“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing. I just want to get her checked out.”
Thomas shrugged. “Just let me know in the next two days.”
“You got it.”
All the men left to go find their bedrooms and to look around the base.
Stryker made a pot of coffee and sat alone in the cafeteria sipping contentedly and wondering about their future. If Erin was pregnant, that was going to change their lives in ways he found hard to imagine. They would turn down the Corpus Christi mission and not do another until the baby was born.
What came after that, he had no idea.
Stryker felt his eyelids growing heavy. He’d had very little sleep over the last several days and lay down on a cot that sat against one wall.
He dreamed of having a child again, and fell asleep with broad grin on his face.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
Stryker grabbed the hand that was about to grip his shoulder and twisted it away from him and downward.
“Jesus, Stryker. Let go of me.”
He sat up and looked down at Edwards, who was grimacing in pain on his knees next to the cot.
“You know better than to do that.” Stryker released his grip. “Just yell at me until I wake up.” He sat up, rubbed his eyes and looked around.
Edwards rubbed his sore wrist. “I did, but you wouldn’t wake up.”
“What time is it?” Stryker asked.
“20:00.”
“Christ, I’ve been asleep for over eight hours.”
“I came by earlier, but decided to let you sleep some more.”
“Thanks for that,” Stryker replied.
“You want coffee?”
“Do you like women? Of course I want coffee.”
“I’ll make some, and then we should get some food into you.”
“Where’s Erin?”
“She’s with Elle and Haley on the ship.”
Edwards walked off, made the coffee, and both men sat silently and listened to the gurgling sound the water made as it passed through the grounds and dripped into the pot. When it stopped, Edwards left and came back with two gigantic steaming mugs. He handed one to Stryker and sat down. They sipped their coffee in silence for a minute.
“You do know that we are going to run out of coffee at some point?” Stryker said.
“I hope it’s after we’re both dead.”
“Greenhouses,” Stryker said with a meaningful look. “We build a couple of them and grow the coffee.”
“Seed?”
“They grow coffee in Mexico. We just go get some.”
Both men chuckled and continued sipping coffee.
“You going to do the Corpus mission?” Edwards put his cup on the table.
“I don’t know.”
“We could go back and check on the ranch on the way in.”
“We?” Stryker replied.
“Sure, I am in.”
“Are you sure you’re ready?” Stryker examined Edwards with an open look of appraisal.
“Yes.”
“What about Elle?”
“We had a pretty tough discussion while you were gone, and I told her that I can’t sit on this base and let other people who don’t have my training take risks that I should take. We don’t have the luxury of opting out of anything anymore.”
“How did she take that?”
“Not well at first.”
“Now?”
“Better. She’s not really mad at either of us anymore, and we decided to stay here and take part in whatever this turns out to be. I don’t want to have her living with me and have no other people around. She is way too social for that.”
Stryker barked a laugh. “Welcome to my world.”
The two men fell silent again. Stryker rose to get another cup of coffee and gestured for Edwards to follow him to the patio outside the building.
A large cheery sky greeted them as they walked into the open air. It was a cloudless night and the air almost glowed from moonlight.
“Things aren’t the same now,” Stryker said. “If Erin is pregnant, I’m out of the game for a while.”
“Do you think she is?”
“Yes.”
“Congratulations.” Edwards examined Stryker with a frank stare.
“What?”
“Just wondering how long you can stay out of the game.”
“As long as I have too,” Stryker replied instantly. “The problem is that these missions are all just a side show. Necessary, but not really what we need to do longer term. The real effort is getting things working again. We need to get food production going, find some way of refining fuel again, and start producing what we need to live.”
“Probably not the best time to start a family.” Edwards said it quietly, but his voice was serious.
“No, but that is also necessary. We have to put our fears aside—and believe me, I have them—and start leading normal lives again. Or, at least as close to normal as possible. If we fear having families, then we will be the last generation of Americans. That’s not acceptable to me.”
“I guess I’ll go to Corpus alone.”
“No need. One of the crew I just brought in is a former marine. He is a little rusty, but he is also solid.”
“It won’t be quite the same.”
“No, it won’t, but you’ll be fine with him.” Stryker’s voice carried a note of apology, but his expression was determined.
“The crew from the Kidd is due back tomorrow. They got eight more guys and two women.”
“Who went to get them?”
“Some of Thomas’ men. I don't really know who they are, but nothing happened. They simply went and picked them up and are just north of us.”
“Glad somebody had an easy trip.”
“You made it back,” Edwards said. “What more do you want?”
“More coffee.” Stryker handed his cup to Edwards, who sighed and went back to the coffee maker.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Over the next several months, more missions were mounted to bring in survivors, and Thomas used his precious aviation fuel to drop flyers over cities and at highway junctions. He decided to limit the range to four hundred miles from the base as anything beyond that was not practical from the standpoint of survivors actually being able to make the trek to the coast.
Edwards led most of the recovery missions. Every time he returned with another group, he and Stryker would have coffee together, and Edwards would tell him about the accidents, misjudgments, and bad luck that seemed to dog each journey outside the base. Stryker knew that he was waiting for the day when Stryker grew so bored that he would go along on the next mission.
That day never came.
People began trickling into the base from all points of the compass. Some had vehicles that still worked. Others rode horses or bikes. And, some came in on foot, usually wearing backpacks.
A group of twelve teenage girls on a sailboat moored at the pier one day and walked toward the group of sailors that gawked at them with wide grins.
They had been juniors in high school when the plague hit, and were at a mountain Bible retreat north of San Francisco. They stayed at the well-stocked camp for close to two years before they ran out of food and headed to the coast to find fish.
Their leader was a stocky young lady with a pony tail. She had been a sailing instructor at the lake where the camp was based, and was a hard-bitten and to-the-point young woman. She quickly sequestered the other women on the ship, and over time, they integrated into the broader community.
The others who made their way to the base were a more diverse group. There were college professors, doctors, dentists, tradesmen and, best of all, farmers and ranchers who organized and started food production in record time. Before long, fresh produce and meats appeared on the tables. Fruits were harvested from nearby orchards, and Jose began net fishing in the bay. Two years of no fishing had replenished the bay and he often returned with an entire boat filled to t
he gunwales and wallowing on the way back.
It was hard at first, and every project undertaken was derailed, delayed, and fraught with unforeseen complications. Good crop seeds were hard to find, getting tractors running again involved days of trial and error, and livestock wandered off or got sick and died.
Engineers from the Kidd managed to get a small refinery working. It was a test facility and could only produce one hundred gallons a day. And when the crude oil they refined from the storage tanks at the facility ran out, another set of challenges would present themselves.
That is the way the world is now, Stryker often thought. Trial and error, each success met with a subsequent challenge to keep the yield of the previous victory going.
It was much as he imagined the taming of the west, or the beginning of the industrial revolution.
And Erin grew larger and larger as the first baby to be born to their group formed in her abdomen.
Stryker liked to think it would be the first baby born post plague, but knew that it was unlikely. Still, it was a nice thought and a solid bet on there being a future for the group.
Within six months, Thomas recovered all the strays he knew of and the base housed close to three thousand people, all of whom worked at assignments to better the lives of the group.
Thomas remained in command, still using a gentle hand and encouragement to manage things. It worked, so nobody complained.
Some of the people who arrived left again, in some cases dissatisfied with the life on the base, in others to go in search of loved ones.
Some returned.
Others didn’t.
Stryker spent his days, and some nights, acting as the security chief for the base, as well as being the informal law enforcement presence. He was a stickler about security, but when it came to the drunken sailor acting out, he would pluck the offender up by the back of his shirt, carry him to his sleeping quarters, and handcuff him to the bunk.
He would return in the morning and listen to mumbled apologies as he unlocked the cuffs.
The only other punishment available for more serious offences was banishment, and Stryker used it several times, with newly arrived individuals who thought the base was not a sanctuary, but a piggy bank they could rob. The punishments were equal to the crime. A month for stealing, and a lifetime for rape or other violent crimes. Fortunately, there were only three cases of lifetime banishment since Stryker had started handling security.
If the violent offenders tried to get back on the base, the punishment was death. Nobody had tried to return after being banished for life.
Stryker and Edwards finished loading a trailer behind one of the Humvees from the base. They had just finished looting the most expensive furniture store in San Diego and were heading back to the base to furnish their newly assigned single family dwellings.
Power had been restored to that area of the base and both men intended to make their women as comfortable as possible in their new homes.
The houses were really more like bungalows; they were small single story dwellings that contained three bedrooms and one bath. The kitchens were tiny, but large enough for a small family to eat together. Both men had passed on taking up residence in officer’s quarters that were much larger and more elegant. It just felt wrong to them both.
Elle and Erin spent an hour making the furniture selections, commenting on complementing colors and ergonomics and all sorts of other things that neither man understood. Still, they both waited patiently while the women debated their selections.
“We could never afford this stuff back in the real world.” Erin trudged toward the Humvee with a splayed-foot gait. She was now huge and due to deliver in the next week.
“No we couldn’t.” Stryker smiled at her as he strapped the load to the trailer with tie downs.
They unloaded the trailer, moved into two of the newly opened homes next door to each other, and Stryker set off for a meeting with Captain Thomas. He had no idea why the meeting was set up, but was too taken with getting settled to ask.
Thomas sat down across the table from Stryker.
“It’s time,” he said. “I need to go get the family.”
Stryker looked at him for a moment. “I can’t believe you stayed this long when they are only two days away.”
“I didn’t have a choice, but it does create a problem.”
“What’s that?”
“My XO left two weeks ago, and he apparently isn’t coming back. Someone needs to assume command until I return.” He stared intently at Stryker.
“That makes sense,” Stryker replied with a non-committal tone.
“So, how about it?”
“I’m not an officer.”
“I’ve already discussed it with my staff. They all like the idea of you taking over the general management of the base to allow them to continue to focus on the projects they are ramrodding. It makes sense all the way around.”
“How long?” It was a blunt question, but Stryker did not want to be in charge of anything longer than absolutely necessary.
“Maybe a week,” Thomas replied.
“I’ll do it for one reason.” Stryker looked away and then back at Thomas.
“What’s that?”
“Respect for you. If it makes it easier for you to go, it’s the least I can do.”
Stryker took a sip of coffee. “What you have pulled off here is remarkable. I don't think I know anyone who could have pulled these people together and get them moving in the right direction.”
“It’s been like herding cats sometimes,” Thomas admitted. “Especially with the civilians. I’m never quite sure how to deal with them.”
“You’ve managed nicely.” Stryker got up, refilled his cup, and sat again.
“You’ll need to take a few people with you. I can talk to Edwards. He had family around Portland that he never found. He might want to have another try.”
“I appreciate that.”
“And, I would take Tom as well. He’s starting to look like a Marine again.” Stryker’s face cracked into a crooked grin.
“Fine. I’ll ask him.”
“He’ll go. He’s bored when they get back from missions and can’t wait for the next one.”
“I don't think there will be a next one.”
“That’s why he’ll go. You’re the only game in town.”
“What about you?” Thomas asked.
“What about me?”
“Aren’t you bored? You haven’t gone anywhere in months.”
“It’s not always easy,” Stryker replied after a moment’s thought. “Most of my life was spent in highly structured environments where there were always challenges and obstacles to overcome. So, yes, at times I am bored. But, like you, I have responsibilities that require I push what I want into the background. It’s no different than you, I guess.”
“When is the baby due?”
“Any day now.”
Thomas left the day before Erin gave birth, something that later struck Stryker as ironic. Erin and he waved as the small convoy departed the base with the captain and one of the men that Edwards had trained in the first vehicle. Tom followed behind by himself.
Edwards refused Stryker’s request to escort Thomas on his trip.
“I want to see what sort of mutant child you end up with.” Edwards grinned as they watched the convoy pull away.
“Shut the fuck up, Blaine.” Erin wore a look that made Edwards decide to get a cup of coffee, and he left, throwing glances over his shoulder.
“I think you scared him.” Stryker smiled down at Erin.
“He’s smarter than I thought.”
Erin looked at the departing column. “You think they’ll be okay?”
“Sure, most of the bad guys did what bad guys do. They got killed. So, I’m guessing they won’t have a lot of problems.”
They walked back at a slow gait toward the ship with arms around each other’s hips.
Caleb Stryker Junior was born at 0430 on
July 4th.
It had been a long and arduous labor, and Erin lay in the medical unit bathed in sweat and looking like an exhausted Madonna. Her face was drawn and pale and etched with fatigue, but she was smiling.
Stryker stood over her, lifting her head with one hand, and wiping her brow with a wet towel.
Edwards, Elle, and the Haley waited outside and Stryker had been out to report progress with the birth several times that morning. They finally left after the eighth hour of labor.
Stryker stood back, struck mute by awe, when the male nurse, Baron, came into the room and gently set the newborn in Erin’s arms.
He wept with joy and relief. The child resembled his mother and would never suffer the stares and shocked expressions people wore when they saw Stryker for the first time. The baby’s features were even, his forehead was a normal shape, and all the fingers and toes were present and accounted for.
He was, however, unusually large.
Stryker smiled down on him and kissed Erin’s forehead.
“You want to hold him?” Erin asked.
“No, I just want to look at him for a while.
Caleb Junior demonstrated his lung capacity for a few minutes before Baron came back in and took him from the room.
He watched his son leave the room and then glanced at Erin, who seemed to have fallen into a catatonic state.
“Everything is good,” Baron said as he reentered the room. “The best thing is to let them rest for now.”
Stryker nodded, left the room, and walked off the ship. He took his boots off at the water’s edge and stuck his feet in the sea.
Stryker watched the waves gently kiss the beach as the sun rose higher in the sky.
He stared at the sand on the beach and realized it must have once been a volcanic rock formation that had, with the passage of time, been worn to dust.
A small bird that was probably once a great winged predator flew by.
Stryker looked around him, startled by his newly acquired awareness of his surroundings. He got to his feet, turned around, and saw a tree line behind him that someone had planted as a shelter belt years ago. It was full and lush and provided shade to the area around it.
STRYKER - OMNIBUS: BOOKS 3-5: A Post Apocalyptic Tale Page 51