by Finley, Zack
"Who else do we have at Justice?"
"I sent Matt back there this morning to take care of our Force Gamma training. He has been in charge over there since you took Ben on the road with you. With Ben's injury, I'll leave Matt there for now," Zeke said.
"Why is there a group of Gammas at Justice if Valley defense took over?" I asked.
"For one, they need the manpower," Zeke said. "Our team is clearing the wooded areas around the building. For another, Matt and his Gammas are still the quick reaction force (QRF) for any Huntsville alert, though it has been quiet since you left. With the team back, we should resume our salvage operations and start forming up combined fire teams. Our Rangers are spread pretty thin, so pairing each one with a Gamma will bolster our ranks."
"What is our next salvage priority?"
"The schools, library, museum, the technology school, and the community college," Zeke said. "They are still untapped, partly because no one knows what to do with them. The sheriff emptied all the food supplies from them but left the rest. The high school and tech school have labs and various shops, and all of them have libraries. It isn't Tier One or Two salvage, but some are worried someone will burn the books for heat if we don't secure them first. I favor securing the high school and tech because they are so close to Justice. We need to know if anyone moved in there."
Tier One salvage encompassed items needed for immediate survival. Food, bleach or iodine for water purification, fuel, salt, medical supplies, seeds, weapons, ammo, basic tools, gardening gear, axes, and knives fell into this category. We normally snagged any we spotted.
Tier Two covered secondary survival materials, like canning jars or lids, solar equipment, tarps, plastic film, glue, tape. Useful stuff that could make a big difference and required modern factories to make. Most had a decent shelf life, so we would collect the supplies if it was easy or log it for future recovery.
We considered Tier Three more long-term rebuilding items such as appliances refrigerators, motors, copper wire, metal scrap, pipe, cement, plywood, and lumber. No one else in the area showed any interest in collecting this stuff, except for those burning lumber for firewood. This category we documented for future salvage unless we worried it would ruin.
We established Tier Four to preserve as much knowledge and technology as possible. Up until now, we ignored most Tier Four salvage. I knew my mom wanted a secure place in Huntsville to store books. The county library was too small, with not enough shelves and too many windows. She wanted us to do something about books before planting season took all available forces.
This might even be fun. Each site might hold Tier Two and Tier Three salvage, too. One could hope.
◆◆◆
Chapter 2
After scrounging up a ninja, my purple Mecklin Defender badges, and a walkie-talkie, I rode to Justice, stopping to chat with those providing security along the route. FOB Bravo, located about halfway between Justice and the Valley, had two day-shift sentries. Our radio hut monitored the entire passage electronically day and night.
Before my trip to Arkansas, we pulled the guards and shifted to 100 percent electronic monitoring at FOB Bravo. I needed to know why we moved away from that. No longer requiring Humvee escorts for trips between Bravo and Justice was something new, too. The two policy changes were related, I just didn't know how, yet.
Zeke advised that in a few days, we would be ready to allow Valley children to stay overnight at Justice. Completing the Justice electronic surveillance measures and clearing the perimeter were the last items on the checklist for lifting that ban.
Steve and Mandy wanted their kids, Joe, Billy, and Ellie to join them. I knew they missed spending evenings together. Their kids still lived in my house, and when they rejoined their parents, I would miss Joe and Billy. My girls would too. Ellie, not so much.
Getting up to speed on Justice defenses was a key reason for my meeting with Phil today. While Steve and Mandy both attended yesterday's memorial service, I only spoke with them briefly. With my new responsibility to protect Justice, I required a thorough update on the new enclave's status and plans for community outreach.
Our group established Justice as the point of the spear for all contacts with our Huntsville neighbors. Survivors came there for medical care and to pick up community supplies. Justice operated our CB radio outreach program, supplying radios to those who signed up. We expected participants to warn of vehicular traffic or strangers in the area. As a side benefit, almost everyone with a radio checked in at noon each day, contributing to a growing sense of a renewed Huntsville community.
Roger created the Mecklin Defenders to reach out to extend our sphere of influence. They recruited a network of observers to provide a buffer zone around the Valley. The stronger the buffer, the safer we made the Valley. The purple markings distinguished our people. We counted on our weapons and fearsome reputation to dissuade people from shooting at us.
The Mecklin Defenders made the initial approach to neighbors hunkered down in their homes just trying to survive. Such first contacts were inherently dangerous, for both sides. After we left on the rescue attempt, Roger suspended those missions. We needed to restart those outreach efforts.
Responding to alerts from those living in the buffer zone became another Mecklin Defender responsibility. Right now, that meant Matt and Force Gamma stationed at Justice. I worried the QRF wasn't strong enough. With Razor gone and three Betas still on wounded status, I needed to adjust my perspective on what strong looked like.
The trip to Justice was icy but thankfully short. I forgot how piercing the wind could be in February on the Cumberland Plateau. The ninja's speed just made that worse. Winter still ruled, with spring more than a month away. Nature's palette remained wintry shades of brown and gray. Huntsville's abandoned lawns showed hints of green with an occasional evergreen shrub. The only splashes of color were man-made, the yellow lines on the pavement, a red stop sign, a blue house.
As I approached Justice, the roar of chainsaws captured my attention. Since my last visit, the Gammas reduced most of the forest within 100 feet of the Justice building to stumps and piles of slash. When we attacked the building months ago, my team took advantage of the adjacent forest for the assault. We didn't want someone else to exploit the same weakness in an assault on us.
One Gamma with a chain saw cut down trees while the other two chainsaw operators removed branches. Several lumberjacks wielded axes or bow saws. The three roaring slash fires generated a towering pall of smoke over the area. Those without hand tools used winches and cables to haul the limbed tree trunks into a stack on the northwest edge of the parking lot. I suspected they left those trees intact to clear the forest faster.
One group dragged the larger limbs to a bucking station next to a pickup towing a dump trailer. The trailer bulged with firewood, although much would still need splitting.
While I watched, the Gammas switched off as they needed a break, all to keep the line moving. This coordination demonstrated excellent teamwork.
I then spotted Justice's new menagerie: rabbit hutches, two chicken coops, and a goat enclosure. People labored in four new plastic-covered greenhouses. I wanted to check out the low flush composting toilets, after nearly a month in service. I still had a lot of hope for their widespread use.
First, I would meet with Steve and Mandy, and then with Phil.
While Justice had a lot of exterior doors, the residents kept them locked tight except for the jail entrance. I spotted new cameras and at least two sentries on the roof. Jake, one of the former Mecklin County deputies, manned the counter.
"Jeremy," Jake said. "The radio room said a Defender was arriving, but I didn't expect you. Most of Gamma is cutting timber, Steve is in the breaker room, and Mandy is in her office." Jake's helpful words belied his tense body language. Although he assisted us in storming the jail, I suspected he harbored some resentment about the way that went down.
Jake acquiesced to Deputy Allen's overthrow of our former
sheriff. We spared Jake from execution due to his assistance, and because we found no evidence, he personally raped or murdered anyone. Steve offering him a spot at Justice, saved Jake from exile.
Jake's mechanic's coveralls draped loosely on his six-foot frame. He looked even thinner than during the attack on Justice. His bushy beard, sunken eyes, and hacked off hair made me wonder whether his wife left him. The depravity of Allen's reign revealed a razor-thin veneer of civilization for many people.
Jake stood his watch, alert, and with his hands steady on his rifle, the rest was none of my business.
"Can you send word to Phil and Steve to meet me in Mandy's office?" I asked.
"No problem. You know where Mandy's office is?" Jake asked.
"If she hasn't moved in the past two weeks, I can find her," I said.
"Nope, same place." Jake reached under the counter, and I heard a click coming from the door to my right.
Steve must have disconnected the automatic door openers, which were electricity hogs, but left the power locks as a security feature. I approved.
I walked through the door, and Jake swung it shut behind me. The door lock clunked closed. I stood in the sally port, feeling strangely vulnerable. The last time at Justice, we left the doors propped open. Now, both the door leading further into the jail complex and my exit door were locked. I waved to the camera in the corner, unsure it even functioned.
Being confined in a sally port made me uneasy. Before my irritation at feeling trapped bloomed to anger, the inside door lock clicked. The door opened when I pulled.
Mandy claimed the watch commander's office next to the entrance. The door was wedged open, and I heard the clack of a keyboard before poking my head in.
"Hey," I said, knocking on the wall and stepping into the room. "I invited Phil and Steve to join us for a quick confab."
"Jeremy," Mandy said, jumping up from her chair in front of her laptop and rushing to embrace me. "I am so sorry for your losses. I didn't get a chance to tell you at the memorial. Razor was such a great guy and then Andy. What a loss all around."
I took two deep breaths and then withdrew from her hug to rein in my emotions.
Mandy got the message and shifted more toward business. "If Steve and Phil are coming, we should move to a conference room, there isn't much room in here."
"Roger wants me to run the defense operations for at least the next few weeks. He is worried he can't give it the needed attention."
"Roger stopped all outreach missions after you left for Arkansas. That increased manpower let us fix a lot of things here at Justice, but now our outreach efforts lag behind. With you back, I'm hoping to restart those efforts and recruit more community members. At least, once our security and hot water get fixed. Your Gammas will reduce that forest to kindling in only a few more days."
"They do seem energetic," I agreed.
"They are a great motivated, hard-working group," she continued, "But once they push the woods back, they will be on to the next project. Steve expects to finish our base electronic surveillance, locks, and alarms on the same timeline. This morning, he is debugging the surveillance system. We have Phil isolating the hot water plumbing, so it only supplies the showers, laundry, and kitchen. The dinky solar water heater isn't cutting it. One of Valley guys is building us a wood-fired hot water heater like the Valley's."
"How many residents in Justice, now?" I asked.
"Not counting your Gammas, 25 or 26 depending on the day. With Steve and I that includes 10 from the Valley. Not sure how many Valley types will stay, but they are really helping while here," Mandy said. "Feeding people remains a challenge, with either too many people or too few. Dr. Jerrod wants to assign a medical type here to monitor weight and help plan menus. Very tempting to ask Claire for the Valley cooks to send us whatever they are fixing every day."
"Has anyone seen the senior center Meals on Wheels delivery truck?" I asked. "That might be a way to transport hot food. And you have microwaves. Preparing food at both sites seems inefficient."
"I'll talk with Claire, maybe we can cook only a few days a week or only one meal a day, that would reduce the manpower draw," Mandy said.
"What is everyone working on?"
"Sentries, radios, cleaning, farm animals, farming, plumbing, electrical, cleaning, heat, inventory, cleaning," Mandy said. "And more cleaning. This place gave pig sties a bad name."
"How many people are you looking to add?" I asked.
"We think about 100 will allow us to expand our farm south of the current garden and across the road at the Farmer's Market plus the high school greenhouse and garden. Someone from Claire's farm team is checking out the soils at those locations. We are all worried about keeping critters and thieves out the more we spread out. I want to start recruiting people to join us from the community, but can't do it until we vet them and can feed them," Mandy said, just as Steve strode in.
"Jeremy, what brings you to Justice?" he asked. The mantle of leadership seemed to be settling in, no hint of the hesitation he displayed the last time we met at Justice.
"Roger asked me to take charge of all defense forces for a bit," I said. "I also need to brief you, Mandy, and Phil on this evening's council meeting."
"Glad you don't need a plumber, I'd fight to keep Phil, at least until he fixes the hot water problems," Steve said, visibly relaxing.
I hadn't expected Steve to arrive braced for a confrontation. The reason eluded me, but then Steve's moodiness had always baffled me.
Mandy reacted to the weird currents in the room and suggested we move to the conference room where all four of us could sit down.
We met Phil in the hallway and steered him toward a small break room. The chairs were utilitarian, not the plush executive types in the last Justice conference room I sat in. Mildly disappointing.
Phil offered his condolences, spurring Steve to add his. They were much easier to shrug off than Mandy's.
"Roger is stepping away from the defense force and intel for a bit," I started. "I agreed to assume responsibility for our defense but not intel. I suspect we'll be told tonight at the council meeting who will handle that."
I caught Phil's eye, "Phil, we can talk later about how we split up duties, no need to take up Steve and Mandy's time on that." Phil nodded.
"A bigger issue is the Valley malcontents," I said. "We have an unknown number of newbies who think we are abusing them."
"We don't want them here," Steve said, nearly cutting me off with near panic in his voice.
"No, we do not," Mandy affirmed.
"As far as I know, that isn't a consideration," I said. "At least not carte blanche."
"Good," Steve and Mandy echoed together.
"The main idea we discussed this morning had their sponsors offering to return them to their old homes in Huntsville with everything they arrived in the Valley with," I said. "Plus, other considerations in exchange for labor or that they can negotiate from community stores."
"How many do you think are involved?" Phil asked.
"More than 10 but less than 100?" I asked. "I didn't know it was even an issue until yesterday."
"My guess is less than 30 are even semi-serious," Phil said. "And no more than 20 are hardcore. More talkers and complainers than doers."
"Why would any of them risk their home in the Valley?" Steve asked. The disbelief in his voice matched the perplexed look on his face.
"Mom thinks we brought them in too soon," I answered. "Her theory says we sheltered them from the current reality. The malcontents are comparing life in the Valley to their lives before. And they aren't happy."
"How can they be so stupid?" Mandy asked, angry more than perplexed.
"While we know how bad things are, most of the Valley doesn't have our firsthand experience," I said. "Our people just work their butts off every day. They understood the situation without any need to see it for themselves. Besides, the council gets weekly briefings, and the word spreads out pretty well."
; "Yeah, our bunch loves to gossip," Phil said. "The new people agitating to be tossed out of the lifeboat aren't the sort that longterm Valley people will blab to. They act too entitled for most tastes. Some of the new groups were good additions, they work hard, volunteer to help, and stand their watch without complaining. Others are royal pains in the butt. If you ask our people to provide a list of newcomers to vote off the island, I bet your malcontents are at the top of the list."
"How can they be so stupid?" Mandy repeated.
"Some people just are," I said. "We brought them in only a few weeks after the CME when things were still nearly normal. The weather was still warm, and everyone was still emptying freezers and refrigerators. Hell, most took advantage of the neighbor discount and even had solar."