“Okay,” Tom replied after a moment’s thought. “Just don’t try anything.”
“You have any coffee?”
“Got a whole storage room full of it.”
“Can I make some?”
“In the kitchen.” He jerked his head toward the back of the building.
“You coming?”
“Sure, I’ll walk behind you.”
Stryker sighed, shook his head sadly, and then walked across the lobby. Tom followed behind at a safe distance.
“Where’s the coffee?” Stryker asked without looking back.
“Pantry on the right.”
“Coffee maker?”
“On the stove.” From the sound of his voice, the man was still trailing Stryker from a distance.
Stryker snagged a coffee can from the open shelf and moved to the stove, where an old percolator sat. He filled it with water from the tap, glad to have running water but wondering why they still had running water when power was out everywhere. He poured the grounds into the cup, and turned on the stove.
“Cups?”
“In the sink.” Tom gestured with his head.
“Want a cup?”
“I’m good.”
“Suit yourself.” Stryker leaned back against the counter and waited for the coffee to perk, looked at Tom with an amused expression, and then placed three cups next to the stove.
When the coffee finished perking, he found a tray on the countertop, poured the cups full, and adjusted his carbine sling on his shoulder to carry the tray out to the ladies.
Tom’s rifle came up.
“I’m just adjusting the sling to carry the tray,” Stryker said. “If you don’t stop that, I’m going to have to take the weapon away from you. So, calm the hell down.”
“How you going to do that?”
Stryker threw the tray of coffee cups at him, drew his XD, and fired a round into the stock of his weapon. It spun away from him and clattered across the floor.
“You’re less than four meters away, and you turned away from the attack when you should have moved toward it; so you were sideways with stock of your weapon away from your body. That gives me a five inch target from close range. That’s how. Now, go the kitchen door and let Frank know you’re the dumb ass so I don’t have to shoot him.”
He stood rooted to the floor, staring at Stryker.
“Move. Now!” Stryker roared and Tom shuffled toward the door. Stryker followed him to make sure Tom was between Frank and him, before Frank came storming through, gun up.
“I’m the dumb ass,” Tom said.
“What?”
“He told me to tell you that I’m the dumb ass.”
Frank stared at him, and then looked at Stryker, who still held the XD leveled at Tom.
“What the hell is going on?”
“He’s a dumb ass.” Stryker holstered his XD. “Don’t you be one too.”
Frank glanced back and forth at the two men, and then shook his head. He glanced down at the shattered remains of Tom’s weapon and shook his head again.
Stryker stared despondently at the floor for a moment. “Wasted coffee. It’s almost a crime.”
“What?” Frank asked.
“Never mind, but tell dumb ass if he even thinks about going for the pistol, his grave is already dug.” Stryker turned, found more coffee cups, retrieved the tray from the floor, poured more coffee and walked by the men, toward the lobby.
“What the hell happened here?” Frank asked.
“He got pissed off when I pointed my rifle at him,” Tom replied.
Frank watched Stryker’s receding back. “Don’t do it again.”
“I won’t.”
An hour later, they all pushed back from the dinner table and held their stomachs contentedly. Julie poured Cognac into small glasses and placed them on the table in front of each of the group.
They sat at a table covered with a linen tablecloth in a cavernous dining room, with soft overhead lighting. Stryker was used to eating in hotel breakfast rooms. “My god! That was the best meal I’ve ever had.”
“Julie has become a gourmet chef since the die-off,” Frank replied.
“That’s my girl.” Annie beamed. She seemed much less apprehensive than she did before, and Stryker guessed it was because she was around her brother, who probably was a protective figure in her life when they grew up.
“Where does the food come from?” Haley asked.
“The hotel had an organic garden behind the main building, and lots of heirloom seeds, so I kept the garden going. It’s over an acre of land and the compost pile is still ten feet high,” Julie replied.
“What about the beef?” Stryker asked.
“It all comes from farms around here,” Frank replied. “After the die-off Tom and I went to surrounding farms and let all the animals out to free range because we couldn’t take care of them. So, we have chickens, cattle, pigs, and lambs all over the place. When we need something, we just go get it.”
“That was the first salad I’ve had in a long time.” Erin said. “My God it was good. And the garden vegetables were great too.”
“We also can what we don’t eat,” Julie said. “We have tons of canned stuff in the basement. And, we have a huge wine cellar. The hotel had a real gourmet restaurant and they used to charge an arm and a leg for a meal. That’s also where the Cognac comes from.”
“Why does the power and water still work?” Stryker asked.
“The park is totally off the grid,” Frank answered. “We closed down the Lodge and live in the condos, so we don’t draw much power any more. We come over here during the day because we have a library and a great kitchen, but we sleep in the condos, so we don’t have to heat the hotel in the winter. The park also has several wells and a valve system that lets us draw water from any one of the wells. Sometimes, we have to change over to a different water source, but it’s rare.”
“So, you have solar?” Erin asked.
Frank chuckled. “We have solar, wind turbines, river water turbines, geothermal and backup generators. The backups have only come on once in the last two years. I’m not really sure, but it seems as though what we have will last decades, at least.”
“What about a tour of the park tomorrow?” Haley asked. “It would be a nice thing to do. I’ve never been here, and I’m guessing, if the weather is clear it’s really pretty.”
“Sure, why not,” Frank replied. “I used to do guided tours back in the day and I actually loved imparting knowledge about this place to people. It’s an amazing piece of geology and natural beauty.” A silence followed, everyone took a sip of their Cognac, and Stryker again wondered at the quality of the meal.
“Since we’re both former Marines, I guess we need to make a toast.” Frank said.
Stryker raised his Cognac glass. “To the Corps.” The others followed suit, raising their glasses and setting them back on the table.
“So what unit were you with?” Stryker asked.
“Mike Battery, 4th of the 14th.”
Stryker smiled inwardly. “You were in Fallujah.”
“Yes.” Frank nodded.
“We probably did fire missions with you.”
“Annie told me you were Recon.”
“True.” Stryker glanced at Tom, who was gazing away and not at all interested in the conversation. The man worried Stryker in a way he could not really identify. It was like seeing someone’s face, knowing that you had met, but not able to put a name with it.
“I heard some of your guys were downtown and got overrun.” Frank gazed at Stryker with a curious look.
“That was my unit.”
“Did you really call a ‘broken arrow’?”
“I did.”
“You were in command?”
“All the officers were down.” Stryker shrugged and took a sip of Cognac.
“Why are you sitting here?”
“I moved the unit to a different building before the strike. There was no other choi
ce.”
“How many did you lose?”
“Four, and four more were retired from wounds.”
Frank let out a low whistle, expressing the suck of the whole thing. “Well, I’m sorry about that, but thank you for bringing my sister back.”
“No problem.”
Everyone looked toward Annie who stared at Stryker. “Did I ever thank you for saving me?” She held his gaze for the first time and seemed to be free of her fear of him.
“You never had to.”
“But, did I? I don’t remember.’
Stryker looked away, met Erin’s eyes, and she nodded.
“No,” Erin said. “But, that doesn’t matter. You were in shock, I think, until we got here. None of us have even thought about it. We’re just glad you’re better.”
“I wasn’t very nice to any of you,” Annie whispered.
Erin remained silent. She didn’t know how much of Annie’s ordeal she would want to reveal to her brother and daughter, and was not willing to get ahead of her in that process. She thought for a bit.
“It really was never an issue.”
Annie looked back at her, recognized the lie and the motive, and just nodded back at her.
“Well, okay. How about we go to bed and do the tour tomorrow,” Erin said.
Frank stood. “Come with us to the condos, and we can get you set up.”
“We’ll stay here tonight,” Stryker replied. “We can use the hotel rooms and we don’t need heat, so we’ll be fine here.”
“Well, do what you want, but it’s more comfortable over there.” Frank shrugged.
“We kinda like to roll on our own. We brought Annie here, but the fact is we keep sentry watch at night, and we would probably wake you up during our changes. And, more to the point, we like to be in control of our surroundings, so we’re good here.”
“Suit yourself.” Frank paused for a moment. “Is it really so bad out there that you have to stand watch?”
“Yes.”
“What sorts of things are threats?”
“Everything you can’t anticipate,” Stryker answered. “We have seen stuff you would not believe so I won’t bore you by relating them, but the long and short of it is that I am much more comfortable guarding our perimeter than I would be guarding yours. We’re alive because we keep control of our surroundings.” Stryker paused for a moment and then added, “I’m sure you and Tom are fine people, but we don’t trust anyone until they prove we can.”
“You don’t think you can trust us?” Frank asked.
“No, I don’t,” Stryker replied.
“Why?”
“Well there is Tom, who raises every hair on my neck. Your sister was a little unhinged when we met her, and I am a naturally suspicious person. So, we will do this our way. End of story.”
“Well, I guess I don’t really care where you sleep, but you would be unfriended on my Facebook page, if that still existed.”
“I can live with that.”
Frank looked at him with a baffled expression, then at Tom and Annie. “I guess we’re going to bed. Let’s head back to the condos.”
“I don’t want to go,” Annie said.
Stryker looked at her with his mouth gaping. “Erin,” he barked, “Talk to her.”
“Let’s go out to the porch,” Erin said. The two women got up and walked out the front of the hotel.
“Can I have a private word with you about Annie?” Frank asked.
“Of course,” Stryker replied, and the two men left the room and sat across from each other in front of the lobby fireplace.
“PTSD?” Frank asked.
Stryker nodded.
“So, she feels safer with you than us?”
“Seems so, although I don’t know why.”
“What happened?” Frank asked, with an expression of concern.
“That’s for her to tell you.”
“That’s not much help.”
“I’m not here to help you. I came here to deliver her.”
“Again,” Frank said, “Can you tell me what threats are out there? I need to know to keep us safe here.”
“I can tell you that women are now currency, and the folks who used to make their money selling drugs, robbing banks, and otherwise finding illegal ways to do nothing, are now looking for women to trade. You need to keep a close eye on her and make sure she doesn’t wander too far away.”
“Is that what happened to her?”
“That’s for her to tell you,” Stryker repeated.
“So, you won’t tell me anything at all so I can help my sister?”
Stryker thought it over for a moment. “I can tell you that she had a very rough time, that she seems damaged to me, and that it’s probably going to take a long time for her to recover.” He paused. “She can’t stand to be around me alone, she seemed to get better when we got here and she was around you, but now that doesn’t seem to work anymore. I really don’t have any idea what to make of it, except to say try to have some patience, and God willing, it might work out for you.”
“Not a lot to work with there.”
“It’s all I have. I have no idea why she suddenly wants to stay with us tonight, but can only guess that it’s because you are two men, and we have two women in our group. Maybe that makes her feel safer.” Stryker shrugged. “I don’t really know much more than you do. I get that you’re concerned, and I understand that. I would do anything to help a fellow Marine, but the fact is that she has a right to let you know what she wants you to know, and when she wants you to know it. I can’t take that away from her.”
“What about the other threats out there, and this is the second time I’ve asked.”
Stryker paused for a moment. “You might want to get Tom under control. At the very least, he is going to make people nervous, and nervous people tend to take care of what is making them tense.”
“What about outside threats?”
“We’ve had a few incidents with small groups of people, but for the most part the real danger you face is your own group. It’s hard to keep people focused and on track. It gets difficult, over time, to keep your attention at a battle-ready level, and that’s probably the hardest part about being out there. The lack of people is a bit deceiving. You go days without seeing a threat and, about the time you start to relax, one presents itself and you are fighting to get up to speed.”
“That’s good to know. I imagine that someday we will leave the park. I love it here, but with Annie back, I suspect things are going to change.”
“Probably,” Stryker replied. “When you do, just remember that failure is contagious in this new world we have. If those around you see you letting your guard down, they will do the same. I’ve done that a couple of times and we almost paid both times.”
“Annie told me you guys are going to San Diego to join a group of Navy guys who live there.”
“It’s true. The captain of the Nimitz is going to use the reactor on the ship to get power and water back to the base.”
“It’s going to be a little odd living with all those navy guys,” Frank replied with a note of irony.
“It’ll be fine. We had to put up with them for years, so I suspect a few more won’t matter.”
“Maybe we’ll head there too,” he replied. “But, not for a while. I want to try and get Annie back to normal and let her and Julie spend some time together.”
“That’s probably a good idea,” Stryker replied. “We’re going to see if we can help rebuild things and to try to lead more normal lives. The way we’ve been living hasn’t been bad, but it hasn’t been productive either and the ladies have had no social life to speak of.”
Frank’s face assumed an expression of curiosity and Stryker thought he would get more questions about their move, but he shrugged instead and looked away.
Erin came back into the hotel and nodded at Stryker. “We’re bedding down for the night.” She moved by them, and the women all headed for their rooms.
“You mind if I stay here tonight?” Frank asked.
“No, but Tom goes away. He can’t stay.”
“Tom,” Frank said. “I’m staying here tonight, but you need to go back to the condos.”
“Well, okay, but are you guys coming back later?”
“No, you just need to stay over there. We will come over in the morning.”
Tom looked confused, but nodded his agreement and left the lobby.
“I’m going outside for first watch. You want to join me?” Stryker asked.
“Sure, nothing better to do.”
The two men sat on rocking chairs on the right side of the main entrance, each with their rifle propped up against the back wall. The front light was turned off, the women were all in bed, and Tom had long since disappeared.
The temperature dropped, and the two men stayed on the porch in a comfortable silence. After a time, Frank said, “How bad was it in Fallujah?”
“Bad enough.” Another silence ensued.
“I never really saw real combat,” Frank said. “We had occasional small arms fire and artillery fire, but nothing up close and personal.”
“None of it is anymore,” Stryker replied. “We got drones and ground-support now. It’s not like we fight with broadswords and sabers.”
“You got most of your men out though, didn’t you?”
“I did, but it was around eight men fewer than I would have liked. And four of them got out alive, but also had to leave the Marine Corps, which was not what they were looking for.” The snarl of a large cat, perhaps a mountain lion, sounded in the distance. The two men exchanged glances.
“There haven’t been any people in the park, aside from us, for over two years. It’s not uncommon to see all kinds of wildlife walking down roads here.”
“What sort of wildlife?”
“Just about everything you can think of. We routinely see elk, pronghorn, and mule deer. Every so often, I get a hankering for game and go shoot one. I’m not supposed to in the park, but I don’t think it really matters. With man pretty much gone, I suspect herd sizes will grow and they will do fine.”
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