Pandemic Reboot_Survivors

by J. F. Krause

  Despite the excitement at our motor home that evening over the band lessons, I managed to get the boys to sleep and to get to bed on time myself. I was so relieved and tired that I don’t remember getting in bed.

  Second Friday

  Morning was starting to have a routine about it. Even with Chad, I had no difficulty getting all of us to breakfast on time. After we made it to breakfast, getting off to school and work was a snap. I had a long talk with Irma while the kids all ate at the other end of the table with Cynthia.

  “Irma, do you have something to report to the council today?”

  “Yes, but this isn’t going to be easy. It’s a good thing you stressed to keep it simple. Some of my colleagues don’t realize that things are different now and that, at least for the time being, we have to concentrate on getting a good start. We worked on the rights list yesterday. That turned out to be a little intense, especially when it came to guns. Almost none of our legal group has a gun of our own. There was a lot of discussion about banning them altogether.”

  “There are at least a couple thousand guns for each and every one of us now, even the babies. How are we supposed to do that?” I asked.

  “Yeah, well you know lawyers. I reminded them about your comment about being pragmatic, and I borrowed a page from your book and asked them what they thought people who wanted to have guns would do if we banned them. Then I pointed out that the new community of gun bearers would have them, and our community of the walking gunless wouldn’t. That actually seemed to get through to them.”

  “So, did we get anything useful from them?” I pressed.

  “I think so. We got a basic rights list started, but we also referred back to your comment about protecting all of us from some of us, and some of us from all of us, and came up with a basic responsibilities list, too. They can have guns, but they have a responsibility to learn how to use them properly, that sort of thing. For most of the rights there are some responsibilities, religious freedom for all individuals and respect for the beliefs and non-beliefs of others. I think you might like it when it gets finished.” Irma and I had talked off and on about this over the last few days, and we were on the same page as far as I could tell.

  “Good, I gathered from Carl’s conversation at dinner that he wasn’t too happy about the lack of progress on the government side of things. I don’t think we’ve had enough time to digest what our strengths and weaknesses are yet. Whatever we come up with will have to be flexible enough to change as we adjust to our current realities.”

  “We barely touched on the subject, but it became obvious that we have a divided group there, too. Some want every community or region on their own, and others are more for keeping us connected. That’s where we left off. We’re meeting again today after the council meeting. A good little pep talk from you might be in order.”

  We finished up and I went with the boys to their school. Irma dropped Dinah off at the nursery school. Dinah was going to have a full day of stimulating play. There was all sorts of research being done before The Sickness about how best to stimulate healthy mental development in infants. Our little crèche of toddlers were getting a full dose. There was even a class planned for their guardians and parents so they would know how to carry it on after school. I was really glad all I had to deal with was the trumpet, the sax, and the piano. I really hoped the boys were talented.

  As I got to the school, I saw no evidence they were getting ready for the big move to their new school. The kids still had their desks, and classes were still separated by whiteboards. If I didn’t know that this afternoon, right after lunch, the kids would all walk the mile or so to their permanent elementary school, I’d have never guessed anything was going to happen. The teachers and assistants and a few volunteers were proceeding as if nothing were going on. Saturday and Sunday were the designated home moving days, and today was the moving day for the school. I spotted Ms. Tsang and asked her about the moving plan.

  “Oh, don’t worry. We really don’t have to move much at all. Everything is already there. The housing and sanitation groups helped us make sure everything will be spic and span so all we’re doing is having the kids put their things in their very own moving bags, and then we’re getting on the bus for a tour the new site. We told the parent volunteers about it already, but you probably didn’t find out because you aren’t a volunteer. You’re welcome to come, but Lydia and Anna said they would fill in for you. We know you’re busy this afternoon. And Robert, don’t feel bad that you can’t volunteer. We purposely didn’t ask you because we knew you would squeeze the time in, and we don’t really need any more volunteers. Now that I’m explaining it, I feel bad for not including you in the volunteer request, but we didn’t think….I’m sorry. Of course, you’ll get a note from us about the move so you can bring the boys to the right place on Monday.”

  “Don’t be sorry. You’re absolutely right that I’ve been very busy, but let’s squeeze me in for an hour each week in Jerry’s and Charlie’s classes. Maybe we can work it out from 7:30 to 8:30 in the morning? Things are calming down I think, at least I hope they are.”

  As I walked back to my office I thought about our little exchange. I really needed to redouble my efforts not to make decisions for people without asking first. No matter how well meaning, that never feels okay when someone does it to me. I hoped there weren’t very many others who were overlooked because they were too busy.

  Back in my office, I felt as ready as I ever felt for a meeting. Too bad dictatorships didn’t work out so well in the long run because this job would be a lot easier if I could just give orders. Trouble would come when people stopped working because they didn’t have any buy-in. I spent most of my time reading reports and deciding how I would present them all to the council.

  We’d sent out notices to the council members that the meeting was starting promptly at 9. Mostly all we had were reports, and there shouldn’t be any items that had to be voted on, except to proceed with the plan for Belleview. At least that was what I expected. With a little luck we would be out of the council meeting by 11 and I could poke my head into the legal group and the work group leaders’ meetings.

  A couple minutes before 9 AM, I walked over to the conference room. Just about every one was already there and engaged in a conversation with someone. I was mildly surprised to see Carl, Irma, Avery Wells, and George in a little knot talking heatedly. Actually, Carl seemed to be enjoying himself , and Avery was the picture of equanimity. Irma and George were heated, but in slightly different ways. Irma had a look of utter disdain for whatever George was saying, and George was seriously agitated. I decided not to get engaged and stepped to my seat. My seat was beside Lydia on my left with Jane on my right. They were already there chatting with each other across my empty seat. Both were smiling. As I seated myself, Anna came into the room and headed straight for Carl. Seconds later, a very animated Carl followed Anna out of the conference room.

  Seeing the clock registering 8:59, I decided to settle in, straighten my notes, and pick up the spoon for tapping on my glass of water. Just as I prepared to tap the water glass, I noticed someone had given me a gavel and matching wooden base for getting attention so I thunked the gavel on the base and called the meeting to order.

  “Just a reminder, all meetings are recorded and will be played over the radio after first dinner tonight. As you can see, our agenda is written on the white board behind Jane on this side, and behind April on the other side of the table from me. April, please forgive me if I appear to be staring at you, I’m just reading the agenda.” Mild humor never hurts at the start of a meeting.

  “The first item this morning is Jane’s minutes from our last meeting. Jane, do you have them printed up?” Of course she did. “Please read them to yourselves and let the group know if there are any additions, deletions, or corrections.” Several minutes of silence were interrupted now and then by name corrections and the usual fare. Of course, not everyone was content to make simple adjustments t
o the minutes. George wanted to rewrite history and started in on his lengthy revisions.

  “In an effort to honor everyone’s time, may I suggest that we table the approval of the minutes until next Friday? George will have time then to put his revisions in writing. That way we can give them the attention they need. May I have a motion to that effect?”

  Half the room moved it and the other half seconded. We voted and moved on to the next item.

  “Lydia, would you give us a status report on our community and those around us?”

  “We are trying to be as accurate as we can about our population, but we can’t be completely accurate. Nevertheless, we are pretty close. As of 8:30 AM we have 3.279 registered residents here in SLO. I understand, though, that a 13 year-old boy just rode in on his bicycle and is having breakfast in the kitchen with his new guardian. In case you were wondering where Carl just took off for, that was where.

  Our defense volunteers who went to Indiana will be returning tomorrow and Sunday. We had no deaths from any of the defense forces, and 14 total injuries. Kevin Turner was shot but is expected to make a full recovery. He is scheduled to arrive on Sunday. One of our own, Enrique Sanchez, is staying in Indiana for a period of time as part of the guard unit for the prisoners. Another of our volunteers, Matt Abrams, will be staying in Oklahoma City for the time being to assist with their mechanical needs, and Dwight Hanover will be staying there as well to help get the air controllers back up and running.”

  George raised his hand and interrupted. I had a choice of calling him out of order, or listening to his question. I decided to listen and then call him out of order if need be.

  “Do we really want to get in the habit of letting our people move in with other communities to help out when we have so many needs of our own.”

  Lydia smiled and looked at me. George was asking Lydia, but questions have to come through the chair, and I really wanted to answer this one. “Realistically, there’s nothing we can do to hold people in SLO against their will, which, of course, we aren’t interested in doing anyway. Matt’s a mechanic and could get to Oklahoma City on his own if he chose. The same goes for Dwight. For the record, though, they both went through their chains of command. Everyone thought it was a good idea and we’re proud of them both for volunteering. Oh, and please wait to the end of Lydia’s report before asking questions.” I smiled and looked back at Lydia to finish her report.

  “Elementary school started Tuesday. Middle school will start next Tuesday and the high school will start soon after that, although no date has been established yet. The medical team will be moving into a small hospital/clinic on the campus as soon as they get the go ahead from Housing. Electricity has been stabilized and several members from our team have gone to some of the smaller settlements to secure electricity for them.” She continued with work group reports for a few more minutes, and I then took questions. There were a few, but none from George.

  My reports were up now, and I decided to start with Avery. He was here to report from the work group leaders. I wasn’t completely sure what he would be saying since his written report only mentioned what topics they had discussed. Regardless, I was sure it would be interesting.

  “Good morning. I’m Avery Wells reporting from the work group leaders. We met yesterday for three hours and will continue to meet daily until we have a plan to present for your consideration. Mr. Caldwell asked us to prioritize what we thought we could accomplish as a community, as a region, and in collaboration with the North American communities.

  While we are still working out the details, it is clear that we here in SLO are too few in number to go it alone. We have a few civil engineers, a few technical engineers, a few medical doctors, a few computer programmers, a few of this, and a few of that. We have the capacity to grow a fair amount of crops and even produce wine and cheese. Alone, we will be able to train our young people in a few skills that are valuable for a civil society. We believe that in a couple of generations, though, we will have lost many, and perhaps most, of the skills and knowledge that we had before The Sickness ran its course.

  We also believe that if we work collaboratively with other communities, we can retain more, and maybe even most, skills and knowledge that we had accrued in our society. We need our fellow regional survivors in order to have a large enough pool of trained professionals to continue to educate future technicians, technologists, researchers, and other highly skilled professionals. We will need sufficient numbers of skilled men and women in order to maintain our equipment and infrastructure, and at the same time we need additional skilled professionals to pass on their expertise to the next generations. Individual communities just don’t have the numbers to preserve our way of life, at least not in the long run. And of course, not all our young people are intellectually designed to be doctors or teachers or some of the other professions we will need. Some of them are superbly talented in farming or literature or computer science, but they will not be happy in medicine. That’s an example of course. So we decided that we didn’t have enough people here on the west coast to provide for both the maintenance of our way of life while training the wide range of skilled workers we will need.

  We moved on to look at these problems from a continental viewpoint. Using somewhat sketchy reporting at times, we determined that collectively across North America we may have enough people with skills to both maintain and train in many, and perhaps most technical, cultural, scientific, and medical fields. But it will take careful stewardship and a willingness of people to relocate if need be.

  In trying to make sense of what we are facing, we came up with the Chocolate Barometer. What level of skills do we need to maintain in order to produce adequate supplies of chocolate for our people without jeopardizing other products and services. Clearly, we will eventually run out of this chocolate. Since we don’t grow the trees that produce chocolate beans, we will have to trade for the raw product which means we must maintain the level of ocean and air travel that will make trade possible. We anticipate there may be pirates in the not too distant future, and we will have to provide protection from them for not only ourselves but for our trading partners. Once we have the beans we will need to process them along with all the other the ingredients. That will entail having a supply chain, and proper equipment and adequate power which will require maintenance. In short, if we want something as simple as chocolate in our future, we need a lot of support products and infrastructure in place. Society is a series of dominoes.

  That is one set of problems. Another set is how to put people to work in meaningful ways in the near term. My own sanitation group is soon going to be finished with the city of San Luis Obispo. We’ll be finished by the week after next. We have over 800 people working on clean up and we are removing an astounding five bodies per day per person. That doesn’t seem like much, but believe me, it is. We hold memorial services before we consign literally thousands of bodies to our outdoor crematoria every day. In addition to using most of our young adults for this task, we also have former bankers, lawyers, sales people, office workers and so on working right alongside them. What are we going to do with all these smart people whose professions have disappeared in this new world. In a couple of weeks we are going to have a lot of idle and, possibly frustrated people who have nothing to do with their lives and nothing to look forward to. We need to retrain them, and that really isn’t something that can wait.

  In short, we will have too few people to do what we need next, and too many people with highly developed skills we don’t need anymore. If we fail to make the right decisions, we may find that our survivors start to give up. These are questions we need to solve quickly. We’ll keep you up to date on our discussions.” With that, Avery left to rejoin his group leaders’ meeting

  I called for questions once Avery was finished, and there were quite a few. I doubt many of our group had given any thought at all to these problems. It was bit sobering.

  Next, we discussed the housing changes that
were to take place this weekend. Since no place keeps a secret, I wasn’t surprised when it became clear that everyone already knew everything Lisa Rodriguez was saying. Her report was clear and only George had anything to say. He, of course, was unhappy that his motor home park was at the end of the house-moving schedule. Lisa shrugged and looked at me as he made his complaint. I was semi expecting something from George on this point even though I didn’t know when he was scheduled to move. So, once George had had his say, I called for a motion to accept Lisa’s recommendation from the housing work group. It was made and seconded, and we had a brief debate. The vote was one ‘no’ and everyone else ‘yes’. We moved on.

  By now, Carl had arrived back to our group with a smile on his face. I called a short break to let him tell the group about his news. I knew that until they heard a little about his new role as guardian, we would have distraction as people asked him questions and congratulated him.

  “I just met my new ward, Eric Bowersock. He’s thirteen and will start middle school next week. Eric rode his bike into town this morning all the way from Pismo Beach. He’s tired, scared, and hungry. We’re going to have lunch together today, but I wanted to stop in this group after meeting Eric. I’m pretty excited right now. Sorry for the interruption.”

  “No problem, congratulations. Jane can give you a few tips on adolescents, I think.” I knew Carl and his wife had never been able to have children and that he had been a widower for several years before The Sickness. He put his name on the waiting list for an older boy almost as soon as we got here, but he wasn’t first and had to wait his turn. We had no problem finding guardians for the children who turned up, even the older ones.

  We also knew there were creeps in the world, but we couldn’t do background checks and a simple series of conversations was what we had to make do with. The teachers were being very vigilant as well, making sure to give the kids lots of opportunities to talk. We also had psychologists and counselors at the school. What with the trauma all of the children had lived through, they were very busy. Some of them even regularly went down to the LA community schools to help out.