by J. F. Krause
Zach and Kevin volunteered to set up the Fullerton searchlight and rounded up a few people to join their searchlight group. Kevin knew the university pretty well so he would take charge of getting everything running. Now that there were a few more people in our group, we could send a larger group to the University. We put the other searchlight down by the Costco a couple miles east of us. As people arrived there, they would be funneled up to the main group at the Nixon.
Just as Kevin and Zach were taking off with the Fullerton group, Lydia was coming in. She had made the sweep to the west in a police car they found at the same location where they found Kevin’s ambulance. Sure enough, Lydia had two small passengers, too. Kevin’s little boy, Chad, had just been taken to join Jerry and the other kids just down the hall so I had a few minutes to meet our newest fellow survivors. Like Chad, the little girls had clean faces, thanks to Lydia, but still had dirty clothes. She had fed them as soon as she found them running out of their house when they heard her siren as she drove slowly down the street not far from the 57 freeway. They were sisters, Lupe and Rosie, and were four and five. Lydia was smiling for the first time since I met her. She thanked me profusely for helping her find these little girls. We hugged each other and the little girls who were clearly dazed from their experiences of the last couple of days. Then she took them to the children’s playroom where Jerry and Chanelle had things well in hand with the kids we were finding.
I was down at the parking lot with the Library searchlight crew when the food crew came back. In addition to food and charcoal using grills, the original team of four had grown by two more, both young adult women. Not only did they bring food and grills, they also had tents, folding chairs, cots and sleeping bags with them. After we finished unloading their vans, I took several of the folding chairs down to the searchlight crew. Just because the world had changed didn’t mean we had to start sitting on the ground all the time.
We were speculating on how long it would take for the searchlight to work and whether we should leave it up all night or what when someone spotted a man with a rifle approaching from the street corner. He was clearly illuminated by the streetlight and looked exactly like some character from a western movie. Everyone in the area stopped talking immediately as they noticed him.
Realizing someone had to say something, I stood up and stepped toward him and introduced myself. “Hi! How’s it going? I’m Bobby. How can we help you?”
“You in charge here?”
“Nobody’s in charge. Have a seat if you like.” I said this as I sat down again feeling a little apprehensive by his slightly aggressive tone of voice.
“Don’t you think someone should be in charge?” he replied.
“Everybody in charge is dead. We’re doing okay so far.” I hoped this didn’t sound like I was trying to be clever. As he was still standing there, I decided I wasn’t doing a very good job of impressing the newcomer.
“Bobby’s in charge. Maybe you should put your gun down and have a seat like he asked.” This was from Lydia who was holding a gun I knew I’d never seen before. She looked serious.
The man with the gun jerked around at the sound of her voice. I would have too except she was in my line of vision. As I my vision scanned past her, I noticed several other people were holding different types of handguns, rifles and shotguns. I hadn’t seen any of these before. This is California; where did all the guns come from?
Keeping a firm hand on his gun, Rifleman slowly lowered himself to sit on the chair a few feet in front of me. Most of the original group of search lighters seemed to move just a little further from us leaving a couple of the chairs next to me empty. I could see preparations to start a couple of grills were begun up closer to the main entrance. A few people went inside too. Lydia was still just a few feet away from us along with a couple of others who kept their guns clearly in sight.
Rifleman, as I was calling him to myself, was several years older than me when I got a chance to look at him. When he took off his hat, and it was an actual cowboy hat, I could see that he was actually a good-looking guy who looked like an athlete. I was actually thinking he might be a model.
To my relief, he lowered his rifle and offered his hand for a handshake. “Name’s Marco Coletti. I didn’t mean to sound like a jackass just now. Things have been rough lately. Sorry about that.” So he was into understatement.
“Nothing to apologize for. We’re all dealing with what happened. By the way, I’m not the boss or even in charge, but that’s sort of how it looks right now. Where did you come from?”
“I’m actually from Pendleton, but just now I’m on leave at my wife’s parents’ house down by the 91 for a couple of days before this sh—stuff all came down. No one I know survived so I guess I’m at your service for now.”
I stood and called Lydia over to meet Marco. He stood and they shook hands making small talk as they tried to unruffle any feathers from their earlier encounter. Seeing another newcomer coming toward the searchlight, this time without a gun, I left them together with a request that Lydia get him squared away.
In a new twist, Ed the de facto leader of this searchlight crew introduced me as the “Boss”. Our newcomer was easily the oldest person alive in our survivors’ group. Her name was Jane and she was a loquacious woman who seemed to have dealt with her demons long before the world came apart. I quickly learned that she was a retired nurse, piano teacher, equestrian, mother of one, widow of three, and eighty-one. I liked her instantly and already knew what I wanted her to do, but first we went over to the food people and made introductions.
By now, this had become a really long day and I needed to get something to eat and then some sleep. The kids had been fed just as soon as the food had arrived and most were already asleep in what had become their room just to the right of the entrance. Anna and two of the forum women were looking in on them from time to time and had made sure they had blankets, sleeping bags, and a cold dinner. As I checked in on them Chanelle was reading to the ones who were still awake and Jerry was changing Baby Girl. She needed a name! Turning away from the door, I almost bumped into Charlie who was coming back from making a garbage run.
“Hey there Charlie. How are you holding up in here?”
Upon seeing me, Charlie actually broke out in a big smile. It warmed my heart after so much sadness. “I’m keeping busy, Mr. uh Bobby. Uh, do you mind if I still call you Mr. Caldwell? I’m kind of used to it?”
“Sure Charlie. That’s fine with me. What can we do for you guys?”
“I need a bath. And some of the little kids’ clothes smell like puke. Are we going to go back to your place? I know we’re going to stay here tonight, but we left the dogs at your place. Are we going to get the dogs? And Jerry and I need some clothes.”
“Yes, Charlie. We’re going back for the dogs. And you can take a shower when we get there. We’ll get you all some clean clothes tomorrow, too. I appreciate your help here. And I want you and Jerry to tell me what you need, and what all the kids need. We need each other right now.” I made a mental note to find out where and how they could get some clothes and get a bath or shower.
Seeing how Charlie reacted when we bumped into each other, I turned around and went into the kids’ room. I needed to thank Jerry and Chanelle for taking charge of the kids’ room. Thanks to them I had barely thought of the children for quite a while now. I didn’t want to forget them again. For the next half hour I visited with the kids. My presence brightened Jerry and Charlie up, and that set up a domino effect with the rest of the kids. We now had eight kids and that number was bound to increase tomorrow. We needed better childcare! We couldn’t keep them cooped up in this room all the time supervised by another couple of kids.
There was so much to do, and I was starting to really drag, but it was only 9 PM! Of course, before all this my bedtime was 10 and sleep had been a little ragged lately, but now was no time to fall apart. We needed to get a watch system in place, food storage set up, basic lines of communicati
ons set up, and that was just tonight before I would be able to rest.
California can be pretty warm in late January with weather often being nicer than in June. People were starting to pull on jackets if they had them as the temperature dropped to the fifties. Some of them were huddling up to the two grills.
Spotting Lydia and Marco still over by the searchlight, I joined them to talk about my list of concerns. I suggested we have a meeting at 9 the next morning right after breakfast. They both nodded so I pressed on with several of my concerns for tonight: the watch, breakfast duties, food storage, sanitation duties.
They were ahead of me on the watch list. Lydia had already found a couple of people to walk around the facility who would check in with Marco. Marco had also given them some very basic instructions on how to handle their weapons. It turned out that Lydia had just grabbed the gun from the police cruiser to make her initial introduction to Marco. While it looked impressive to me, Marco had seen through it immediately. It also brought home to him what he must look like as he came out of the shadows carrying a gun and looking like some kind of cowboy. Of course, he apologized again for causing a stir.
While Lydia had been instrumental in starting tonight’s watch, that wasn’t where her strengths were. Lydia was an organizer type like me; she just hadn’t thought that we needed to get started right now in order to survive. Now that we were started, she was right there with me as far as getting a plan going. A lot of people were, and that was nothing but good.
Lydia and I walked over to the searchlight group and Ed filled us in on what the plan was for the searchlights. The group of three men and Jane had decided that they would keep the searchlight going all night turning it off as daylight returned. Their logic was that it was comforting to our own group and that it might take some time for any survivors who saw it to get up the nerve to come and check it out. They requested the police cruiser run the siren now that the siren at Crestview had stopped. I hadn’t even noticed. I had to fight my desire for quiet and my reluctance to wake people up, but I knew they were right. If survivors didn’t come outside to check on the siren at night, they wouldn’t see the searchlight. Realizing they were waiting for my permission, I told them that was a great idea, but that I preferred that if we took it out for a ride, that there always be two people in it.
I was just about to ask about the three new faces sitting nearby when Jane motioned them over. She very politely introduced them to “the boss” and gave me a brief description. One was a young teenage girl, who had been in middle school and had ridden her brother’s bike. She looked like she would crumble any minute and Jane had been just the person she needed. The middle-aged man was a plumber. He had the same look of sadness and defeat that all of us had. The forty-something woman had been a grocery worker at one of the supermarkets nearby. They seemed to be waiting for me to put them to work so I sent the girl to Anna hoping she would know what to do for her. I turned the plumber over to Marco for the time being hoping that would work out, and I took the woman over to the food area. As she walked with Lydia and me over to the warmth of the grills, I told her we would need to come up with a plan to handle keeping us properly fed over the next few days and beyond and that her knowledge and advice would be very welcome as we worked that out.
Leaving her with the cooks, Lydia and I went inside once again. The researchers were going strong in the room where the regular office of the library had been. Meanwhile, Todd and one of the forum people were across the room working on a pair of laptops. The research team consisted of two women and one man all on laptops as well. They were printing their information on one of resident library printers, and Anna and another woman were compiling it into some sort of meaningful organization. According to Anna, this was in case the Internet went down. Not only had they already gathered most of the information requested, they had moved way beyond to actually learning about a wide variety of other topics that I hadn’t even thought of, topics such as possible relocation sites, motor home centers, two-way radio systems, ultra-light planes, how biodiesel was made, and how to convert gasoline engines to biodiesel. When I asked how they took that particular turn of research, I learned that gasoline spoils after a few months. So now, in addition to electricity running out, we have to worry about gasoline going bad. It was a huge relief to realize that people were taking ownership of their own survival. I was very uncomfortable with this whole boss thing.
Anna gave a quick rundown on the 911 group. She now had three people over there and, after they found the information on the set up, they were manning the phones. So far they had had four separate calls. She had sent a police car to pick two of the callers up since they had been non-drivers. This had taken only a few hours.
After a brief chat with Anna’s group, I stepped over to Todd who was working with a young woman in communicating with members of different groups across the country. They had already temporarily lost a couple locals due to electricity going down so there was an air of urgency. Taking a moment, Todd told me there were several people driving to our location from just outside our area. San Diego had a group started near the zoo that was doing the same things we were doing. They now had two searchlights up as well as a couple of sirens to get attention. Their group was just a little larger than ours and they actually had a couple of police officers. Like us, they had survivors driving in from nearby areas. And like us, they were getting better organized by the hour and now had their own researchers. Todd told me that most other groups were getting organized the same way and that it was now known as Bobby’s Plan, a development that left me a little cold. They were grateful for all our advice in getting organized, especially the advice to get started immediately finding children. We didn’t have time to mourn. On top of everything, it wouldn’t be long before the dead bodies would make it impossible for most groups to stay where they were.
Of great concern, one of the out of state groups had actually encountered violence. Dallas had a sniper. No one had been killed, but they had had a couple of near misses. Fortunately for them, a lot of their members knew their way around guns. As for Dallas, they were planning to join with the Ft. Worth group once they found a healthier location. Todd was also in contact with a group in Atlanta. All over the place, people were starting to pull things together pretty well considering everyone’s challenges. I asked the Atlanta group if they would check on my family in Sandy Springs when they could spare the time and was gratified to learn they had already planned on putting a searchlight crew up there the next evening.
One piece of good news, at least for our immediate group, was that there were now searchlights up at UCLA, USC, Cal State Northridge, Cal State LA, and Cal State Long Beach, all LA area campuses as well as a couple of community colleges. These were put up by students and faculty who had found their way to Todd’s network of newsgroups. Several of the groups around the country had begun with survivors at colleges and universities because of the high concentrations of dormitories and student housing. There was even a tiny group at my mother’s alma mater in Tahlequah, Oklahoma.
USC was hoping to have their radio station up and broadcasting by sometime tomorrow, provided of course that they could figure it out. None of the survivors had any idea how a radio station worked. All told, there were likely to be several radio stations across the country coming on line before too much longer if we could figure things out. We weren’t alone, but no one had heard any word from the government, so by now, no one was expecting any help except from ourselves. To a group, they were all thankful that someone had gotten them to see the urgency of doing something right now even though most of us had to pull ourselves back from the edge of despair in order to do anything at all. Our group was beginning to feel hopeful. Knowing that someone was checking on my family, I suggested to Todd that maybe all of us could check on relatives out here for people in other sites. After all, there seemed to be a genetic link to survivors. I also proposed that tomorrow we could begin taking a survey of our members not just for n
ames, but also for occupations, skills, hobbies, interests, prescription and medical needs, etc. We could share some of that with other sites so friends and families might be able to make contact. Todd passed that along.
Thankfully, we weren’t the only idea people. One group suggested that hospitals be searched for newborns. Hearing that, I immediately turned to Lydia and said let’s go. But that wasn’t to be, at least for me. No one thought it would be a good idea for me to leave our camp right then, and it was decided that several different groups would divide up and check out several hospitals each.
As they took off, another youngster rode up on a bicycle. This time it was a boy of about the same age as our bicycle riding middle school girl. She was sleeping in a storeroom off the Library office along with a couple of others. After Jane brought him to me, I walked him to Anna who seemed quite happy to take him under her wing.
A moment later, Jane was calling me over to talk to Zach who had just arrived from Cal State Fullerton. The searchlight group there had grown into several people from the University and the surrounding area. They were going to stay in Fullerton for the night, if that was all right. By that I assumed they wanted my blessing or something so I said, “Sure. That’s a good idea. We are having a meeting tomorrow at 9 AM. I hope you guys can be here for that.” I saw no value in arguing that I wasn’t the boss since, at least right now, people seemed to need a boss. I figured I’d fix the boss thing at the 9 AM meeting.
My final stop on this round was the HAM radio men, Mike and Jeff. They were tucked away in the room just across from the central office. They were both in their sixties and had a lot to tell me. Mike excused himself from the radio discussion going on while Jeff continued talking to their HAM group. I know even less about HAM radios than I do about guns, and I told him so. Mike admitted that he started out about the same as me today, but that Jeff filled him in, and now he felt like a pro. Most of the people he was talking to were older than the ones on the computers and that just underlined the need for the HAM groups too. Several of the HAM radio groups had no proficient computer users yet and some of them were isolated individuals in small out of the way places. A couple of the larger groups had started out as one or two person operations but had actually grown into searchlight groups as well and now included internet users. Thankfully, one group was actually centered at a radio station in western South Dakota, and they had a real radio technician among their number. When they heard that some of the college radio stations were trying to start up, the technician offered to share her expertise if anyone wanted it. Of course they did! She was promptly connected to the growing network of nascent radio stations.