The Last Tribe

by Brad Manuel

  “He’s out of his league with our champ here.” Hank beamed about Rebecca. “Granite State represents.”

  “Oh my god, you’re such a dork.” Rebecca told him. “Represents? What are you talking about?”

  They pulled up to a gathering of people near the RV and large grill. The adults stood around the burning charcoal and wood. The RV generator was running. Hank assumed the kids were watching a movie or playing video games. Greg and Matt tossed a baseball in the yard.

  “What’s the word?” Hank asked as he approached the grill. “Burgers coming up soon?”

  Kelly offered her assessment. “We moved the moose into the wood room and shoveled ice and snow onto the ground in there. It will keep the meat the right temperature for a long time.” She had blood on her clothes, signs that she helped move the large slabs of meat. “It was like an episode of the Flintstones, moving those giant moose legs, but we got them moved, hacked off some meat, and Peter is cranking the grinder while Jamie forms patties. I bet they come up with some meat in a few minutes.”

  Hank nodded, “okay then. What’s the talk at the grill?”

  “I want to have a meeting after lunch.” Todd told him. “We should get together to discuss needs and chores. Maybe set up a schedule or chart. There are animals to feed, traps to tend, fishing to be done. We need to figure out a water solution, set up a school for the kids, find more supplies, stock the firewood bins. Let’s spend a few minutes, or even hours, coordinating. We have a lot of people and a lot of moving parts.’

  “Everyone okay with that?” Hank asked around the grill.

  “It’s the smart thing to do.” Ahmed replied. “I totally agree.”

  Bernie nodded, “we need to get the kids back to school, but we also need to make sure someone is finding food and cooking for us.” She took the conversation further. “We need to make bread every day, bread or rolls or some kind of food that can be used for lunches. We can’t expect to have a big cookout every lunch. We have water to find and boil or purify. At some point we will have to tend gardens, can fruits and vegetables, the list isn’t endless, but if we don’t get on top of it, well, we might end up like we did in New York, lost and very hungry.”

  Hank was surprised. He expected tension from the new group, but they yearned for order and direction. He was all for setting up daily chores, not assignments, but a list of ‘must get done’ for each day. It was their initial roadmap towards a society.

  “Okay then, sounds like a plan. Lunch and a meeting. Do we have a side dish?” Hank looked around.

  “Solange is making pasta salad in the RV. Orzo mixed with veggies and lemon dressing.” Melanie told him. “She’s watching the kids too.”

  “Is there anything for me to do other than stand here?” Hank, in constant motion for months, was uncomfortable ‘just standing around.’

  “Relax, it’s your turn to stand at the grill, make some conversation. Meet everyone. I’m Melanie.” The doctor stuck out her hand. “I don’t think we’ve spoken more than a few words.”

  “Are you a New Yorker?” Hank asked. He remembered her name was Melanie, and she looked after three of the kids.

  “No, I met up with the group in D.C., just outside the White House.”

  “Melanie, I’m Hank, I am John and Todd’s oldest brother. I rode over from Dayton, OH on a motorcycle last December, spent two months at a bed and breakfast in Vermont, true story, then arrived here on the snowmobiles parked by the cottage.”

  “You were in a bed and breakfast?” Melanie asked, shaking his hand. “It kind of makes your story seem less tough. If you say you road motorcycles, then snowmobiles, and leave out the B&B part, you will be cooler.”

  Rebecca snickered.

  “Well, I wasn’t trying to sound too tough, you just met me.” Hank admitted. “I could tell you about how I lived in a burned out house for a few months, avoiding government capture. That is pretty cool.”

  “Why would you do that?” Avery asked him.

  “Wait a second, I feel ganged up on.” Hank put up his hands to signal ‘enough.’

  “Really, why were you in a burned out house? Was that in Vermont?” Avery asked again.

  “Well, it seems kind of foolish now, since you all survived without moving into a hole, but, well I was worried about the government grabbing me for experiments or something nefarious. I had a friend that was snatched. I didn’t want it to happen to me. I hid in the ground for a few months. I waited for everyone to die.”

  Ahmed jumped into the conversation. “I had a coworker get nabbed. He went to the food handouts at the Metropolitan Museum. He got snatched for not being sick. A bunch of us were supposed to go on a raid and get him, but I was too scared. Everyone else had fevers, weren’t eating, they were dead people walking. I had my wife at home to care for, and I wasn’t sick. I believe you. Roundups were happening everywhere.”

  “Don’t encourage him.” Todd said. “Please just roll your eyes.”

  Bernie shook her head. “They came to the seminary after the blog post about me and how I wasn’t getting sick. They told me they needed people to derive a cure, maybe a vaccine. They asked me to turn people over to them.”

  “Oh my god, you didn’t do it, did you?” Kelly covered her mouth.

  “Does it look like I helped them?” Bernie responded. “I’d always shake my head when new people came into the seminary, lower my eyes to say ‘fever’ or ‘no appetite.’ They helped with supplies as long as I agreed to point them towards healthy people. The interesting thing? I was worried the officials would notice Ahmed and the children, you know, staying healthy, like me, day after day, but the clipboard holders died so rapidly I would get a new official every visit. They never had a memory of who was already at the seminary.”

  “Why didn’t you tell me?” Ahmed was stunned by her admission. He was with Bernie before the blog post. He had a reporter friend write the article.

  “Because you would have called someone, Ahmed, you know you would have. You were driven by a need to accomplish, a need to speak to someone in power. If I told you they were rounding up people, you would have called and probably gotten yourself taken. I accepted the risk alone.”

  Ahmed lowered his face. “You’re right, that’s exactly what I would have done. I can be a bit of a dumbass. Ask Rebecca.” Ahmed was aware of his reputation. Like all of the survivors, he worked on fixing his faults.

  “I didn’t say anything.” Rebecca replied.

  “I know.” Ahmed smiled at the girl. “I’m just saying you can back up my claim of being a dumbass, particularly when I question you about analytics.”

  Todd spoke. “Solange and I went to the Metropolitan. We took some of the art, but had to walk through hell to get it. It was a battle or a massacre or something in between. Horrible. Be thankful you made the right decision.”

  The door to the house opened and Jamie walked out with a platter of raw mooseburgers. “We ran the meat through the grinder three times. It’s tough stuff, but we should have eatable burgers. Is the grill ready?”

  “Yes!” was cheered in response.

  Jamie placed twenty burgers on the grill. Peter was grinding another ten.

  “We have to try and make cheese.” Matt noted, coming over from his game of catch.

  “I’ve made ricotta and mozzarella. It takes a lot of milk.” Todd told him. “I’m not sure it’s worth it. I mean, it’s worth it, but I’m not sure it’s worth the amount of milk we’d have to use. The kids need that milk.”

  “I need it for my coffee.” Ahmed added.

  “Amen.” Bernie agreed.

  There were no buns. Todd added the absence of buns to his list of comments for the meeting. If the group had a schedule, a plan each day, he would have made hamburger buns that morning.

  Solange emerged with her orzo salad and several cans of fruit cocktail. Plastic plates were distributed. There was silence as most of the people enjoyed their first fresh meat in over six months.

  �
��I forgot how great burgers are.” Avery broke the silence. “I was a vegan before the rapture. It’s been like four years since I’ve had a real burger from the grill. Oh my god is this delicious.”

  Hank suggested they make another round. “Did we even put a dent in that meat?” He asked Peter.

  “No sir. This is five pounds off a hundred pound leg. There’s a bone, but we used a tenth of the meat from just one of our four legs.”

  “Let’s cook more. I’ll work the grinder.” Hank followed Peter into the house and down to the basement.

  Jamie put the ten uncooked burgers on the grill.

  The children were done eating, but the adults were not. As Peter and Hank returned from the house with another 20 burger patties, Paul, John, and Emily pulled down the road in a lime green Hummer.

  The enormous SUV stopped behind the RV. “Are you kidding me?” John jumped out. “You had a cookout without us?” He watched Hank slap 20 burgers on the grill. “We went to a store to try and find supplies, and you party while we’re gone?”

  “Relax, these are for you, we’ve eaten. There is pasta salad and fruit salad right over there. The burgers should be done in a few minutes.” Hank waved off his brother.

  “How’d we do?” Todd asked his wife as she gave him a quick hug and kiss.

  “Big score. Bags upon bags of flour sealed in a storage vault free of rodents. Boxes of cake, cookie, and bread mixes too. We are set for a year.” She quickly pushed passed him and grabbed a plate. Emily piled the pasta salad into one of the plastic compartments. “I miss fresh fruit so much, but this will work.” She spooned some of the peaches and pears into a second compartment.

  “Hungry?” Todd asked her.

  “We were surrounded by pictures of bread, cakes, and cookies, but there was nothing to eat. Yeah, I’m hungry. Hurry up with the burgers!”

  Paul and John agreed with Emily, and piled the remaining side items on their plates. “You know.” Paul said through a mouth full of food. “They had a huge commercial pizza oven. I know you have a home sized one, but seeing the larger oven got me thinking. It makes sense to tackle larger baking projects from the oven at that wood-fired pizza restaurant downtown. They have a commercial sized pizza oven. It would be a pain to walk down there all the time, but for big bakes, like a Monday when we cook loaves for the week. Or if we decide to do a group pizza night, that oven is much larger.”

  Todd pulled out his note pad from his back pocket and scribbled what Paul said.

  “What is that? Are you a detective or a waiter?” Paul asked him through his mouth full of food.

  “If you’re a waiter, put me down for another burger. These are fantastic.” John told him.

  “We’re having a meeting after lunch. I’m making notes.”

  John tone changed. “What kind of meeting?”

  “I suggested the meeting, but the rest of the group agrees we need one. We need to set chore schedules, plan meals, assign larger and long term tasks. We need to hash out possible projects, discuss what Greg and Rebecca have already tried, what other people have tried when solving issues. We need to take stock of our supplies, food and intelligence.”

  “I agree.” Paul voiced through his constantly full mouth. “That’s a great idea. We’re not electing anyone or voting on anything, we’re just brain storming. I like it.” He forked the last bit of orzo into his mouth.

  “Alright, let’s do it. Five minutes? Do we have a fire inside?” John looked at the chimney. “Looks like it. What’s the plan with the kids?”

  “They can play in the house, sit in on the meeting, or watch TV in the RV. Anyone can participate.” Todd put the remaining burgers into a ziplock bag. “Hubba is going to eat well tonight.” He scanned the lunch area. It was clean. He motioned towards the front door. “Let’s move into the house and get started? I want to make sure we don’t take all afternoon.”

  The afternoon sun shone into the windows on the south side of the house, warming the living room. A crackling fire brought the temperature up to a comfortable 60. People could remove their coats.

  Todd placed legal pads of paper around the room with a few boxes of pens. Craig wandered over to his father, “do I have to be here or can I go play with J and J?”

  “It’s up to you. Matt, Greg, and I can handle it. Realize you will be placed on the food collection detail, or the ‘fishing squad,’ as we’ll call it.”

  “I’m cool with that.” Craig said, turning away from his father.

  “Really? Because if it’s raining, we still need to eat. If it’s cold outside, and you’re tired, we still need to eat. If it’s hot, and the bugs are biting, and you only have three fish and you’re tired of fishing, we still need to eat. This isn’t just a fun fishing trip with Uncle Hank. It will be a job, a responsibility.”

  “I know, well, I didn’t think of all of that, but I know. I’m good at fishing. It’s the best way for me to help.”

  “Okay, go play.” John grabbed his son by the arm. “Hey, can you be the adult out there? Keep things under control. Let us know if you need one of us to come out.” He let go of Craig’s arm.

  “You got it, Dad.” Craig grabbed his pullover from a pile of coats and ran towards the front door.

  “Alright, let’s start talking.” Todd said. “While Avery and I were downtown today, she came up with a fantastic idea. She said we should go to real estate offices and try to find a solar powered house.”

  People turned and looked at Avery, who raised her hand and waved ‘hi.’

  “Yeah, it was smart thinking, so smart that Greg and Rebecca tried it already.” There was additional muttering in the room. “I thought we could come together, I mean, we’re not a large group, and share some ideas. We have chores or daily tasks that need to be handled. We need to milk the goats, collect the eggs, feed the animals, clean cages. We need to fish most days, check traps, set traps, collect water, purify water. We need to cook meals and clean up after meals. If we want bread, we need to make bread, even plan for bread. We need to collect and distribute firewood. We will have to cut down trees and create firewood for next fall.”

  “Are we writing this down?” Peter asked, interrupting Todd. “Some of us are older, and can’t remember things off the top of our heads.”

  “Most of us.” Hank joked.

  “We can write on this wall.” Solange said, taking a black marker in hand, and writing down the tasks Todd mentioned as well as ones she knew to be necessary.

  “Thanks.” Todd said to her.

  Solange nodded back to him. “English is my second language. It makes sense for me to be the one to write the notes on the wall.”

  Todd waited for the laughter to subside before he lowered his voice. “This isn’t summer camp or boarding school or the army. I don’t expect to have a duties chart.” Todd heard snickers from his brothers. “Yeah, yeah, I said duties. Anyway, I don’t think we need a formal plan, but we need to make sure this stuff happens. There are 18 of us in the room right now. Everyone can contribute, even Cameron and Casey can collect eggs and feed the animals. I hope the first part of this meeting is used to formalize daily and weekly tasks. What I hope we can do as a second agenda item is brainstorm ways to do these chores more easily, and maybe consider projects that will make our lives better.”

  “If we knock these out quickly.” John began, “we need to discuss long term plans.”

  “Take a look at this list.” Solange said loudly. The chores were listed on the white wall. “What do we want to do with this list? Are we going to choose what we each do best? Are we allowed to pick what we enjoy doing, like Craig did with fishing? Are we going to assign particular tasks to people based on skills, regardless of desire?”

  “I enjoy teaching the kids. I can formally accept that position, if people don’t mind.” Emily volunteered. “I’m not versed in every topic, but I can read, write, and do arithmetic. People can float in and out to help me, but I can accept education responsibilities.”

&n
bsp; “Done.” Bernie said to her.

  “Yes, done. I can help when possible, but thank you.” Melanie told her friend.

  “If it’s okay with Tony, put us down for fishing. One of us will motivate each day to take a group.” Hank looked towards Antonio with his chin up in a ‘that okay?’ pose.

  “Yeah, I can do that. I can help with boats, cars, and engines too. I’m good with stuff like that, but I can fish too.”

  “Anyone want to accept the laundry?” Solange joked.

  “I can make sure it gets done, but I don’t know if I can do it all.” Jamie sat next to Peter. “I had a lot of kids and grandkids, and I usually air dried my clothes, but I had a washing machine.”

  “I think everyone will help.” Solange told her.

  “Ahmed and I will cook, or make sure someone else volunteers. I know Greg is a fantastic cook, as are many others, but if it’s okay with Ahmed, we will make sure a meal is prepared.” Todd commented.

  “I assume I will keep my managing director title.” Ahmed drew a laugh.

  “Matt and I will hunt and trap. Right?” Greg nodded to his brother.

  “Water is too big a project for one person, but I’ll try to set up a system.” John announced. “We have water, and we have ways to collect it or get it, it’s just a pain right now. I’ll work on making it easier, and make sure we don’t run out.”

  “I will do the same for firewood.” Solange said. “I cannot carry all the wood, but I will make sure we find it when we need it.”

  “It makes sense that I will care for the animals. I’m a vet. I’ll make sure the kids feed them, and we milk them.” Kelly said.

  “I’ll do that too. I mean, if it’s okay with you, I’d love to learn how to take care of them.” Avery asked the young woman.

  “Absolutely, I’d love the help, and to pass along knowledge. I paid a lot of money to learn how to care for a dozen chickens and goats.” Another laugh came from the group.

  Items were checked off the list Solange had on the wall.