by J. F. Krause
Boy, did that bring on the questions. Jane and I fielded questions for the next ten minutes, but they boiled down to nothing other than astonishment that there were so many of us or so few of us depending on the previous expectation of the individuals making the comments. People were also surprised that we had so many skilled people showing up. In the end, none of the questions added anything material to her report.
“Enrique, can you fill us in on the defense team?”
“Yes, sir! We have a hundred and seventeen men and women who have accepted assignments to either guard duty or patrol duty. Guards carry guns and look after sirened vehicles, searchlight crews, the intake table, the ice cream trucks, and the supply teams. When they are on guard duty they also work on the crew they are assigned to protect. Patrols walk around the library, the senior center, and now the church. Every one of these people has received at least an hour of instruction on how to handle their weapon as well as how to use the radio equipment and how to respond to a threat. So far we have had to discharge our weapons only twice and that was to frighten a pack of dogs that are becoming increasingly more aggressive. People with little or no weapons experience have received more instruction than those who demonstrate some knowledge and skill. We haven’t met any hostile people yet, but one of the groups out of state reported they were having to deal with a sniper. Our main concern is what to do with all the dogs that are starting to get a taste for human flesh.”
There were a few questions: Why so many people on guard duty? Do we really need people walking around with guns? Where do I sign up? The questions and comments were all handled and we moved on.
“Ed, would you give your report on the searchlights?” It became obvious very soon that Ed wasn’t comfortable talking in front of large groups of people, and like me, had thought it would be just a small group of crew chiefs.
“Ok, uh well, we had uh seven searchlights active last night in uh Orange County and uh Riverside County.” It was painful, but he managed to get through it. We had added several searchlights and we now had 11 teams of four people each that would be working in the coming night, plus a sirened vehicle for each one to call attention. We were adding new people all the time, some of whom were already aware of our existence but had just not been able to come forward for a few days or so.
“Kevin, will you talk about the sirens and give the medical report?”
“Ok, first the sirens. Sorry if it is keeping anyone from sleeping, but we need it to get people to look around for us so they’ll see the searchlights. We have one for every searchlight and a few others as well. Right now we have five former private ambulances, five fire department ambulances, three fire engines which we plan to take with us to our retreat, and six police cars. We will probably be adding vehicles even after most of us leave the area.
As for medical information, including me, we have two registered nurses, one licensed vocational nurse, and one physician’s assistant. We also have a dental hygienist, a veterinarian, and a trained veterinarian assistant. Other groups in the area have addition medical personnel that will be joining us at the retreat area.
We also have 22 people who have been very helpful with the sanitation needs. Several children have also helped us pick up trash around the library.”
There were several questions and even a registered nurse who volunteered her services. How had we missed her?
“Anna? Can you tell us about your work?”
“Thank you, Bobby. Several of us have been researching several survival topics on the internet. I won’t go into all the details, but we have quite a few of us looking up topics ranging from how to plan and plant a garden to how do we make bio-fuel to where to find solar panels.
We’ve got a lot of information printed out for when the internet goes down. Unfortunately, even though we may have electrical power, if enough of the internet loses power, we may lose it all.
We’ve also been able to get two different 911 call centers up and running. People have been calling and we’ve been able to pick them up or tell them how to find us. And, the other groups in Los Angeles have also started up 911 call centers.” People had stopped asking so many questions as the reports continued.
“Ms. M, would you give your report now?”
“I’m Janet Mrozinski. I work with keeping the kids safe and happy during the day. Soon we’ll be able to set up a k-12 school, but right now we provide day care. All of our children have been given a guardian, but we will continue needing people to step up and take one or two under your wing. The day care will continue both before and after school so that their guardians can rest easy while they are doing their part to help every one survive. At the moment we have three current teachers, one former teacher, one retired teacher, two former classroom aides and one high school volunteer working on a regular basis, and several of you have come in for a few hours to help out. Every thing is appreciated. The older children also help out with everything we do. Right now we have two infants and several toddlers in addition to our school age children.”
Ms. M got the usual questions, including four teachers disclosing their existence. Two were high school teachers, one was a community college teacher, and one had been an adult vocational school teacher. I needed to check with Jane to make sure we were asking the right intake questions in order to identify everyone properly.
I decided to take a moment and just ask the group what jobs they had done in the past. We had an intake form but a lot of our survivors hadn’t filled out all the questions. It turned out it was the little note at the top that I had insisted on adding that said, ‘This form is voluntary’ that had caused the problem. They gave us their names and that was it. Jane then followed up with some quick questions, but not everyone added something. Many of the survivors were so traumatized when they arrived that they weren’t in the mood to answer questions about themselves so they didn’t.
In the next few minutes we were able to add a few more job categories to our list of survivor talents.
The meeting was getting long and I doubted we would be able to shorten it, and I didn’t see any signs of impatience among the adults, but the children were showing the stress of sitting too long. I called a 10 minute break so Ms. M could get the kids into the reception hall under the sanctuary. It was a big room with a kitchen on one end and restrooms on the other, including showers. It was already prepped so the kids and their caretakers left the main group to occupy the reception hall. I promised we would make arrangements for them when we had a vote on the retreat location.
Todd was up next and gave us a good rundown of what he knew was happening across the country. Most areas were doing what we were doing and there were survivor groups in all of the major cities. Almost everyone was having to find a retreat due to the masses of unburied dead. Most areas weren’t as warm as California in January, so the cold was helping them a bit, but they still needed to retreat before spring.
We were very concerned about Indianapolis. The former state legislator had declared himself to be the emergency leader of the state and closed all borders. Of course, that’s impossible when the numbers are as small as ours are, but people had been detained for trying to leave. He initially had them rounded up and kept in the jail downtown, but when your numbers are as small as we now had, several of these still managed to escape and had alerted everyone as to what was happening there. There were reports that people had been killed at the onset of his takeover, but that hadn’t been confirmed yet. It was a problem to pay attention to.
We had also had other survivors running into some pretty twisted minds who had decided that they had a license to kill, rape, and maim. Our fear was that for every story told by someone who escaped, there were victims who couldn’t escape without help that may not be coming. It just underscored that there were still bad people out there. We had to be prepared.
From the information we were getting from Todd, we estimated there might be several thousand survivors across North America. We hoped there were
going to be a few thousand here in California.
Mike and Jeff joined Todd for a couple of minutes to talk about the HAM operation. Several areas of the country had already lost the internet completely due to power outages affecting service providers. This was expected and we would have to come up with a plan for restoring the internet when it went down completely, but we had too much on our plates for the time being just getting organized. The HAMs operated off of a simple generator and were much more resilient in a loss of power.
Finally, Todd held up a radio and turned it on. We heard music, and then USC started announcing where different survivor locations were. The whole church erupted in cheers, hugs, tears, and applause! I was as surprised as everyone else. Todd knew when he got up to speak that USC was broadcasting. He told us that they didn’t have to worry about the FCC so the output was way higher than before and they would soon be expanding to different bands and even a couple more languages. Better yet, ours was only one of several radio stations. Spearfish, South Dakota had been operating for a couple of days and had been the first station back in operation. Thanks to the radio tech there, we were able to get ours up and running at USC as well as several others, some of which had beaten us by a few hours. We expected half a dozen more over the next couple of days. With the radios, we were now able to reach out to virtually everyone in the US, Canada, and northern Mexico. All people needed was a battery-operated radio.
Finally, we were ready to talk about the move to the retreat. First, though, we had to agree to where we wanted to make the retreat. That task fell to Lydia. Lydia was going to give Marco’s defense report as well, with a bit of help from Enrique.
“Lydia, would you talk to us about the retreat plans?” Lydia’s report was the most important of the day, but she was calm and stately as she stood behind the lectern. I couldn’t help but remember that four days ago, I had been in a fifth grade classroom and Lydia had been helping people retire on Social Security.
“Several of us have met in small groups to discuss moving to someplace we are calling a retreat. We feel that, increasingly, we need to relocate to a healthier environment. We are literally surrounded by dead bodies. The odor is becoming almost intolerable, and we are afraid we may soon be dealing with illnesses that were almost unknown to us before the great sickness.
Therefore, we looked for places that could provide for our needs in the coming years as we learn to live with fewer modern conveniences. We looked for access to medical facilities, advanced learning facilities, and farms and farming equipment. We also wanted an existing airfield, access to fresh water, and fairly close proximity to an ocean port or harbor. In addition, it needed to be in the southern half of the state if possible since bay area groups will need to be looking for similar sites farther north.
The site that seems to be the best suited for us is San Luis Obispo. It fits all the criteria, including a small harbor not far away at Morro Bay.”
I decided to throw in some of my thoughts as well. “I also want to stress that no one will be forced to do anything. You can stay here or leave for another site if that is what you want to do rather than go to SLO. We already know that small groups are planning to stay at or near San Pedro as well as in Oxnard. No matter what decision you make, you can always change your mind and relocate later. We will probably be setting up a few other groups at other locations as soon as we become adjusted to the new reality. We still don’t know how many people survived.” Having said what I wanted to say, I sat down and left it to Lydia.
“Last night, Marco Coletti went up to SLO to talk to the small group of survivors there, and they are very welcoming. We will park our motor homes at the fairgrounds where they have water, shower facilities, electrical hookups, and additional adjacent campgrounds.
We will begin caravanning to SLO early tomorrow morning. We are sending a group of guarded motor homes every hour until 12 PM. We’ll also do that again on Sunday morning driving over the same route each time. We’ll have plenty of designated gas stations for everyone to fill up along the way, and if people have trouble and need to pull over, someone will stay with them as they wait for the next caravan to come along. As we travel, we will be adding motor homes from other groups. Every group has our route to SLO and will join us where it makes the most sense. Sunday will include several motor homes from the Palm Springs area, and also a few from towns between here and there. They will begin arriving here Saturday afternoon. Most motor homes will have one or two people, but a few will have several people who have decided they want to share a motor home. Children will accompany their guardians.”
They seemed pretty calm while we were explaining all of this but even though I was sure they knew we were heading off for SLO, they had lots of questions. What if they didn’t want to leave the Library? What if they move and want to come back? What if they don’t like their assigned motor home? What if they want to go somewhere else?
We answered all the questions and then a second time, but people were very nervous. I understood why, but I couldn’t make their decisions for them.
Finally I said, “I am leaving tomorrow with Jerry and Charlie and our dog, Nelda. When I get to San Luis Obispo, I’ll do whatever I need to do for the good of the group. I don’t know what will happen, but I’ve a pretty good idea we are going to be looking at many of the same problems as here, but not as bad. There, we can set up farms and grow our own food. In San Luis Obispo, we’ll have a water supply to tap into when we need to.
Here, we can farm, but not as easily. And there are millions of bodies to deal with here, but there we will only have thousands. It’ll be bad both places, but there it will be manageable. I don’t think that will be true here. I want to say again that you have to make up your own minds about what to do. I hope you’ll come to SLO because there is strength in numbers. But whatever you decide, I hope you will still be part of a group, wherever you are.”
Even though I didn’t want to say it I did, “I’ll stay here and answer questions, but I’d like everyone who plans to leave soon to go over to the senior center and get checked out on a motor home. Lamont and some of the other people will be there to give you some assistance in how to drive one. It’ll take a couple of hours for many of you, but we have lots of people who know their way around a motor home, and they’ll help you get going. If you’ve made up your mind, please go on about your business. This meeting is adjourned, but I’ll be here to answer questions.”
There was a lot I wanted to say, but the meeting had already gone on for over 90 minutes, and I was ready to be anywhere but there. Nevertheless, there are always a few. So, as almost everyone left the sanctuary, I was left with about 20 people who already knew all the answers before we even began thanks to the superfine grapevine we had already established for ourselves. I don’t believe keeping secrets is a good idea, so the grapevine wasn’t a problem. The problem was I wanted to learn how to drive a motor home.
Twenty minutes of ‘I can’t tell you what to do, but I’m doing this’ sort of thing, and I was finished. Most of them actually followed me out to where the motor homes were parked. Once there, Lydia took my arm and led me to where a big gray and blue bus shaped motor home was parked with my name on it. Really, it had my name on it!
Lydia showed me around the inside for a few minutes and I couldn’t believe how opulent it was. She said it came from one of the big houses on the hillside above the 91. In addition to base size, it was expandable. I had just told everyone not to think of the motor home as their forever home, and that it would probably be fairly temporary as we developed a plan for our future in SLO. But this was really nice and really big and would make a great place to live for a while, maybe a long while. Mine wasn’t the biggest either. When you have everything to choose from, the sky’s the limit.
Before long, Kevin came up and announced he was my designated instructor. He didn’t waste time on its attributes; he jumped right into how to start it up and shut it down. We covered braking, turning, using the cam
eras, and the more complicated parts of getting used to driving something that big. Then it was my turn to drive around the neighborhood and get a feel for what I would be driving for five hours tomorrow.
I was going to be in the 9 AM group tomorrow. My group was going to follow the 7AM group and the 8 AM groups. The first group would have several guards and would drop off a couple of guards at each of the three gas station locations along the way. Each of the gas locations had at least three or more stations in very close proximity that would be utilized. In case the electricity went out during the move, generators were being dropped off at each of the gas stations. In preparation for the move, several people had already made the trip to SLO, and much of the set up work there was already done or underway. The groups had decided to integrate the parking places so all the different community groups would coalesce with each other more easily once we arrived there. We decided that having a couple thousand people who were living in little enclaves of their survivor buddies should be avoided if possible. No one was very far from their newly minted best friends in any event, and most of them would be right next to at least someone from their home group, but they wouldn’t be right next to all of them. The leaders of each of the different groups were spread out as well. I wasn’t part of that decision, but I knew about it and was okay with it. Like I said earlier, I’m not a micromanager, but if I truly disagree, I’ll say something.
By the time I left the motor home area, I was pretty jazzed. It seemed that everything was coming together, and I hoped there weren’t a lot of glitches in our plan for transition.