“OKAY THEN, WHEN do we leave, Terrance?” Vince questioned Sergeant Walker directly, too perturbed with his wife to even look at her right now.
“All right, buddy!” Greg said, excited. He jumped up on Vince’s back, and Erika smiled at Vince who was trying to act all tough and angry.
“I still think this is a bad idea, but I’m not letting my wife gallivant off into the unknown without me,” Vince replied, disgusted.
“Excellent! Rescue Recruits Moore and Sherman, I will see you at 17:00 at Warehouse D. Recruit Moore, I will need you to inform Star and Dexter of the meeting time. Recruit Sherman, you will inform Penni, Mitchell and Roxy of their assignment. Everyone understand?” Sergeant Walker asked firmly.
“Yes,” Greg and Vince answered.
“Yes, sir,” Sergeant Walker corrected.
“Yes, sir,” they replied. Vince rolled his eyes. How did he let her talk him into this, he wondered.
“Come on, Recruit Moore. We are off to find Nancy and then report for debriefing,” Sergeant Walker commanded Erika.
“Yes, sir,” she replied. She stopped for a moment before leaving to give Vince a hug. “I love you,” she whispered.
“We’ll talk later,” was all he said. It made the hair on the back of her neck stand up.
The next moment she and Sergeant Walker were cruising down the dirt trail in between the shanties.
“That didn’t go so bad,” Sergeant Walker commented.
“I have the feeling I’ll have to pay for that later,” Erika chuckled.
They pulled up at some of the shanties that were by the marketplace. This was where her mom, Nancy, worked and lived. She had always been a crafty lady. Her art really shined when she designed clothing and furniture. One of the merchants that traded these goods had hired her to work in his store. People were still looking for a little style in their life, and Nancy’s skills provided that.
Nancy herself was a shorter-statured woman than her daughter. Her brown hair was falling prey to the graying that accompanied aging, but she looked very young for a woman who had just turned sixty. Her fine body rippled with a muscled sinew from the work that she did. These days, she was single. She had a friend, Brett, who had made it through the Great Quake and out of California with them, but a few years after they arrived at the camp his daughter, who was a landowner in Texas, came looking for him. He had gone to live with her and her husband.
Nancy wouldn’t go. She was determined to stay with her daughter and grandchildren. Nancy and Erika had always been the best of friends, and a crazy, backwards world was not about to change that.
“Hey, Mom!” Erika said cheerfully as she jumped out of the jeep. Dirt flew in the air as her feet hit.
“Damn that dust!” Nancy grumbled as she tried to shield the piece of shiny wood she was standing in front of.
“Oh, sorry,” Erika quickly replied, fanning the air around to try to get rid of the sand particles that floated through the sunshine.
“Knock it off! That won’t help,” Nancy corrected her daughter, as she waited for the dust to settle. “What’s up, hun?”
“Well, I came out to ask you a question?” Erika stammered for a moment, not sure how her mom was going to feel about all this. Erika always saw her as such a powerful woman, but lately her mom was always so quick to remind her how old she was getting.
Nancy continued her work on the sofa frame. It was an antique piece she was repairing. She had sanded the old wood smooth and was in the process of applying a new coat of a dark lacquer. Nancy sensed a strange tone in Erika’s voice and pounced on her hesitation immediately, “What? What’s going on, Erika?”
“Mathew asked us to be a part of a rescue crew,” Erika blurted out.
Nancy dipped her brush into the dark liquid and ran the brush along the top of the spiral design that was carved into the arm of the sofa. “Oh…I see. Are you going?” Nancy didn’t understand that Erika meant her as well.
“Yeah, we are.” Erika admitted.
Nancy looked up at Erika. “Oh…and I just get to sit here and rebuild sofas all day? I don’t see why you would want to go out there anyway…” She was going on and on.
“Mom, all of us. You too,” Erika corrected, realizing Nancy’s assumption.
“Really? Why would that little prick ask me to go as well?” Nancy’s disappointment in not going along quickly turned to suspicion. She put the tip of the brush back into the lacquer and continued her brush strokes.
“He said we all have particular skills. He said your knowledge of materials is why he chose you. We can only carry so much, and we have to know what to salvage and what to leave behind,” Erika tried to reassure her.
“I don’t know. What if he’s just trying to get rid of us? You know you are not exactly his favorite person in the world.” Nancy was still curious about Mathew’s intentions.
“I don’t think so, Mom. Daniel has to stay here with Crystal and Carmen,” Erika admitted.
“What?” Nancy stopped her stroke and threw her brush into the can. The dark liquid splashed a little. “He wants you to leave the babies here? Why?”
“He said it was an insurance policy,” Erika knew Nancy’s reaction was not going to be good, and she braced herself for her mom’s fury.
“That little son of a…” Nancy said furiously as she put her can down on a small wooden table. The stains on the wood were thick from many splatters over the years. “Actually, I guess I don’t blame him.”
“What?” Erika was surprised by Nancy’s lack of emotion.
“Think about it. He’s not going to send us all out there without having a big something that we are coming back to. For us, it means he’s not sending us out there to be killed. He would have sent all of us.” Nancy rubbed her hands together in a basin of water in the corner. She grabbed a rag off a wooden ring that hung from a peg on the wall.
“So are you going, then?” Erika needed an answer. Time was ticking.
“Yeah…I’ll go, but I don’t feel good about leaving the babies behind,” Nancy said in a concerned voice as she turned around.
“None of us do, Mom, but we gotta know what’s out there,” Erika agreed. “We are going to have to train for three weeks to make sure we are physically capable of going out there. You okay with that?”
“Oh, boy…I’ll probably be dead of a heart attack before we ever get beyond the gates but what the hell, you only live once, right?”
“Awesome! I’m so glad you’re coming.” Erika relayed the directions to her mom.
Her mom had to clean up her shop before she left. Materials like stain were so rare to come by these days that every drop was precious. Sergeant Walker would swing around and pick her up later. Right now, the sergeant had to get Erika to the warehouse as he had been ordered.
CHAPTER 16
AS THEY ZOOMED along the road, they were headed in a direction that Sergeant Walker obviously knew well. Erika, on the other hand, had not been this way since she had been brought into the camp nine years ago. Her heart raced as they drove to the other side of the landowners’ city. Much to her dismay, it looked just like the other warehouses that had been erected from debris and old building shells all over the new city. When they entered the warehouse Erika was overwhelmed by the amount of reclaimed military vehicles, all equipped with metal protective shells. There were a couple of buses there as well with a more rudimentary kind of armor framing. There was also shelf upon shelf of blow-up rafts, life jackets, scuba gear and tons of other water rescue equipment. Erika had to wonder why they had so much of it stored in a desert that was still only receiving a small amount of rain a year. She noticed bundle upon bundle of different types of rope stored on huge rolls. There were buckets of brightly colored buckles, carabineers and harness straps. She saw men packing and loading waterproof cases packed with something onto one of the buses.
The first person to approach was Private Jacob Foster. He was on guard duty at the door. His oceanic blue eyes met Erika’s.
“Oh no, this is not a member of the new refugee crew? You gotta be kidding me!” Private Foster said with spite.
“Stow it, Private Foster. This is Rescue Recruit Moore reporting for duty as ordered, and you will address her as such,” Sergeant Walker corrected him.
“Yes, sir.” His response lacked luster.
Erika stood a little prouder and followed Sergeant Walker’s lead.
He turned to face her, winked, and said, “The first thing we need to do is get you into uniform.”
Erika followed him to a supply closet. There he chose a pair of small-sized camo pants for her, along with a green T-shirt and green wool socks.
“What size shoe do you wear?” Sergeant Walker asked as he was digging through a mess of shoes.
“I wear a woman’s eight,” Erika answered.
Sergeant Walker stopped and shot her a disapproving look. Erika quickly understood its meaning.
“Sir,” she said quickly. That was going to take some getting used to.
“Damn, you got some big feet for such a little lady.” Sergeant Walker teased her. “I thought I was going to have to dig into the junior sizes.”
“Yes sir, I do. My mom always said ‘you’ll either grow into them or you’ll be a short little fart with big feet.’ Guess I got the short end of that stick,” Erika joked back. “No pun intended!”
Sergeant Walker laughed heartily at her joke and it wasn’t long before he found a pair of black-colored boots that fit her perfectly. Then he pointed out a room where she could change. Erika entered the room and kicked off her tattered sneakers. She slid the dusty clothes off her body, revealing the old scars that covered her from the neck down. They were a constant reminder of what she had survived and what this new, wonderful government had done to all those people in California. She pushed the thought from her mind and slid on the uniform. The clothes didn’t have that new material smell that she remembered from the past, but they were clean and crisp.
She put on the boots and tied them up tight. It had been a very long time since she had new boots. Nine years ago, when she had helped Harold rescue his family she had scored new boots but, that had been the last time. Shoes were rarely issued at the refugee camp. The ones they did get were salvaged from missions similar to the one they were getting ready to take part in. She never knew whose shoes they had been or if someone had died in them, but she couldn’t help but wonder.
When she emerged from the small room, Sergeant Walker remarked how official she looked. Then he handed her a jacket. It was a camouflage but had a big white “x” patch on the back. The left shoulder had a patch with the American Flag, and the right had a patch that said Rescue Team on it.
She pushed her arms through the sleeves of the jacket. It was also fresh and neat. She felt the full effect of the new outfit, and it immediately brought her back to a past life she had known. It had been a life of abundance where she could go shopping and get four new outfits at a time. She would bring them home and delight in their smell and feel as she tried each one on to see how it looked. The last nine years had been years of want. When she was issued additional clothing, she usually had to wash it first because it stank so badly. All of the old clothes were kept and put into use in quilts, window coverings, rags, or any other way they could figure out how to use them.
The last piece to her uniform was a camo hat, new and stiff like the boots. She was reminded of her hat collection she had in the past. She would always buy a hat to commemorate events, but they had all been lost a long time ago.
“Rescue Recruit Moore, you need to report to Commander Donald Burns,” Sergeant Walker said formally when she had her hat on. Then he lowered his voice. “See that big guy over there by that truck?”
Erika's vision looked down Sergeant Walker’s arm and tracked across the room to where he was pointing. She saw a huge, imposing man. He stood almost seven feet tall and was extremely broad shouldered. He had his graying hair cut into a flat top and was barking orders at men as they approached.
“Yes, sir,” she replied meekly.
“Well, what are you waiting for, Recruit?” Sergeant Walker was amused at her reaction to his stature. It was a good thing. Commander Burns was not a man to be trifled with. He followed orders to the letter and when he spoke to you, you listened.
“Oh…ah, nothing, sir,” Erika replied startled.
She mustered up all her courage to approach him. It had been a long time since she had been looking to impress somebody, and she knew she would need to impress him. She would need to choose her words carefully. In this case she figured less would be more.
“Commander Burns?” she questioned as she stood tentatively in front of him.
“Yes, ma’am, and who do we have here?” His voice was as strong and powerful as the massive chest that it came from.
“Rescue Recruit Moore, reporting in, sir,” Erika announced, trying again to sound like she knew what she was doing.
“Oh yes, the ragtag group that Mathew was going to send over. Let me put it to you straight; I know your story and that doesn’t account for anything here. We have very little time to train you and your crew, so I’m going to need you to listen well and follow my orders exactly! I mean, exactly! Now, do you think you can do that, Recruit?” Commander Burns seemed a little irritated by her presence.
“Yes, sir,” Erika replied confidently.
“Good, follow me,” he demanded as he wheeled around and headed for a room that contained folding chairs. He barked orders out to the other team as he left with her. Then he put Sergeant Walker in charge of loading up the remaining gear as they entered the room.
“Sit down,” he commanded as they approached the front of the room. He grabbed a stack of papers off the desk. “I do have to say that Mathew had his thinking cap on when he put your group together.”
“What do you mean, sir?” Erika asked curiously. She knew her group had a wide array of skill sets but had never really focused on that issue and just how vital it had been to their survival. Plus, Mathew hadn’t put their group together. Fate had done that a long time ago.
“Don’t question! Listen and do! That’s your job here, and you already assured me that you are capable of doing that, correct?” Commander Burns snapped at her.
“Yes sir,” Erika replied, wishing she could take the question back. She felt totally mortified and completely humbled by this giant of a man. So much for small talk; that wasn’t going to fly here.
He continued on, “Recruit Vince Moore is your husband, correct?”
“Yes sir,” Erika said, curious about the direction of his questions.
“As one of our master gardeners, he will be out scouting for a truckload of quality dirt for the gardens here, as well as any seeds or useable garden items that he thinks would be useful in our gardens, understood?’ He paused to make sure Erika was fully tuned in.
“Yes, sir,” she replied, trying to remember every word.
“Good… Recruit Harold Duncan is a communications and IT guy. He will be responsible for salvaging any useful equipment as well as establishing a hard line when we arrive. Understand?” He wanted feedback from her again to check on her attention level. He wasn’t really comfortable with sending an individual with only three weeks of training into a salvage operation in charge of a full unit, but she would have a team of sergeants to chaperone the expedition, so he continued.
“Yes, sir.” Erika had total focus on him. She wasn’t going to screw this up.
Impressed by her attentiveness and constant eye contact Commander Burns continued, “Recruits Betsy Duncan and Penni Sherman are both medically trained and will further their training during the next three weeks. They will join with the med crew from Alpha Squad to treat any injured individuals we come across.” Commander Burns paused again but saw Erika’s diligence to stay tuned in and continued on. “Recruit Greg Sherman is a master builder with a lot of other trade knowledge. He will be your point man for structural salvage. You
will need to make sure the buildings are sound enough to enter and salvage materials from. His training during these next few weeks will focus there.”
He looked back down at the papers in his hand and shuffled them around. “Now, that brings us to the younger recruits, Star Moore, Dexter Moore, Mitchell Rollins, Roxy Rollins, Jen Rollins, Kim Duncan and Rob Duncan. You know the strength of everyone involved, what tasks do you think they can perform? Remember, you will also need a couple of them to manage your squad’s chow detail.” He looked up at her from the papers, waiting for her reply.
Erika suddenly realized he was asking her for input and frantically searched her head for the answers. “Star and Kim should definitely be on the chow detail,” Erika replied, using the commander’s jargon. “Star is quite the chef, and Kim already works in the kitchens so she is familiar with that job. Um…Mitchell is Greg Sherman’s stepson and quite the carpenter as well. I guess he should go with Greg. Rob Duncan has been working with Vince over at the gardens. He would make a good right-hand man for Vince. Dexter is a smart boy and quite a fighter too. He could go with Harold to help with heavy lifting and communications. Roxy has been studying fashion with Nancy, my mom, and she might also need some help doing heavy lifting, so I would send Jen along with her as well,” Erika finished, forgetting the formalities in her brainstorm.
Commander Burns flipped through the pages again, “Oh yes, your mother, Nancy Fisher, she will be in charge of fabric salvage, and we will literally bring home everything we can. Given her age, we will limit her PT time over the next few weeks but I do need to make sure she is capable of going into the field. Honestly though, I am excited to have someone with us who actually knows materials and what is worth bringing home and what’s not. Totally out of my realm. Well, I think that’s it. Rescue Squad Alpha will occupy one bus and your Rescue Squad Beta will occupy the other. Are you still with me?”
“Yes sir, but…” Erika began to question.
“I need you to stay with me, Recruit, and not fall behind.” Even though he asked, Commander Burns didn’t want to field any questions. He wanted to test her ability to follow the orders without wondering why.
The Changing Earth Series (Book 2): Without Land Page 8