“Could be. There are some men on foot coming to relieve you. Get to a secure location and wait for their arrival. Then confirm the area is clear.”
Sergeant Brown and the Yellowstone militia discovered no other raiders, not even hints that there might have been more. If this was a lone individual, he was dead now, the threat gone. As a scout for others, his failure to return might serve as a deterrent. It would have been beneficial to take him alive for questioning, but with all they’d done, immediate engagement remained the rule. It was shoot first and ask questions later, should one survive long enough to be interrogated.
* * *
Our visitor also provided an update as to what was happening around the world. Hurray! I do love getting news from abroad. I’m going to give a quick rundown as to what was previously referenced first. The United States of America is under the control of an elected civilian government and consists of Hawaii, numerous islands along both coasts, portions of the Caribbean, and a few distant ports. There are no permanent holdings anywhere on an actual continent. We are talking islands all the way. The Black Hills and Yellowstone are still considered autonomous zones. That meant I could continue doing whatever I wanted without interference.
Russia and Mongolia remain united with most of the people living in small villages throughout the Urals and Siberia. It gets very cold in Siberia, not much better in the Ural Mountains. They had my sympathy. Their government is more militaristic in nature with many of the commanders included in the upper leadership. They have civilians in charge as well, however, and nothing indicates any conflict between the two.
The United Kingdom and Switzerland are separate political entities, under civilian control. Even so, they are closely interlinked. The move to Ireland continues with the American military providing assistance in clearing the island. This also put the United States in a better position to try to figure out what was going on over there, a nice secondary benefit. Some Irish survivors were discovered who apparently do not like the idea of the English relocating, but they don’t seem to mind the Swiss. While I can understand their feelings due to the centuries of abuse heaped upon them by the English, there comes a point when you have to move on and work together. Besides, the English weren’t invading, weren’t there to enslave them. This was a matter of basic survival.
The Japanese reside on Okinawa and are maintaining ties with the United States. Ships travel back and forth from Hawaii on a regular basis moving food and supplies. Their government is symbolically led by the emperor and officially run by elected officials, but intelligence reports say the emperor is, in all reality, commanding the people. While this may not ever become official, he is firmly in control and supposedly doing a good job.
Finally, we have Israel. They continue to live in the coastal cities, all of which are walled off. They also hold Jerusalem’s Old City with many of the newer portions cleared of the dead. Masada is still there, rebuilt as close to the original design as possible, though with proper plumbing and electricity. Around the plateau upon which it sits is a trench with rolls of razor wire on the outside and a thick concrete wall on the inside. Being in the middle of the desert, just getting to this ancient fortress is hard. After all the work, it’s about as secure as it could ever be. Tanks are kept on site, and a runway has been built within the area protected by the trench. It is their southernmost military base.
As to new information, it turns out that China has a functioning government. Who would have guessed? Contact was made, and some ambassadors exchanged. The thing is that while the United States and other surviving nations managed to hang on from the start, albeit in a severely degraded manner, China collapsed. They lost all semblance of order, and the small bands of survivors common to much of the world at large were unable to unite or get organized. It took several years, but finally some businessmen set up a communications network. You would think it’d be the military, but it was ordinary business guys, primarily factory owners who specialized in manufacturing.
This group began pulling all the outlying communities together, bringing them to isolated, easily defensible locations in the mountains. Then the damn commies tried to reassert control. You know, calling them commies might not be accurate. Granted, they called themselves Communists, but they really weren’t, hadn’t been since Mao died. The nation did suffer from one party rule, no doubt about that, and there were many socialist programs. Still, the Chinese had been growing more and more capitalistic, striving to boost the economy and improve the financial wellbeing of the people. This was done slowly and with plenty of planning, but the days of a centrally managed economy were long dead.
The people had been taught to worship the original Communist government, but that never stuck – remember Tiananmen Square – and preferred it gone. When the old bureaucrats tried to resume control, what remained of the military was split evenly on both sides. However, the majority of the common people stood with the businessmen. There were some fights, a few assassinations, a brief period of open warfare, and a culmination when China nuked several of its own cities. I have no idea how that actually came about or if it were even true. I can see the Chinese lying in order to make it appear no outsider had the means to attack in this manner, but there’s no way to tell for certain. The men responsible, or assigned the blame, were rounded up and shot.
As it stands now, China is operating under an elected council with all political parties banned. As to this latter point, I fail to see how this will be enforced. It is really hard to prevent like-minded individuals from setting up organizations to help spread their viewpoints, but whatever works. They appear to be stabilizing, and while I don’t know how many are still alive, China should become a stable nation and will eventually contribute to ridding the world of the shamblers. On a side note, they no longer have a population problem, so the one child policy has been officially scrapped.
The second nation to emerge on the scene following the collapse isn’t nearly as advanced, cultured, or civilized. By this, I am referring to the favorite of brain dead progressives everywhere, the so-called religion of peace, Islam. And for any whiny ultra-left nincompoop who is still breathing and offended, I say read the fucking Quran (or Koran since they have the weirdest spelling variations when translated to English). Really, read it and see for yourself that all the terrorists who quote it when launching their attacks are actually doing what Allah requires of them. It’s the ones who say let’s live as good neighbors with non-Muslims who are going counter to their god’s will.
More specifically, we have the Caliphate. Created by survivors in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and throughout the Middle East, this new nation is defined by their religion. The boundaries are the whole world. Yes, they formally declared dominion over the entire planet and demanded all other nations immediately surrender and convert.
Once upon a time there were small minorities of Christians, Hindus, and a few other faiths in that region. These are apparently gone. While the Caliphate says they perished in the zombie apocalypse, I think they were killed so they couldn’t compete for limited resources. They were generally reviled by the Muslim majority before the change, so such an excuse could realistically lead to their extermination. It hadn’t taken much more for the Ottoman Turks to wipe out a couple million Armenians back around WWI.
It was also the Caliphate who started the nuclear war, and they have admitted to this with a great deal of pride. Unfortunately, there is also a great deal of confusion on the details, along with serious questions about whether or not the explosions in China were in any way related. Also, some of the launches did not work as intended and may have hit the wrong targets. It is likely there was some infighting as well, with various factions targeting political opponents instead of the infidels. The Caliphate does not appear to be well run.
America’s information regarding this new player remains limited, and what the island government has acquired is sketchy and unreliable at best. We don’t even know if there is an actual Caliph or not. You w
ould think one exists, since it is supposed to be the Caliphate, but for all anybody knows, the Muslims may have just announced its restoration leaving the details for later.
No one, and I do mean no one, has opened a dialogue with this group. The insistence on outright surrender and conversion, along with launching unprovoked nuclear attacks, put a damper on that. It would be remiss if I failed to point out that they offered an alternative to conversion. Those who refused to become Muslims would be allowed to keep their lives provided they accepted second class citizenship with next to no rights and an extra heavy tax burden. Again, this is straight out of the Quran, and the Caliphate’s message quoted the verses for easy reference. That was nice of them.
Following the nuclear detonations, the British seized all weapons previously controlled by France, having long known of their location. America helped with this too, primarily by providing logistical support and transportation. During this process a few random breathers were also located. All were taken to Ireland.
The Chinese arsenal is believed to be under their control, and they said they were recovering whatever North Korea had on hand. However, they might very well be like the Americans and Russians and lack the ability to physically retrieve every last warhead and missile. If that is the case, they seem to be monitoring, and the Caliphate or any independent parties should be detected before they can commit atomic robbery.
Israel still refuses to admit whether or not they have weapons, to everyone’s chagrin. Come on now, we are living through the zombie apocalypse. The old world order that made such statements politically and militarily beneficial no longer exist. They really should reconsider and just admit they have an extensive supply of nuclear warheads. I’m assuming, along with ninety nine percent of the people on Earth, that this is the case.
Nobody knows what is going on regarding India’s weapons.
Chapter VIII
The next few weeks passed quickly and with only a modicum of excitement. The soldiers who had been stationed in the Black Hills were transferred out, their families going with them. I realize I only glossed over this group previously, due to their roles being related to training and not fighting, but when I initially requested assistance from the government I specifically asked for such people. We already had plenty of fighters. Also, unlike Yellowstone, I wasn’t ready to hand off any real power or authority to an outsider. Our settlement had come a long way, and we had things running in a manner that was efficient and suited our temperament.
I would miss a few of the people. None were in my immediate circle of friends, but I did know several fairly well personally and had worked with all of them. Steph reserved our largest hall for the families so they could hold farewell dinners, and she had the community kitchen prepare a variety of special dishes.
Marcus continued to recover, as did Lizzy who would likely have already been up and running about had she not torn her stitches in a fit of rage. His downtime did not prevent the man from asking me repeatedly to speed up the timetable for dealing with The Brotherhood. Bear in mind that I hadn’t offered a timeline, nor did I intend to. The pressure was frustrating, to say the least.
“Had a long talk with April,” said Briana.
“Who’s that?”
We were walking along the top of the outer wall, the crenellated barrier that separated our valley from the remainder of the Black Hills. A great deal of work had gone into its construction, but it had never been needed. Considering the quality of our outer defenses, and our ability to move and quickly react, I doubted it ever would. If the wall did become the center of a battle, that would indicate we were pretty much screwed. The thing was fun to stroll across though, and children loved racing the length.
“A girlfriend of…”
“One of those who went to the lake with Marcus?” I finished.
“Yes, Tyler, and don’t be interrupting.” Briana thumped me on the shoulder.
“Sorry about that.”
“She is upset and angry and hurting, and April is going to start causing trouble if we don’t make some announcements about what we are going to do.”
“Housekeeping takes precedence,” I replied. “We get our outer defenses improved, let Renee and Lizzy finish redoing the militia and putting together a list of who can go on the strike, and take time to review the pictures in detail.”
The government over on the islands was taking photos every time a satellite passed overhead, and these were forwarded on to us for review, along with notes from their experts. Personally, I can’t tell too much from the things, but the military and intelligence guys have located dormitories, the armory, storehouses, individual homes, and determined the probable purpose of most other structures. They were really quite good, or they might be using fancy computer programs. I didn’t know, nor did it matter.
“Next time someone asks about it, show them one of the satellite photos and say we are using these to find the best way to move in and keep any more of us from getting killed.”
“That might help,” she agreed. “I just wish a few would complain to you instead.”
“You are way easier to approach than me.” This I accepted as one of those unalterable laws that define our universe. “They like you more. Sweetie, you have to face facts. You are a much nicer person. Cuter too.”
“I am definitely prettier than you, but it’s not like you aren’t a nice person.”
I waved that off. “Nice enough, but with me spending my time fighting, getting ready to fight, or out scavenging for food and hunting down zombies, I think some people get apprehensive about how I might react.”
She paused and leaned against one of the stone battlements. We had lookouts on the walls, but none were near us.
“Not that I ever, ever react badly to things.”
Briana snorted. “Yeah, right. I just wish we could blame it on Hawaii, say it’s them taking forever with the analysis or something.”
I slid an arm about her waist. “Go ahead and blame them. Doesn’t matter. Might even be good if it calms people down until after the Fourth of July. I don’t want to go running off before one of our holidays, not if we don’t have to.”
“Our official government would love getting the blame.”
“Who cares? They’re all the way over there. Besides, I’m still pissed they didn’t help more with the raiders, although I will admit, under protest, that their being worried about one of the nukes hitting Oahu or another island was valid, at the time.”
“Scrap the Fourth of July,” said Briana, “You aren’t leaving until after your birthday party. And no candles!”
“I will have candles on my cake,” I retorted, pinching her bottom. She squealed. “Forty of them in a big circle.”
“I do not want to be reminded of how old you are.”
I smiled. “No one cares anymore that I’m twice your age. Those days are way in the past. You are the only person who still gets upset at the thought. Time for you to get over it, Briana.”
Green eyes met mine.
“Fine. You can have your candles, but no signs or anything that says you’re turning forty.”
“Agreed. I’ll let Asher help me blow them out.”
Briana softened. “He’ll like that. You know, I think I’ll start telling those who ask or complain that we are looking at the second week in July, give or take. It’s vague enough that we have wiggle room, and close enough that they shouldn’t be too disappointed or thinking we’re ignoring the issue.”
“Works for me.”
* * *
The Fourth of July rolled around, and we had one of our big, community wide parties. There were games for the children, including sack races, obstacle courses, slip and slides, a bounce house we found in Rapid City, and lots of piñatas full of treats. For the adults, there was food and drink. While we brewed huge amounts of beer, mostly because fermentation helped purify the water, drunkenness was frowned on. That did not apply to today, however. We also had adult races with the most popular
being men having to push their lady friends the length of the valley and back in wheelchairs. Most never completed the six mile circuit, but that did nothing to lessen the entertainment value.
After the contests ended and before the fireworks, which were scavenged like everything else, the populace gathered at the base of the citadel for the naming of our town. There had been hundreds of nominations, literally hundreds. The crazy and nonsensical were discarded. Those that seemed appropriate or had an explanation attached were printed and posted around the town for everyone to see and evaluate.
A long line formed and people took turns dropping a single marble into the appropriate bucket. Those who couldn’t be present due to work schedules or whatever had the opportunity to cast their vote earlier. It was important to be fair. Each of the containers was covered with a piece of leather that had a small hole cut in it. That was to prevent people from guessing what the voting trend was when their turn came. In front of each was one of the final possible names.
“No dawdling,” ordered Briana.
The man blushed slightly and deposited his marble, moving aside. The last few were waiting for their turn.
“There was a lot of discussion as to who should count the votes,” I declared, as soon as everyone had finished. “I wanted to do it, but it seems there are those who doubt my impartiality. Some even said I could be bribed.”
“No!” shouted a few people.
“Wanna bet!” called back Lizzy. She was sitting off to the side, refilling water pistols for some of the smaller children.
“It takes a lot to bribe Jacob,” confirmed Briana, “sometimes as many as two or three blueberry pies.” She waved at Steph. “Blame her for any bizarre rules we might have.”
There were more laughs. The amount of alcohol consumed likely helped. I don’t think we were nearly as funny as we hoped.
“Due to all these baseless accusations, I have decided to let Mary do the counting. There is no one more objective in the world than a teenage girl.”
Surviving The Zombie Apocalypse (Book 3): Salvation Page 22