Survivors

by Alex Isaacs

  We get down, getting the next load; then, we head right back to the CSV. Jason and David disappear as soon as the container is off the PSV. I take mine over to get the goods taken out and the container ready to go back in the morning. We might try to see Scott once again. I get to the training, Jason running to make sure he is not late. After the training, a few of the guys are talking with Jason, then they all head off together. The next morning, we go down to the base, Jason calling Scott to let him know he will be there in a couple of hours. Jason asks if I am coming with him, I need not go, Jason can ask about the medical supplies. I keep taking up the containers, more food to deliver, some will go the FSV, it is back with a load of fuel for the vehicles. Jason returns a little late from the visit with Scott; the medical supplies will be here in a couple of days. Jason hops on my vehicle, and he keeps looking at his watch as we head back up. As I dock, Jason jumps out, some of the guys saying they will see him a little later.

  I go to get something to eat, looking over my farm; then I decide to see Jason and David. The farm level is in night mode, but I see some bright lights over by the barn. As I get closer, I notice a screen is up. The two are showing a movie on the screen for the group that is there. I then notice that they are drinking beer and eating popcorn. I find David and Jason at what looks like a concession stand run out of one of the shipping containers. Everyone here is having a great time. I come over to talk with Jason, asking if he borrowed my popcorn machine. Jason said no, he got Scott to buy him one with the popcorn. He got the guys in the warehouse to go into the local town to purchase the beer that they are serving. David smiles as he serves another customer.

  I ask Jason why he is doing this. Jason says a lot of the people on board are bored with nothing to do. I ask who else knows of this, other than the people that are here. Jason says most of the crew under a certain rank. One guy comes over, saying thanks for getting the video games for him. Jason smiles, saying Scott says it is a great money maker. The games are helping pay for the beer and popcorn. I ask Jason what will he do next. Jason says he is going to try to get some pizza making machines in next. One of the landing bay guys comes over, Jason hands him a beer, not taking any money. Jason says the landing bay guys get free stuff for not saying what is in the containers. After the movie finishes, the group packs up the chairs, helping to put them away. One guy asks what the movie is tomorrow night. Jason tells him, then thanks everyone for showing up.

  The next day, I do my farm chores, then we do our regular routines, but there are no special containers for Jason on this trip. We get back doing our training, then Jason heads off to get ready for tonight. I do another of my classes; then, I decided to see what the movie is that Jason is playing. As I get to the barn, Jason has another big crowd to see the movie and enjoy the refreshments. Halfway through the movie, I hear attention. Some lights in the barn go on; the General asks to stop the movie. The General asking who is responsible for this, I think he knew as he is looking right at Jason. Jason comes forward, admitting to running the show.

  The General sees David, asking if he is Joan’s son, then if he is selling alcohol. David says, yes, sir. The General looks around, finding me, getting me to come forward, asking if I am in on it. Jason says no, sir; he is not. The General says, but he knows all about it. I say, yes, sir. The General then asks where all this came from, who paid for it. Jason says he did, adding he is using his own money for everything that is here. The General then asks Jason why he is doing this. Jason says to keep up everyone’s morale, sir. The General tells Jason, then me, to be in his office first thing in the morning. He says to carry on, for now, leaving us to watch the rest of the movie.

  In the morning, I get my chores done, then run to the General’s office, meeting Jason there. The General is upset about what we have done, Jason trying to say I am not involved. The General asks me if I knew about it from day one. I said yes, sir. The General tells us we should go through the proper channels about doing things like this; one thing it is not proper sneaking around behind his back. The General then says something that we do not expect. He says it is not fair for the rest of the crew not to have the chance to have some entertainment. The General then tells the two of us to run a movie night on both vehicles; then, he says he wants to see some of the older movies as well. Jason says we can use some of the movies from my collection. The General looks at me, asking about my collection. I say yes, sir. I now have a large collection of movies and television shows in my farmhouse. He then asks where I got the movies. I said our secret supplier made a mistake in getting some supplies, asking me if I could do him a favor in taking some movies off his hands. He had to dispose of them quickly. I found out later how large the collection is with some other things included. The General tells me he does not want to know anything more about the supplier.

  As we are about to leave, the General stops us, throwing us a couple of small gold bars, saying for us to stock up on some other refreshments. Jason asked what the General likes; the General tells us to get out of here. Jason asks if he can expand into having pizza as well. The General glares at us as I drag Jason out of the office. Jason says the small pizza ovens and the ingredients are coming on the next load as we head to our PSV. As we land, going to choose our loads, I ask Jason where are we going to get the refreshments that quickly. Jason gets out his phone, calling Scott. I hear Jason say great, then after hanging up, Jason says Scott will have it all with the pizza stuff this week. I tell Jason we better see Scott so we can give him some more money.

  We notice that we will bring up the medical supplies on these two trips. We decide to see Scott tomorrow to get him the money. We bring the medical supplies on board, Simon is there to meet us, giving us some more small gold bars to get as much more supplies as we can. I find out that George is taking another week off to help bring them to the warehouse. That night I start to think something else has to be happening for this rush on extra supplies. I get back to downloading the rest of my courses, knowing which ones I will need to finish my computer degree. I look online to get all the astronomy courses now. I look at the growing pile of small hard drives I am filling up. I go down to get another couple of boxes; I will download all the school courses for my brothers and the others. I now think about school books for then and all the supplies. I know what I will do, I will use my own money that I have in my bank account to purchase all the supplies I can get, maybe Scott can help me with some of them.

  Monday, Jason and I fly down to meet Scott, giving him more cash for the refreshments, then asking for more food, as much as he can get for us. Scott is asking if our guy heard the same as his contacts. I say he must have. Scott says he will get all that he can on our list, especially with this extra cash we gave him. I take out some of my cash, asking Scott to get school supplies, Scott looking at me, I say it is for my brothers and other children in our group. Scott says, sure as I hand him the cash. We get back to the base, taking up more of the supplies before calling it a night.

  The next morning, I get one of the other crew to fly with Jason to get the containers. I get Maggie to come with me; I get the keys and permission to use Joe’s van for the day, explaining what I am doing. We fly down to the Florida base. I get out my laptop to find the bookstores with the textbooks for schools. I think about how many copies of each school year I should purchase. Maggie is asking me why I am doing this. I tell her that if more children are born on the vehicles, we need to help educate them somehow. Maggie asks if any of the books are online for me to download. I say I do not know; we might not have the time to find out. Then it hits me; I can buy the books, scan them onto the computer to use from the hard drives. We buy five copies of each school year; then, I head to find the best scanners for putting them onto the computer. We head back to the base, then up to the CSV to deposit the books into my house.

  The next morning, I head with Jason down to the Colorado base, we are picking up the last of the other days order to bring to the CSV’s. After lunch, I get a call from
George; he tells me there is a huge shipment coming today from Scott. He had to borrow an extra engine to pull all the freight. I ask George how many railway cars is he pulling now. George hesitates then tells me thirty cars in all, plus we have to get them off the train as quickly as possible. I tell George I will get everything ready to get the load off the train. I see the base commander, he says I should find some more drivers, he has the trucks, but there should be two drivers for each truck to get the containers to the base.

  When we get to the CSV, I explain the situation to the General and Simon. The General calls out for all personnel that can drive tractor-trailers, to meet in the landing bay immediately. When the personnel shows up, we are one driver short. The General says, let's get going to the base. I say we are one driver short; the General says no, he will drive. We get down to the base, the convoy heading down to the warehouse to meet the train. With the trucks, we have, the ten tractor-trailers will have to make three round trips. I wonder what Scott has got for us on this trip. I hope mostly food and medical supplies. We now have time to wait for the first shipment to get to us. My phone rings, it is Scott. Scott tells me they are going to have another load ready for George when he gets back; it will be the medical supplies and more food.

  As the loads come in, I tell Jason not to look in the containers; there are no medical supplies. Jason tells me we need to look to know where to take them. The first four have school supplies; they can go to CSV-1. The next six have the beer in them. I look at Jason; he says he only asked for a couple. We need to take these to our CSV; at least the landing bay crew will help us to hide most of them. When the next ten come in, we find the wine, the liquor in eight containers, while the last two have food in them. We have to hide more containers; then, I thought that the General did approve of our entertainment needs. When the last ten containers come in, the General asks what is in them. We open these containers up, finding more food, the General is happy about this. The last two do have the pizza makers along with all the ingredients. The General tells me to let him know what is coming in the next load. George told the crew at the warehouse; he is going for another load. I tell the general that this load will be medical supplies and more food.

  I get the phone call from George about the medical supplies; we need to get them off the train quickly. This time there is only seventeen containers. I let the General know; he comes back down to help with the driving. When he gets to the base, the commander calls him in; the police are needing their help to find some thieves. The might be using tractor-trailers or even a train to steal goods to bring east. The General gets the commander to get some men to cover the main highway coming our way; he will take a squad down to check the train routes. I let the General know when George will be at the warehouse. The General says he will set up the blocks at the highways first. I give him my phone, calling George to ask him to call when he gets to the warehouse, letting him know the General will answer.

  Everything goes smoothly, getting the containers off the train. The containers contain six with medical supplies, ten with more food, and the last one a mixture of movies, computers, and computer accessories. We now have to settle down on the shipments out from Scott; the police are checking everything now. George goes back to work after seeing how his daughter is on the CSV. Jason and I are having fun hiding the containers. The barns on each level are full of our goods.

  The men are back from the roadblocks, the containers nowhere to be found. I wonder how much trouble we would be in if the police caught us. The General, Simon, and Joe now call all the pilots together; it seems there is more trouble brewing. As we gather for the meeting, rumors start about what the trouble could be. The General starts to tell us that there is trouble from the countries involved with the asteroid. They want more control of it; they will stop at nothing to get the control.

  Simon says there are rumors of the type of trouble that may arise. He begins to tell us the different types. A hush goes over the crowd. I wonder what we are going to do now.