyone who might have survived.”
There were more gasps from the crowd. Could we have thrown any more heavy stuff at them all at once?
“Being on this cleared path makes us extremely vulnerable. Don’t get me wrong, it would have been worse if we were still in the Village. That I guarantee. There, we were sitting ducks. But here, we have a chance to hide the vehicles and ourselves so they don’t drop bombs on our heads.
“The military that have been with us all along are experts in Special Ops, going underground and bunkering in place, to name just a few of their credentials. We are here to keep you alive and to get all of us back on the road to our destination.”
“Now that you have the preliminary information, as much information as I have, I need to ask all of you, are we willing to follow Jackson and his group, or are we going to go it alone?” I asked.
I waited as the confused Villagers spoke to each other. They looked so lost.
“You are leaving this decision up to us?” asked Levi.
“Yes,” I said. “This is not only my decision to make. I do believe the Colonel’s intelligence is accurate. Now, you have all the information that the Council has. What do you want to do?”
The Villagers argued with each other for about twenty minutes. In the end, they decided to vote. It was forty-five to five in a secret vote. We would use the military to get us out alive.
After everyone had left the tent, I stayed behind to take a breather.
“Well, played,” said Jackson. “And that’s why you are the leader.”
I took a long moment, just staring at him. “It wasn’t ‘played.’ If they had voted to not follow you, then I would have been with them, even if it meant my own death. This is not the old world, and the government and military no longer make our decisions for us. Before the war, we were under the mass delusion we were supposed to have a ‘government of the people, by the people, for the people.’ A government that ‘shall not perish from the Earth,’ as Abraham Lincoln once declared. They perished, in case you didn’t get the memo. We had lifelong politicians who were no longer ‘the people’ and who had long since stopped listening to the actual people they were supposed to represent. If you want to try and get that government back, go find another group of survivors.
“Oh, and Jackson, THAT’S why I am the leader.”
I got up and left the Colonel to his thoughts.
∞
Mark caught up to me shortly after the meeting.
“Owens just cornered me,” he began. “They want me to monitor the radios when Fitzpatrick gets here. Some of the intelligence coming through is in Arabic.”
“And you are asking me my opinion?” I asked, already exhausted before the sun had even risen in the sky.
Mark nodded.
“Thanks for asking, but it’s up to you. It’s what you did for the military, and you are the only Arabic speaker, so it makes sense.”
“Okay, then I’ll do it,” he said.
“I just ask one thing, Mark. Please don’t become one of them.”
“Never,” he said. “I can’t stop them from doing whatever they are or aren’t going to do. But I am not going to lie or hold anything back.”
“Thank you,” I told him. He kissed me on the forehead.
∞
By the time I had made it to Annie’s RV for a cup of coffee, a group was detaching the tractor from the truck it was attached to.
Jackson had decided to use RV two as his “base of operations.”
We are now entering the military lingo zone, I thought. I was an army wife, and when Mark got out, I had purged all of that stuff from my brain. I decided to ignore it as much as possible and to not let it seep into my vocabulary again.
“How are you holding up?” asked Jill as she joined me. We walked towards RV two.
“I’m holding. How about you?” I asked her.
“I am not completely comfortable with Jackson’s team, but I don’t think we have a better option,” she said.
“My sentiments exactly,” I told her as we entered the vehicle. It was too cramped to begin with and was about to get worse.
We took our places as Jackson began to explain what he needed from each of us.
“Mark, obviously you are on radio,” he started. “You will start on the ham set and see what you can get until Fitz gets here with our equipment. Probably nothing, but it’s worth a shot. Listen in to all transmissions for anything that might be suspicious. You never know if they have cells on the ground participating in conversations with survivors.”
Mark nodded. I could tell that he would rather be doing anything other than following Jackson’s orders. The military was a life he had left
behind. Now, it had crept back in, and he had no real choice. It needed to be done, and no one else had his skills.
Jackson continued what came so naturally to him; barking orders. “Adam, I need you to lead the transportation. We need to find the thickest brush to camouflage the vehicles in, preferably near snow banks on the hillside. We are going to need to bury them as much as we can. It’s going to take a huge amount of manpower, so everyone be prepared.”
“Patton,” he addressed Bri. “You are in charge of getting security in sync with our people. They need to fall-in with standard operating procedures. We need soldiers.”
“You mean teach them everything it took us all months in boot camp and AIT to learn?” she asked sarcastically. I don’t think that Bri will ever have the same level of respect for the Colonel or anyone in the military again. I smiled at that thought.
I looked up to see Jackson staring at me. “What?” he asked.
“Nothing,” I answered with a grin.
“Yes, that’s what I mean,” he said to Bri. “They already have a head start because we have been training them all along. They are yours, Specialist Patton. Get them ready. Hopefully we won’t need them, but there are no guarantees. Go get started right now. And see if there are others who want to join.”
“Everyone, except Rolette,” I added. “He is not to carry a gun. If he gives you trouble, send him to me. Oh, wait, no. Send him to Jackson or Owens. This is their fiesta.”
My grin must have grown wider, because the vein in Jackson’s forehead sure had.
Annie came in with trays of coffee.
“When will Jake be back?” she cut in. I knew it was killing her to know that he was out there, especially now.
“He’s already on his way back,” said Jackson. “When he does get here, he will be in charge of getting anyone who wants to carry gun ready.”
“Wait, you mean you are going to hand out guns?” I asked. “I am not comfortable with that.”
“What happens if they decide to pick us off on the ground?” replied Jackson.
There was nothing I could say to that. “As soon as this thing is over, we take the guns back. This isn’t going to become a habit,” I answered.
He ignored me and continued. “Bunkering in is going to be the hardest part. We are going to build between twenty-five and thirty snow caves. A snow cave is basically an underground foxhole. They need to stay small; the smaller the cave, the better it will hold in warmth. I am not the expert on this; the point men for the caves will be Colonel Dirk Mason, and First Lieutenant Erick Granville. They are both Marines.”
“Can I ask a question?” said Holly. She took Jackson’s curt head bob as an affirmative. “What about the kids? I was watching their faces during the meeting, and they looked completely freaked out.”
My heart sunk. That was totally and completely my fault. In my desperation to inform everyone on everything, I forgot about how the children would react.
“Holly, after this meeting, you and I will get together and come up with a plan for talking to them,” I told her.
“How long until Fitzpatrick and the gang get here?” asked Malcolm, who had been uncharacteristically quiet.
“Last I heard they are about six to eight hours out. Since we are staying here, they will be able to catch up faster,” said Owens.
“I don’t know that we should stay here,” said Adam, unrolling a map. “I think that there is a better place to bunker-in about four hours from here. This is a map from before, and there is a better forested area for us to camo the transport and to build the snow caves close to the trucks.”
“Then we need to move out, now,” said Jackson.
∞
The meeting broke up immediately. We exited the RV to find the camp broken down, and the fires carefully covered with the surrounding snow. I was glad to see that everyone was taking this very seriously. Maybe telling them everything made them feel more a part of it now.
Jackson had Bri’s security team alert everyone that we were moving to a different location. I met briefly with Holly about talking to the children and apologized profusely that I could not be there with her to help clean up my mess. I asked Annie to ride in RV four with Holly to help facilitate the discussion. I was sure Annie’s background as a teacher and her gentleness would help. It was the best I could do, but I have made a promise to myself not to let that happen again. The children’s emotional needs were as important as anyone’s.
Within thirty minutes, we were on the road again. That would put Fitz and the gang between nine to eleven hours behind us.
“Godspeed to them,” said Reverend John.
“Amen to that,” I said.
Emma and Mark had traded places, and I was glad to be riding with Mark. Somehow it felt safer, even though there would be little that he could do if we were suddenly attacked. I wished that I could have all of my family in one place, but everyone had their own important jobs to do. And never once had any one of them complained. My people are troopers.
While Mark familiarized himself with the ham radio, I began to figure out who would be bunkering in their snow caves with whom.
I had never heard of a snow cave before today. Back in the day, I would probably have googled it, but for now I needed to wait until the experts reached us.
While planning the snow cave cohabitations, I did my best to keep families together or at least close to each other. My family was the largest, and it was also the most difficult for me to figure out because I didn’t want to be far from any of them. Maybe the new guys would have an idea of how to fit more of us together.
If this is going to be the way we depart this earth, I want to be with my whole family when it happens.
A few of us in RV two took turns taking brief naps. I have to confess, I was exhausted. I slept for about two hours. I figured I could justify it; after all, we had been up since early morning, and it looked as if the rest of the day was going to be very long. In fact, I hoped that everyone who could would be doing the same thing.
∞
The RV came to an abrupt halt, almost throwing me from the bunk. I hoped that we were at our destination, but we needed to stop and let the tree cutting crew make way for us again. Everyone took the opportunity to use the restrooms and grab a snack. There would be no running around time for the kids, however.
Still feeling angry with myself, and not being able to let it go, I decided to see how the kids were doing in their RV. When I walked in, they were reading books and playing games. Bailey threw herself into my arms. “Can I come and stay with you for the rest of the ride, Laura?” she asked.
I looked over at Holly, who seemed a bit more relaxed. She nodded at me. “A lot of the kids are going to ride with their parents for the rest of the way,” she informed me.
“That would be great, Bailey Bug,” I told her. “Maybe Annie will join us.”
I guess I wanted my mother right then, too.
While the tree cutters did their job, the rest of the Villagers made their way to the vehicle they would be riding in for the rest of the trip. There was probably only an hour or so left of driving time, but it was good for morale.
After another hour of waiting, we were back on the road to our bunker-in destination.
∞
We pulled up to our destination at three o’clock in the afternoon: supper time. I was happy to find that RV three was able to pull it together without Annie. She could really use more than just one afternoon off.
If we made it through all of this, I promised myself that I would find more days for her to rest.
Jackson informed everyone by radio that we would be pulling off into a grove of trees, and for everyone to be extremely careful, that the snow off the road was slick.
As if to help prove Jackson’s point, Emma’s truck skidded and doughnuted out of the lineup of cars. Mark felt badly that she had taken his wheel, but it was what it was, an accident. Emma was pretty shaken, but thankfully she was physically unharmed. T
he tow truck spent about an hour getting the front wheels of the Tacoma over a slope where they had come to rest.
The rest of us moved on through the forest. We hit sharp bumps and curves, but we finally slowed to a stop. I understood what Adam was talking about when he said this would be a better place to hide. You could barely see a patch of sky from where we stood. There were also large snow banks where we came to a stop. Adam and Jackson took some time to talk about the plans. We watched them from the inside of our warm cars. Their arms swung and fingers pointed until it looked like they were finished.
Jackson opened the door of our RV and picked up the microphone. “Okay, we need everyone to exit their vehicles except for the drivers. We will signal where we want you to park. While we are getting the trucks in position, the rest of you will get the tents set up. Then go to the food RV and get something to eat. We are going to need you all to be patient and to try and stay warm. It’s fine to make a fire today, but make sure it’s not too big.”
We all streamed out of our respective vehicles. People stretched and made their way through the virgin snow that was knee deep in places. Children were held or given piggy back rides, and we tried to find places to pitch the tents.
I guess that most of us had never been in snow that had been untouched by human feet or tires. And since I had never been in the snow before this insanity, I really had no frame of reference to work with. I slipped several times. Thankfully, Mark had lived in Japan, and he was better at navigating through it than I was. He held Bailey tightly and protectively. Through all of this, he had somehow become a great father.
None of us were comfortable in our new camp site, but we made the best of it. Tents went up slowly and fires were built. Finally, the trucks were in place, and we all had bowls of warm, fresh venison stew. Hershey ate his with such gusto that everyone in eyeshot of him laughed and loosened up some.
“Hi everyone,” said Ammie to the crowd. I was shocked that my chronically shy niece was about to speak in front of an audience. “I just wanted to say something.”