2nd Earth 2: Emplacement

by Edward Vought

  He is surprised to say the least, so are his friends, but they all say they quit. They really didn’t mean any harm to our friends they just didn’t want them getting back to the settlement. Our friends have surrounded them by this time, so they come out of the building we can see, plus the one next door to it. We are more than a little surprised to walk up and see the same people that left our settlement only a few months ago. Bob and his group come out, along with thirty-seven new members for our family. We tell Karl and his group that they are free to go. They hesitate then ask if there is any way they can return to the group. They say they realize how foolish they have been, and hope that we will give them one more chance. We have to have a meeting and we even call back to the settlement to see how the others feel about it.

  We wind up taking them back with some pretty strict stipulations. When that is all settled, I can look for the stores that I can find the long list of items that I was asked to get. Everyone gets into the spirit and we spend at least a good hour combing the stores in the city for treasures. We can finally get underway back home. We get home just in time to get ready for our Christmas Eve celebration. Karl and his group say they will probably not be welcome after all they have done, but we insist that they have done nothing any dumber than most of us. Only two out of the thirty-seven remember what Christmas is and they had forgotten about it, but that doesn’t stop them from enjoying the friendship and the great food. We even have a Christmas movie to show after we all eat.

  Everyone thanks Teddy and the others for finding this great church building. When we get home he tells us that he can’t take credit for finding the building. He says he found that the same way we found out our friends were in trouble, only that time his grandparents came to him in a dream and showed him where to look. He says it was funny, because he was walking down that road with all the grandparents and when they showed him the trail back to the church, Grammas Anne and Diane told our grampa’s that if they went inside the church, it would probably fall down. I can remember Ma Horton telling Gunny that all the time. It looks like they are taking care of me and my family even after they are gone.

  We can finally go to bed and get at least a little sleep before Christmas morning gets here. It’s funny how quickly the children have become accustomed to getting presents, but they also enjoy hearing the true story of Christmas. I have a great dream where I am talking to Ma and Gunny, as well as my real parents. They all tell me how proud they are of the way I handled that situation yesterday and for giving those people a second chance. To be honest I wasn’t sure how Gunny would react to that. He seems to know what I am thinking, because he tells me that he has a different perspective on life, now that he is where he is. He even says he wishes he had been a little more forgiving when he had the chance. The dream seems to go all night and I am really enjoying talking to everybody when I feel my eyelids being pulled open, and I am looking into Timmy’s eyes as he tells mommy that daddy is awake now. He tells her that he didn’t even poke me in the eye this time.

  It’s great sitting here watching and listening to the children open their presents. I wouldn’t change this moment for anything in this, or even the world I left behind. I am always telling our family that as far as I am concerned, my life didn’t begin until that day Tim and I found our way into this world. We had a discussion last evening, and decided that the new farm we found may be a good place for our prodigals to settle. Of course we will help them every way we can, and they are as much a part of our family as anyone, but they may enjoy being off by themselves, at least a little. My children drew me some really beautiful pictures for Christmas that will definitely have a place of honor in our home. I think I will start breakfast and give the girls a break this morning. I found out last evening that by next year at this time our family will be at least two members larger. Dayna and Robin are both expecting, naturally I had to hear from Sara about having too much time on my hands, if I can accomplish that.

  We have some really great breakfast sausage that we put maple flavoring in. I think I will fix some of that and some pancakes to go with it. We had a great maple syrup crop this year. Well I should have known that if I start cooking something that smells this good, all of my freeloader family will come over looking for breakfast. Maybe if I lock the door before they get here I can keep them out. Too late, Dayna let her sisters in with those bum husbands of theirs, so I guess I will see you later.

  PART III

  1

  The New Year has begun, and with it many new challenges for our little community. Karl’s group is now settled on the small farm, and seems to be very happy about it. A couple more of the people from Rochester wanted to join them, which is fine with all of us. So far they have worked very hard to make their farm to be as nice as all the others. Of course they get all the help they need from the rest of us. They worked well with us before their rebellion, so they all have the skills it takes to run a farm. So far they kind of keep to themselves when we have a multi group function like the party we had on New Year’s Eve, but we feel that may be at least in part due to embarrassment for leaving the way they did.

  We have had a couple of council and group planning meetings since last we visited. With the new people we have, especially Mike and Morgan, there are some very interesting suggestions for things we could do to perhaps make our lives a little better. Apparently Morgan was raised in a home where her mother loved to make quilts, knitted, and crocheted all the time. Her parents passed away when she was sixteen, but she still remembers how much she enjoyed working with those skills. All the beautiful quilts and handmade blankets and other items we have found in the homes we have settled in, have reminded her of those memories. In the attics of all the homes we found the frames that the people who lived here before, used for making quilts, along with dozens of magazines and books showing different patterns and styles of beautiful quilts.

  We had a quick course on quilting materials, so now we are all experts on what we need to look for, so that our wives and the other women in the families can make quilts. There is quite a bit of supplies in the attics of the homes we live in, but there are also fabric stores in town that are full of all kinds of great material and the other necessities for making quilts and other great things. We have also been instructed to bring back all the yarn and materials for crocheting and for doing needle point. Needless to say the women and young girls are going to have plenty to keep them busy during the winter months. I know the girls in our family are always saying that they wished they had something other than reading to do in the evenings, now they do.

  Jenna remembered everything her mother taught her, and even Sara remembers what she was taught, although she enjoyed working with her father more. Some of the women that grew up in this world even remember how to knit, and the skills are coming back to them as they get more experience. The women in our family are making a quilt out of pieces cut from the clothing they were all wearing when we came to the farm. I thought they had burned those clothes, but Dayna, Melissa, and Robin have kept all the clothes that we and the children wore, as a reminder of how they lived before. Becky still has the clothing that she and her children wore as well, so they are all making quilts to remember the bad times, as they refer to the time before we came here. I remember Ma Horton working on quilts when I was younger. She loved to get together with some of the other women on base and make quilts for the women having babies.

  If making the ladies happy is the main purpose for doing this project then this is one of the most successful things we have done since coming here. All the girls talk about how much fun they are having all the time. They have even tried to teach me and the other men how to knit. I think that’s a lost cause, but the younger men like Teddy, Steve, and Jerry are actually taking to knitting quite well. I think that’s because Nickie, and the other young ladies their age, told them they thought that it is quite masculine for a man to know how to knit and sew. I really tried, but my hands are just not made for those needles. It did b
ring a lot of laughter and good natured kidding in our home for the week I tried it.

  Frank, Tom, Eric, and some of the other men who are in charge of our crops, asked if we could find some different kinds of seeds to plant this year. I think Morgan and Mike are behind at least one crop they want to try. Morgan loves the jams and jellies we make, but she is always saying how much better it would be if we had some peanut butter to go on the bread with it. We have found some peanut butter in cans that has been okay to eat, but there is not very much of it and we could use a lot more. The guys came to us asking if we could look for some peanut seeds, so we could grow them and make our own peanut butter. We promised to look next time we go to any stores that might have carried those before. We would all love to be able to make our own peanut butter.

  It is getting toward the end of January and the weather has been considerably colder this year than the last two winters. One evening Tim and Charity are talking to some friends on the short wave, when a group that they have never spoken to comes on. They say they are in southern Georgia, one of their group can read. They also say that they are running out of food, and are hoping someone might be able to help them. According to them, there are twenty-six people in their group now. They have heard us and other groups talking on the radio about how we banded together for safety, so they did that as well. Their group is mostly women and children as well; they have many small children and are afraid to try to walk any great distances.

  This sounds like it is right up Bob, Trevor, and Blake’s alley. After what happened last time they went out, we decided to send a couple of better trained fighting men with them next time. Mike, Teddy, and I decide we will go with them this time. Naturally Gary and Sara, along with Jenna and James, want to go to see how that part of the world fared the war. It only takes us a day to get ready then we head for the location where they said they are. We figure since we are going through peanut country, we should look to see if we can find some seed. See we have more than one agenda for coming down here. Naturally the people are more important than the peanuts, but there is no reason why we can’t accomplish both. We stop at a couple of farm stores on the way down and find that there is plenty of seed to be found, so we plan to pick it up on the way back, along with some other items we would really like to have.

  We stop at an outdoor sports store to grab a bunch of cold weather clothes for the people we are picking up. One of the things they mentioned is that they have been unable to find enough warm clothes this winter. Apparently it is colder than usual down here as well. We all know it feels it to us; the thermometer has not risen above the freezing mark since New Year’s Day. Usually we get a couple days in the forties and maybe even the low fifties, but not this month. We have to move several cars out of the way on the roads down, so the trip takes a little longer than we were hoping for. We get there on the morning of the third day out. The people are very happy to see us, and they are in exactly the condition they described. We did not bring a bus with us to save gas, so we have to find one and get it running.

  Gary and Sara, along with James and Jenna, take care of that small detail, and we are ready to head back home the next morning. We radio home the night before we leave and find out they have received a call from a group about a day’s drive farther south in Florida. We send Bob, Trevor, and Blake along with their wives, back with the new group and the rest of us head for Florida. The roads down here are much worse than we have seen anywhere, except right along the coast of the Carolinas. That’s probably because of the hurricanes and tropical storms that hit this area regularly. For the first time since we have been traveling around, we have to find our way around the route we have laid out, because a bridge that crosses a river has fallen down. We have to backtrack several miles, but we do find a bridge that we can cross on that is still solid.

  James and Jenna and Morgan and Mike are fascinated by what we are finding. Personally I would rather be home with my family, but we do not want to leave anyone out here alone, if we can do anything about it. We get to the city where the people said they are staying, and we can’t find them. It is kind of late and is just about dark so we decide to find a place to spend the night. We have done a considerable amount of traveling since coming south and have never really had anyone try to steal our vehicles until tonight. We never sleep without posting a guard to make sure our vehicles are here in the morning. Tonight James and Jenna are taking their two hour slot when they come over and tell me that they hear someone or something around the truck and small bus we are driving. I am up instantly heading for the door to check out the situation. Teddy is right beside me before I go five steps, so I ask him to cover me from the door while I check it out.

  I slip out a side door and start toward the vehicles, which are parked in front. I am wearing night vision glasses that we found at one of the bases we have visited, so I have a pretty good view of the surrounding area. When I get near the bus I can hear voices talking low. It’s obvious from the conversation that they are not sure what they are supposed to do to steal the bus. The voices are whispering, but I can still tell they are female. I work my way up beside the door that one of them is standing at, the other one is in the cab of the truck. I take off my night vision glasses then reach up and tap the person on my side of the truck. I am not at all ready for what happens next.

  The young lady that I tap jumps out of the truck onto me and starts punching, kicking, biting, scratching, and if I had enough hair, I’m sure she would be pulling that as well. Now I know what Gunny meant when he said someone fought like a bag full of bobcats. It’s definitely a woman or at least a well developed young lady. It’s all I can do to finally get a hold of her hands and keep her from punching me anymore. She is still kicking and trying to bite my hands, when Sara and the others come out to see what is going on. The other young lady is climbing out the other door, but Jenna talks to her and she at least doesn’t attack anybody. Sara and Morgan are talking to the armload of dynamite that I am trying to hold, and she finally settles down enough for me to feel safe letting her arms go.

  Both of us are pretty much winded. Sara tells me she is going to tell Dayna, Robin, Melissa, and Becky that I am trying to assault young girls. When I can finally say something, I tell her it was the other way around. We invite the two young ladies into the building we are staying in to get out of the cold, while we sort out what kind of mess we have here. They are both wearing one of the coats that we brought down with us from the outdoor store up in Georgia. Apparently they had more time in the truck and bus than we thought. Inside we can turn on a lantern and see that our desperate criminals are a pair of young ladies around sixteen or seventeen, I would guess. They are definitely more afraid of us than we are of them. The one that I was trying to talk to asks us what we are going to do to them. Sara answers that we are not planning to do anything to them.

  “We came down here because we received a message that a group of people needed some help. We have a settlement up in Virginia and we are always looking for anyone that would like to join us. We live on farms and are pretty much self-sufficient; we grow our own food and make most of what we need to survive. Our homes have electric lights and heat so we can stay warm in the winter. We have cows to give us milk, chickens for eggs and food and we even have some horses that our young people, like both of you, like to ride.”

  The same young lady who has done all the talking so far, tells us that she doesn’t believe it.

  “Nobody does anything for anyone unless they are looking for something in return. I bet if we go with you we will be used for sex then thrown away when you are tired of us.”

  Jenna tells them that she doesn’t blame them for feeling like that. We have met some people who would do exactly like she says. All we can do is assure them that we are not that way. Teddy tells them that we would never treat anyone like that. He explains that he is my son and how that all came to be. It looks like they are starting to at least believe what we are telling them. I apologize for scaring
her so badly, and ask them if they are part of the group that contacted our group. The young lady, who hasn’t spoken yet, says that they are. They are not sure whether or not to believe us, because the people they talked to on the radio sounded different than we do. I tell them that’s because we were already in Georgia when they called, but we know who they talked to, and if they would like we can radio them back, and they can find out that we are who we say we are.

  Sara, Jenna, and Morgan agree to go with them while they contact Tim and the others back home. They are only gone a little over fifteen minutes, when they come back with the rest of their group. There are ten people, all women and children, in this group. The leader is not much older than the two young ladies we already met. Her name is Kayla. The two girls we met are Lindsay and Hope. They say that they always have to run to get away from men who would capture them and take them away. They tell us that they lost four women just yesterday, to some men who come from the east. Lindsay, the young lady that I was wrestling with, says they took her once, but she was able to escape before they could do anything to her. We ask if she remembers where the men live, so that we can go after the others.

  She leads us to a small town about ten miles away. We can see smoke rising from a building near the center of town. I take my rifle and look for high ground near where we see the smoke. What I don’t know is, as soon as I leave, the women tell the others that the men have never shown them any guns. Armed with this information, Gary, James, Mike, and Teddy decide to see exactly what we are up against, which violates every rule we have ever discussed. Anyway they sneak up on the people in the building, and look into the windows on either side. They can see the four women, but they don’t look like they are in any danger. They are tied to some chairs, but they are fully dressed, and even have blankets wrapped around their shoulders, to help keep them warm. There are four men in the room that appear to be cooking something over a grill that is just outside the back door. The guys decide to go in and see if they can take them without bloodshed.