by R J Murray
Chapter 10 - Growth
The town was taking shape and Ben was glad to be a part of it. He was able to help more than others due to his size first and his skill at building second. Everything was by hand, muscles and flesh moved the material, stacked it, handled it, everything. It was hard labor at its worst. It was hard on what clothes they had left, as well.
Several people in the group could sew, but few could sew well. So much of the clothing and cloth was manmade material and when that melted it damaged a lot of the natural fibers. Clothing was starting to look very ragged and mostly patches. Not much they could do about it without cloth, thread and experience.
“Ben, we need to find nails, a lot of nails. We're pulling them out of boards and straightening them, but it's really slow going. You think you could head up a scavenger team to help find some?”
“Sure thing Mr. Myers. Fred and I will get on it right away. You find my kids and make sure they're watched?”
“Of course I will. You don't even need to ask.”
Ben nodded and went to find Fred. He was sure he could remember a lumber yard looking place one town over but it was over two hours away. He went by his camp first and made sure Jolene knew where he was going, then got Fred and headed out.
It was an easy trip over level ground and they made good time. Searching for the right place was a little harder but after a few hours Ben found the store. It was one of the big chain stores that sold everything for the consumer to do home repair and remodeling. Even though the building had collapsed, the shelving and stacks of materials had held the roof up enough for them to walk in standing upright.
“We had a little more light, it would help.”
“You're such a whiner. Look, this sign says fasteners. We must be close.” Ben looked into the murky dimness down the aisle. “It is kinda hard to see way back there. Probably where we need to go, too.”
“Want to make a torch?”
“Got matches? How about a reflector? Got plenty of mirrors and glass around. We can set them up to shine down the aisle.”
Fred nodded and went to start aiming car mirrors while Ben moved larger mirrors to the end of the aisle. It took several to light the path as most were damaged in some way but they finally had enough light to see. They gathered up as many boxes of nails, screws and small tools as they could reasonably carry in a day and started stacking them closer to the outside. When they were done with this load, at least they could get to them much more easily on their next trip.
“We camping here tonight?”
“Might as well. Too far to get back before dark and I could use a rest after all that work. Want to see what we can find to eat? Passed a grocery back a block.”
They scavenged food and drink then settled down near the grocery in a small house that had not collapsed as much as some. They slept most of the night and woke up before dawn to get back to work. They rigged up a sheet of roofing tin with some rope and loaded it with nails and a few hand tools then drug the whole thing back to camp. It took a lot longer to get back with the load, but they made it by lunch time.
“Good work fellows. Tools too. Nice. Is there more?”
“A lot more Mr. Myers. We take half a dozen people back with us and we can empty the store. They got a lot of good wood, bricks and block still there, too.”
It took several days but the material they needed was brought over to the new town. Eventually Ben and Fred were too busy helping build to go out any more but there were enough other teams to fill their spots. The streets were laid out and homes were built in the carefully laid out plan to make it easy to keep the place clean and not allow trash, debris, snow or anything else to pile up and block streets. Disease was a constant worry without Doctors and being clean was the only defense they had. Then people started to worry about other dangers.
Several people had been killed when a pack of dogs attacked a scavenging party. There had been strange people seen in the wooded areas and there were a lot of worried people in town. They decided to build a wall around the town to protect against animals at least. A wall meant guards and watch towers, alarm bells and a lot more materials than they had.
Ben and Fred started carrying weapons again and were put into the guard rotation. A retired army Sergeant was put in charge of the guard and together they guarded the town through the nights until the wall was finished. The block part was only ten feet tall, but the wooden walkway was wide enough to walk on and the wooden barriers around the top gave another five feet of height. They would add to the wall as they found material. Life went on.
Frank was glad to see the airship land in front of the cave and the anvil float out of the open hatch. John came out with it, his hand close to the top of the anvil, making it float. Cecilia was with him and two soldiers who were carrying wooden boxes out of the airship and stacking them on the ground next to the cave entrance, now with a massive iron bound door in a stone arch.
“We brought everything you asked for last time. We got lucky and located a tool factory and a warehouse with a lot of what you wanted. Got a few things for Tammy and Willie too. Your people getting settled in OK?”
“We sure are. This cave was a good find and we owe you for the tip. We found a Wizard among us, named Carl. He's a contractor by trade and he's been building nonstop since he got here. He could do more, if you could show him a few things. We haven't let him do much with the crystals, since you filled us in on the dangers and he's getting a little impatient with the restrictions.”
“I would be happy to show him some things, to keep him safe. I'm sure he will pick it up on his own later, with a bit of help now. Lead on and I can work with Carl while your people check the supplies we brought.”
Frank took John into the cave and showed him some of the work they had done since his last visit. John was impressed. “I know that you're busy here, but if you get a chance, I would love for you to come to the Citadel and do some work on my cave system there. This is so impressive. The carvings are beautiful.”
“A lot of that is Carl's work. He truly does enjoy his work.”
Frank introduced the two Wizards, then watched as John set the anvil down and the two walked down the cave to the crystal hall. “Wizards.” He went back to help carry in the supplies John had brought, still not sure if it was a good thing or not. He would wait and see.
By the time John took off in the airship, he had made a new friend and a powerful ally in Carl. Carl caught on fast. He would be using the wands John gave him to build the next few houses, at least until he made his own. Dwarfs were master tinkers as well and John had already listened to Carl's thoughts on wand design. With the additional crystals John brought with them, the Dwarfs had a full inventory of the types found only in the south, as well as those found locally. They said their goodbyes and promised to return soon. They left after prying Cecilia off of Frank and Loren, who were now expecting a little Dwarf of their own and the airship lifted off for the short hop to Willies place.
They landed in front of the village and Willie came out to meet them, a worried look on his face. After greeting everyone, Willie took them to Tammy's cabin, where she was waiting. In her bed was an injured young man, Gracie's brother, Bubba. He and Gracie, a seventeen year old girl from the first camp Joshua had joined, were gathering mushrooms when they had been attacked. Three very ugly and dirty men with big eyes had grabbed her and beat Bubba half to death. When he came to, they were gone and he had to drag himself back to the village.
When the men searched, they found a trail leading into the cave where Frank had first started, but they couldn't find the men, or Gracie. This had happened less than ten hours ago and the arrival of the airship had brought some hope of rescue. John briefed the men with him, Corporal Edgerton and Private Milton and told them to stay outside of the cave entrance, with any of the villagers who would be coming. Cecilia was to stay in the village and stay inside and a runner was sent to warn Frank and the Dwarfs. The two soldiers were armed with knives, maces, tomahawks and
Milton had a bow, being a decent archer. After John healed Bubba, they left for the cave. It was less than an hour away on foot, there being no clearing close to it to land the airship.
When they arrived, John went in alone, wand in hand. He used his senses to scan for larger life, bigger than dogs and smaller than a cow and found a faint sign deep in the cave. He headed there listening for trouble and keeping an eye on his surroundings, in a manner of speaking, since if he used a light, he would give away his presence long before he would actually see anyone. He found none until he was quite close, when he came up on two men, apparently pretending to be on guard and doing a very bad job of it.
John got close to the figures, outlined by a flickering torch on the other side of the intersection they were standing in. John decided to use an old trick he saw on TV, which always seemed to work. He hid on one side of the passageway and tossed a small rock to the other side, where it rattled down to the floor with an amazingly loud noise for such a tiny pebble. Apparently, these guys had not watched much TV lately, because they both ran to the noise without as much as a glance at John.
The first one went down with a satisfying crunch from Sallie's contact with the side of his head, but the second guard had better reflexes and ducked on the back swing, pulling a long butcher knife as he moved. He feinted left, ducked and swung at John's stomach, missing by less than an inch. John swung Sallie again and kicked the guard in the throat when he once again ducked, then crushed his skull while he was choking. He remembered another movie line, in the process, but couldn't remember what movie, except that it was a western. “There ain't no rules in a knife fight!” It was stupid, under the circumstances, but it would bother him until he remembered. “Damn vacuum cleaner mind, sucks up everything and throws it back when you didn't want it.”
John left the bodies, now clearly identified as Goblins and moved slowly forward. He could see up ahead, in the center of a small cave, where a prisoner was being hoisted up by ropes attached to her wrists. When he got closer, John could see that it was Gracie and that she was alive, but in bad shape. Her bloody face was dripping as was most of her body. The man in front of her had a nasty looking whip in one hand and while John was watching, took a handful of something and tossed it across Gracie's face and body. She screamed and John realized that he was throwing salt on her open wounds. As he pulled his arm back to strike her once again, John cut him down in a burst of fire from his wand.
The group scrambled for cover screaming and yelling and John knew that other guards would be arriving soon. He burned two guards who came out of the pathway in the back and sprayed the cave with liquid flame, then went for Gracie. He got under her, supporting her weight by wrapping his free arm around her legs above the knees and then cut the rope, so that she fell across his shoulders. He could feel ribs grinding and hoped she would pass out soon. He called her name and tried to talk to her as he turned and ran for the surface. Every few feet, he would spray the area behind him with fire and he had almost reached the main cave tunnel when Goblins jumped from the walls around him.
Having no choice but to drop Gracie and fight, John pulled Sallie and proceeded to pound the closest skulls to mush while flaming the holes the Goblins were coming out of. After a few tense moments, he was alone with Gracie and a few bodies, one of which was still alive. He picked up the now unconscious Gracie once again and dragging the Goblin behind him, headed once again for the surface. When he arrived, the grim faced villagers took Gracie, put her on a crude stretcher and started back to the village, while John and the two soldiers covered their retreat.
“Who did that to her.” Milton was so incensed he forgot to add 'Sir' to his question. “Is that one of them?”
He indicated the Goblin by touching him with the toe of his boot. Not gently either, the Goblin flopping over onto his face from the impact.
John pushed him back, away from the Goblin. “Yes, it's one of the Goblins. I want him alive. We need to show the people back at the Citadel what we are up against. We can kill him later.”
“Yes Sir.” They didn't sound convinced, but John figured they would at least follow orders, even if they weren't too happy with them.
When they got to the village, they found Frank and about thirty Dwarfs there, armed with whatever they could find. When the Dwarfs saw the Goblin John was dragging behind him still, John realized that the movies had the traditional hatred between the two races accurately pegged. It was only with difficulty that John was able to persuade Frank to let John keep the prisoner alive to show the people at the Citadel. The Dwarfs finally agreed and John promised to bring him back after, but Frank was more practical, telling John to just kill it when he was done.
The Dwarfs headed for the cave, to reclaim what was theirs and eliminate the threat to the community. John turned to Gracie, lying unconscious on the stretcher. He pulled out a healing crystal and started working on her injuries. It was going to be a long night.
The second airship arrived an hour later and Christine and Elizabeth took over from John, for a time. They worked in shifts, trying not to allow any of them to get depleted, just in case of an attack. The additional troops sent by Suki formed a very thin perimeter around the village, along with Corporal Edgerton and Private Milton and brought the total force to a massive eight soldiers. After midnight, the Dwarfs returned, reporting that the caves were once again in their hands, that there were no Goblins left alive, except John's pet, then they headed back to the new cave.
Gracie's injuries were everywhere, broken bones, internal organs, loss of blood and the whippings all took a toll on her body. She would live, but the damage done to her would take a long time to repair and much effort by the healers. John told Willie and Tammy that Gracie would need to come back to the Citadel for continued care and was surprised when the two leaders asked if there was room for the village.
“Are you sure? You've got such a good start here, and you've worked so hard to develop the land for farming. Can you just walk away from this?”
“It's dirt and sweat. We've got plenty of sweat left and you said you had dirt. You also said you needed more people down there and this ain't the first trouble we've had here. Strange animals kill our livestock, these blasted Goblins take our people and we aren't growing, we're shrinking. A lot of the soil won't grow crops that looks normal, if anything lives in it at all, the water is getting worse all the time. Then there's that town north of here that Joshua's people ran into before. We had trouble with them right off after Joshua left. We think they're the ones taken our food and some animals. This place never been easy, but it gets hard real fast. You said that you lived on a big flat topped mountain, right? You got swamp north and land south and it's protected, right? Well, we been talkin' 'bout leaving here for a while now and this is the last straw for me. I'm ready to go.”
Willie shook his head in agreement. “That goes for me too, and I'm pretty sure the rest of the folks are gonna feel the same.”
“We'll talk to everyone in the morning and if you want to come with us, we will take you. This is the first I've heard of another town north of here. What can you tell me about it? Was Cecilia there?”
“Matter of fact, I think she was. She's asleep right now, but what I heard from them was that the town folks tried to kill them, ya know, to take the team of horses and the wagon they were using. Joshua killed three or four of them and they stopped trying. They had a wall across the road, but I don't know much else.”
“In the morning . . . well, it is morning, so later in the morning; we may want to take a flight over the town, just to check it out. In the meantime, we will plan on taking you back with us, so you might want to think about what you can start packing now. With both of the large airships here, we can get everyone off in a single trip, but I don't know how much stuff you want to bring, so it could take a couple of trips for your things and animals.”
“We've got some crops to harvest still, but most stuff is already in. That will take one ship, right ther
e, so it will take at least two trips, with both of those ships of yours.”
“Then we will plan on two trips, with both ships and see what happens.”
Christine walked over to the three of them, rubbing her forehead. “You alright?”
“Just tired. We are going to stop for the night. Gracie is out of immediate danger and she needs to rest, too. You talking about trips, what's up?”
John filled her in and Christine nodded. “Makes sense to me. I couldn't see why you'd want to stay here in the first place. City girl, you know. Buses, flush toilets, big stores, that kind of thing.”
“Got much of that at the Citadel?”
“Well, no. But we don't have Goblins and bad mannered neighbors, either. We do have flush toilets AND running water. Civilization, oh how I love it.”
Tammy grinned. “Hot and cold running water?”
“Mostly cold, but we're working on it.”
“Beats a bucket from the creek. Been doin that for a while.”
They talked for a few more minutes, then went to bed. John checked with the soldiers and told them to take turns sleeping till morning. John made one more sweep and checked with his senses as he walked and finding nothing, he went to sleep.
A few minutes after sunrise, John was up checking with the Corporal around the perimeter. Finding everything quiet, John returned to the house they were using and checked on Gracie, who was still asleep. Christine and Elizabeth, yawning widely, joined him as he was looking for breakfast.
“Find anything?”
“Sure, eggs, bacon, sausage, lots of stuff.”
“Not what you wanted?”
“Coffee, just coffee. Cappuccino would be nice, a nice vente vanilla latte, something like that.”
“I'm going to hurt you a lot. Coffee is going to be a hard thing to get over. We only have a little left from West Base.”
Elizabeth leaned against Christine and in a plaintive voice asked, “Find any cornflakes?”
Willie walked in about then, sipping from a steaming cup of something. John and Christine looked very carefully at him. “What's that?”
“Coffee. Pots on the fire outside and cups are in the cupboard behind you. Help yourself.”
Christine looked at John and both reached for a cup, then took off out the door. Elizabeth looked a little put out and, hands on hips asked, “Cornflakes?”
Willie opened a cabinet behind him and handed her a large tin can with lard written on it. “The box wasn't in good shape, so we put them in here. I'll get you some milk.” He turned to go as Elizabeth hugged him.
“You're wonderful, thank you.” then ran to show John and Christine. Willie shook his head and got a bowl and spoon before he went to get the milk. “Wonder what she'll do when I offer her the sugar bowl?”
The evacuation was voted on and only one vote was against. They quickly withdrew their vote when they realized they were alone. While the packing and decisions on what to take and the order of importance was being decided, John took Christine and Cecilia in an airship to check on the town Willie had told them about, thirty miles northeast, as Cecilia had said. She was well aware of the town and what had happened there, remembering in detail that showed her fear at the time. John flew over the wall a few hundred feet up and saw nothing but burned out buildings and debris.
“Could you see over the wall when you were here before, Cecilia?”
“No, sorry. It looked taller than it is now. It also looks like they had a fight here. The wall at the east end looks like it was knocked down, doesn't it?”
“Yeah. It looks like they lost.” Christine was looking out the side window at the west side of the small town. “The wall doesn't go continuously. It seems like they put it in between some of the houses and just boarded up the windows and doors. Check it out west, about two blocks. We have people!”
John banked the ship left and moved slowly west, heading for the movement Christine saw. He saw them as well, about a dozen people running toward the ship waving their arms over their heads.
“I'll bet their yelling, too. They always do that on TV.”
John nodded, as he maneuvered the airship in for a landing. “People do a lot of things like the TV shows. I often wondered if it was because they saw it on TV or if TV reflected what people did. What do you think, Cecilia?”
“I think it's stupid either way. We can't hear them and this ship is really quiet. How could an airplane with noisy propellers or jet engines flying way up in the sky, how could they hear them?”
“Good point. Maybe we will ask them when we land. Should make an interesting opening line here, don't you think?”
“Guys, if you don't stop, I will smack both of you. Why do you insist on these stupid games? Why can't you be more straight forward, more . . . OFFICIAL!”
“Christine sounds pissed. You want to be official, Cecilia?”
“Maybe we should. You can be a little confusing at times.”
“Fine, fine. How's this?” John cleared his throat before he started speaking. “Hello, people of the burned out community. I am the Great Wizard, John and these are my companions, Christine the compassionate Elf and Cecilia, a mere mortal, who can bake really good bread and is a most excellent archer. We have flown here in our stainless steel water tank, using the power of the mystic crystals, to rescue you from the Goblin threat and to take you to my magic Kingdom, the Citadel.” John paused for effect. “You know, I like it. The truth sounds so much better than my senseless babble.”
Cecilia giggled and after a second, so did Christine. When she stopped, Christine just said, “Never mind.” But she was smiling. “Christine the Compassionate. I like that. We need to work on a better name for John, though. Big John, Bad John, Little John, John the Smart Ass. Yes. That one has promise.” Christine smiled sweetly.
“Children, we are here.” John led the way out of the door, wand in hand. As the people got closer, John held up his hand and looked at Christine. “What would you like me to say?” She punched his arm, gently. “OK, I'll wing it.”
The people stopped a few feet away from the ship, some panting, some looking at the ship, trying to figure out how it could fly and the rest looking at John with great expectations. He winged it.
“Hi. How many are left and what happened here? Just one of you answer. You, that looks like a police uniform. Are you a cop?”
“Deputy Sheriff, Sam Osgood. You're not with the Government? Not dressed like that.”
“At this point we are the only government you're likely to see, ever. I'm John, this is Christine and Cecilia. Christine is my associate and Cecilia came by here a few months ago and knew your location. Right now, my troops are helping the village south of here to evacuate back to our base. So, how many and what happened.”
The story was simple enough. The town had suffered minor damage in the event and the survivors had made many of the same discoveries about natural materials versus synthetic as everyone had. There were quite a few survivalist camps in the area and before, the town had made a good amount of money supplying their needs when the camp members were having training days and vacations with their families. Some vacation; qualify your ten year old on the AK-47.
Then after the Day, the survivalist camps moved into town and took over. They had the wall built, they took over the food supplies and everything else and that included women, homes, booze and the keys to the local jail. Quite a few people ended up there at first, but after a while, you can adapt to anything, given the proper incentives. If they co-operated, they were treated much better, got more food and were not worked to death. Nice.
A month after the takeover, almost all the survivalists and many of the town’s folk started to change. From the description, they were the Goblins John had fought with the day before. People started to disappear and sometimes be found later, eaten. Then, one day, all those people vanished. People continued to disappear, their bodies were never found and it reached the point where homes were burned to light the night, beca
use nobody disappeared when there was enough light. Of course, they only had so many houses and if the fire spread, as had happened twice, they lost a whole street in a night.
Even with the fires, you could see eyes in the night, just beyond the edge of light, waiting for someone to step just a little bit too far. They were exhausted for lack of sleep and a few had fallen asleep in the wrong place and vanished. They started sleeping in shifts and that helped, but they were on the edge of disaster. A good rain storm would kill them all and winter was on the way. Burning houses and sleeping next to them would not be too easy with a few feet of snow on the ground. John mentioned that and Deputy Osgood pointed out that even in northern Georgia, they didn't get that much snow. John nodded, but added two words. “Climate Shift.”
Deputy Osgood looked at him for a second, shivered as he saw John's eyes clearly for the first time and started his story once again. Food was short, water was gone and they figured they had a few days left before they started dropping and then they saw the air . . . thing...
“Airship. We call them airships. OK, so there are how many of you? Is this everyone?”
“No. We've got five more under that porch over there. Sick, hurt or just too tired to move anymore.”
John looked and realized he didn't mean under the porch, but under the roof of the porch, laying out on blankets in full daylight. Osgood was still talking. “Are you going to take us with you? Please, at least take the kids out of here. You can't just leave them here to die.”
“We will take all of you. We don't leave people behind for the Goblins.”
“Thank you, we’re desperate . . . Goblins?” People backed up a little, wondering if their rescuers were nuts.
Christine stepped in. “The people that changed, the ones who are eating you people. We've run into them before. They like caves and the dark, they eat people and anything else that can't fight them off and they are a little different looking than they were before. The eyes, you know. You said the eyes glowed in the dark, right. So we call them Goblins, after the mythical creatures from the fairy tales.” John grinned at her for winging it.
Everyone breathed a little easier and the mood changed back to one of relief at being rescued.
John spoke again. “We need to get back to the village. Can you leave now? Do you need to gather any belongings?”
“We're wearing them.”
“Good answer. We'll get the injured aboard first and take off.” John nodded to Christine.
She returned to the airship and moved it closer to the porch with the injured, while John walked with the survivors. There were eighteen in all, six kids from three to twelve, two about fourteen and the rest ranged from twenty to fifty. Two of the kids were on the porch, including the three year old. Christine and John couldn't stand seeing her laying there, with burns on her face, neck and down her right arm. She looked bad and John pulled out his crystal only a fraction of a second slower than Christine the Compassionate. Osgood looked at her for a minute, but John spoke before he could ask.
“Just watch, then I will explain a little more about where you're going and what happened to us all.”
Christine's crystal glowed and the burns began to fade. Osgood watched in silence and when Christine stopped, he watched the little girl sit up and look around like she had just had a nap.
“You weren't kidding about the Goblins, either, were you?”
“No. Sorry. They're real, just like what you saw and just like our airship. This is going to be difficult to handle, but what happened changed a lot of people, some for the good and some for the bad. Christine and I use magic, for want of a better term. That's how the healing works and the airship and a lot of other things. If you still come back with us, you will see quite a few things you may have a hard time understanding or accepting, but, they are real.” John pulled out his wand.
“Is that a magic wand?”
John nodded and pointed it at a burned out building across the street. The wooden building disappeared in a gentle blue green glow.
Christine looked up. “That was a lot better than the introduction to magic you gave me. That was pretty and quiet.”
“I've been practicing and unfortunately, it doesn't work on stone or metal.” John turned back to Osgood. “Well, it's still your choice. You are all welcome to come back with us. Whether you come or stay, we will help you and help the sick and injured, but we can't stay here all the time. It could be weeks between visits and you would be on your own in that time. If you're coming with us, we need to get moving.” John neglected to mention that most, if not all of the Goblins, were now dead.
Osgood looked amazed, dazed and just plain scared, more than before. He looked around at the people, several of which were passing the little girl around and mumbling about miracles. “I gotta talk to them, first. This is just; it's just a little too much for me to take in right now.” He called everyone over to the side and talked for a few minutes. Then he listened for almost twenty minutes, looked around and took a quick hand count. “We're coming. You can fill us in on the new reality later.” He didn't look real happy and probably would have looked the same, even if the vote had gone the other way.
They moved the rest of the injured onto the airship, to heal them on the way back to the village and then loaded up the rest of the people. When John lifted off, Osgood watched him work the controls.
“I flew a helicopter for the county, but this is, well, I don't know what it is. Different. No noise, none. Just the wind. Pretty amazing. Fast, too.” He held on to the back of John's seat as the airship accelerated.
“What kind of fuel do you use?”
John looked over his shoulder at Osgood. “Crystals and magic. The crystals are all over the cave system where I live and the magic comes from me. Something to do with the changes that took place on the day all of THIS started. Um. I ought to tell you that several of us experienced other changes, probably related to our abilities, but not necessarily. Come to think of it Gary had changes, but he isn't magic. I need to lay all this out on paper and, I don't know, do a chart or something.”
“You're still figuring things out? You haven't got all the answers. I don't know if that is a comfort or not.”
“Me neither. I tend to shoot from the hip, you know. Sometimes I just . . .”
“Makes it up as he goes along.” Christine shook her head. “He drives us crazy. You should have heard him just before we landed. Then again, maybe it's a good thing you didn't.”
“I still like Christine the Compassionate Elf. I'm gonna call you that, from now on. Christine the Compassionate. It's pretty.”
Osgood looked at Cecilia, then at John and silently mouthed the word “Elf?”
John nodded and shrugged. “Lots of new stuff in the world, again. Lots of theories floating around and I'm sure you will have to suffer through them all. Feel free to come up with your own explanation.”
The village came into view and John landed once again in the front of the clearing. Corporal Edgerton met them when the door opened and saluted John. John saluted in return, still not comfortable, but accepting it as a necessity.
“We're ready for the evac, Sir. We've broken it down into three lifts, with one ship and Wizard to remain on site. The third lift would involve both ships and clear all personnel from the area. It should be completed by dark, as the first ship is loaded and ready to go, now. Assuming you approve the plan, Sir.”
“You work this out with Willie and Tammy, I take it?”
“Yes Sir.”
“Injured in the first ship or have we got any.”
“No injured, Sir, except the young lady, Gracie. And she is in the first ship. I thought perhaps the two Lady Wizards would take that load so that one of them could sit with her.”
“Makes sense, Sergeant. You may carry on and I will get the two Lady Wizards on their way, as soon as we finish healing the refugees we picked up.”
Edgerton saluted and then caught the Sergeant. “Sir?”
“Yes Sir.” Edgerton saluted again with a big smile on his face and headed off to get things going.
“That was nice of you. Why?” Christine asked.
“We need an army to protect these people when we are not around. I feel the need to start as soon as possible to build it. He has both experience in fighting and he seems to have a brain that works. Plus, nothing seems to faze him. Wizards, Goblins, flying stainless steel water tanks, he just takes it in and does his job. The rest of the men seem to take on his attitude when he is around.”
Christine was thoughtful for a minute. “You do think about this stuff, don't you? Sometimes you seem like an idiot and sometimes, you confuse me. You come up with something serious and deep, or like that night we were all together, you know, when Gary revolted. You test us and you keep secrets. I'm afraid to ask sometimes because I think they will really scare me. I don't want to know what you know. I just want to be prepared before whatever it is you're hiding jumps out at us and takes a big bite.”
“I'll do my best to have you all ready and I don't want to know either, I just don't have a choice. You two need to get the other ship in the air and hurry back. We want to be on our way back to the Citadel by dark. Good luck, fly fast and be careful.”
“Is there room to take Chelsea with us?”
John looked down at Elizabeth and the three year old in her arms. “Is it OK with Deputy Osgood?”
Osgood nodded, and said, “She's an orphan we been taking care of like the rest of the kids. She seems to have taken a liking to Elizabeth. Besides, we'll all be back together tonight anyway, right. I did ask you to take the kids. We will see you later, Elizabeth. Thanks for helping Chelsea.”
“Take care of the others and of Gracie on the trip back. Christine will fly, but if you need help tell her, don't hesitate. You be OK?”
“I'll be fine John, you be careful till we get back.”
Christine and Elizabeth got aboard the other airship and lifted off smoothly, heading southeast. John watched until they were out of sight, then led Osgood and the rest of the newcomers into the village to wait for the next ship. When it arrived three hours later they weren't alone.
John and the others watched as a much larger ship landed next to the first ship. Joshua came out of the larger ship and waved at John. “What do you think? Suki worked on it overtime last night and this morning and we figured it would speed things up so I brought it up.”
“It's big. Three tanks together, two really huge tanks. Where on earth did you find tanks like THAT? They are monsters.”
Joshua grinned. “I found them at a shipyard. Can you make a submarine fly? Or a supertanker? We have a massive amount of metal and ships and a military base just overflowing with stuff.”
“You're not excited are you?”
“Maybe a little.”
“I thought so. Sounds like you did real good. We can get these loaded and finish in one trip. That's a lot better than we had planned. Sergeant Edgerton! Change of plans. Load everything and let’s go home.”
Edgerton saluted, a big smile on his face. He turned and got the people moving, grabbing a roped goat and leading it into the airship himself.
“I thought he was a Corporal?”
“I promoted him. It seemed like a good idea at the time. It still does, as a matter of fact. He does a good job.” John stepped into one of the tanks of the new ship. “This thing is huge. Is that an overhead compartment?”
“Yes, steps in the back. Or is it aft? Storage under the floor also, not standing room, but a couple of feet tall. The upper deck is about six feet tall at the center. We still have work to do on it. Suki wants to give it streamlining, get rid of the exposed braces and all, but we wanted to get this airlift done fast, so here it is. I helped with the welding and cutting and Suki says I'm getting better. We have another one on the drawing board, for you to look over, for heavy lifting and we will have a steam engine, working size, in a week. It's all coming together. We just need a large enough population base to keep things going.”
“People will come with success and we will succeed. If we show ourselves in these ships, with working technology others will join us because we will give them hope. We need to give these normal people technology that they can use as well. That's why the steam engine is important. I think electricity still works, too, but I don't know how to insulate it now.”
“What did they use back in the day? Natural rubber, varnish, cotton, what?”
“I don't remember. I kind of remember a woven or maybe braided cover on some of the cords in the kitchen growing up, but I don't think I ever knew what they were made of.”
They walked out of the hatch and down the ramp, still talking about what they needed to make the base a self sufficient community, as soldiers and villagers passed them, loading the airship with their lives and possessions. In three hours, they were headed south and the village was empty.