Protection and Preservation, Book 04
Chapter 4

Copyright© 2014 by radio_guy

[Preservation – Janice]

What we saw was not pretty. The raiders were all men, which meant they were a raiding party or were living only by raiding others. Since they came from the south, either they were pure raiders or were on their way back to some base. We would have to listen to know more about them. We saw Harry and Marissa tied up not too far from the main fire. We were happy to see that there were only eleven and the rest of the horses were pack animals. We listened a bit and determined that it was likely that they were not returning to any place but were simply a raiding group.

Bennie motioned to me to back away. We crawled away from their camp to a place where we could talk in low voices. "I think they are pure raiders," he said.

"Yes, and there are too many for us to attack directly with any likelihood of success."

"Correct. We will have to figure out a diversion to give us a chance. That means later tonight before we can get in plus we will have to set an ambush for when they pursue us."

I nodded. Bennie was good at this for some reason. He and I had done a lot of scouting and exploring and had planned for different scenarios, except for the stag's group of animals. I don't think anyone could have planned for that or how to do anything about them.

We called the situation into Poppa Jack and Momma Shirley by radio. They agreed that an effort to save Harry and Marissa would be worthwhile but to not unnecessarily risk ourselves. Jack set up a listening watch for us to check in every two hours. We could miss one but not two or they would gather a party to ride out to rescue us or avenge our deaths. We were cautioned again not to do anything too risky.

Bennie and I then talked through a couple of plans. We moved back a distance and put together an ambush position that would allow us to stop any pursuit or at least give them pause as to the worth of following us.

We decided that we would need to cause a distraction to have any hope of helping Harry or Marissa. I would go around the camp and start a fire north of them. With the fire would be some timed explosions. When they went off, Bennie would try to get in and make the rescue. We would coordinate by our two-meter radios. The plan went off without a problem and the raiders left only two to guard Harry and Marissa. Bennie's practice with a bow and arrows paid off as he shot them and ran in to cut both our friends loose. He grabbed both of them and pulled them from the camp.

They were in bad shape, Harry having been beaten and Marissa raped repeatedly. On reaching his horse, Bennie put them on it and started leading them south away from the camp. As he did that he called me and told me what was happening. We would meet at our ambush point.

I rode at a moderate speed to keep the noise down yet make good time. We met at the ambush point and could hear that the bad guys had found Harry and Marissa gone and the guards dead. We heard the horses galloping our way.

We hunkered down and got ready for our little fight. We had set explosives and both of us had automatic rifles readied to hose down the area. I will never know what their leaders were thinking but they came to us riding hard. We set off the explosives and killed three leaving only six. Our rifles were on auto and we killed the rest. Neither of us made an effort to leave any of them alive.

Bennie went in to make sure all were dead while I tried to help Harry and Marissa. They would live but were scarred physically and mentally from their ordeal. They had never thought that people would do to any person what happened to them and their partners. Bennie returned and told me all the raiders were dead. I said, "Bennie, they aren't in any shape to go further. Go back and get the pack horse and our equipment. I'll stay here with them."

He left and returned about an hour later. I had moved about fifty yards and started a small fire for cooking and heat. It was shielded from casual looks but I knew Bennie would see it easily. I was correct. He unloaded our pack horse and set up the tent. We moved Marissa and Harry into it. I bathed Marissa gently with water Bennie got from a nearby creek and had heated. Bennie did the same for Harry bandaging the worst of his injuries. There were many bruises on both their bodies.

It had been a couple of hours since the ambush. Marissa suddenly asked, "Why did they treat us that way? We offered them no violence. They killed Charlie and Teresa for no reason and they made us watch. Why?" She cried.

I patted her and held her while she cried. She looked at me like I had answers. I said, "Some people are just not good. The virus didn't care whether or not you were a good person or a bad person.

"Bad people who were held in check by the cops are no longer restrained and they go about being worse and worse until someone or something stops them. My adopted dad, Jack, has had to stop his own uncle and cousin as well as a gang of others who had banded together to create a reign of terror that would spread everywhere if given the chance.

"I've learned from him and so did Bennie. We don't look for trouble but have found that dealing with it forthrightly and promptly is best. Also, being ready and able to fight for our rights frequently prevents the need for that fight.

"Things are different and we are watchful and protective. Failure can be fatal.

"I'm sorry for Teresa and Charlie. We'll bury them tomorrow. Get some sleep now."

It was a quiet night but Bennie and I stood watches just in case there was someone else who might cause trouble. In the morning, we prepared a simple breakfast and I woke Harry and Marissa. They came out slowly and painfully as they joined us for breakfast.

Marissa said, "What's going to happen to us? The farm is gone!"

Bennie replied, "That's up to you. You could rebuild or you could go to Preservation and seek to join them."

Marissa said, "Teresa and Charlie were the farmers. I was studying meteorology to be a broadcast weather person and Harry was studying marketing. We don't have value now. I don't think I would be wanted in front of a camera now." She said that feeling her torn and bruised face. Harry started to say something but just squeezed her hand.

I looked over at her. I said, "That's an understandable statement but it's also foolish. First, Harry cares about you not some exterior picture of a plastic person. Second, it's your mind and willingness to work that have worth. Those aren't damaged. There are women in Preservation who have suffered more and survived to become happy, loved members of our community. Some of the worst scars are inside and even those can be healed. You need to talk to my Momma Shirley. She will set you straight. She did that for me and for many others. That's why she and Poppa Jack are the leaders of Preservation."

When Bennie asked me to marry him, I sat him down in the living room at Poppa Jack and Momma Shirley's house and told him all my history. I also told him that I had become a Christian and a changed person. That's why he hadn't gotten into my pants! He had heard some rumors and this cleared the air. He kissed me and, in front of my adopted parents, asked me again to marry him. I said that I would. He said that he would be my earthly rock on which I could depend. It's worked out pretty well.

Harry and Marissa looked surprised about my foster parents but nodded slowly. We got out an old road map and marked it with where we were and a safe route to Preservation that was southwest of here. We had caught four horses from the raiders. We rode back slowly to the farm and, there, Harry and Bennie dug a common grave for Charlie and Teresa. Bennie prayed over that grave. We gave them both weapons and a two-meter radio tuned to the main repeater frequency. We marked places on the map and told them to call from there and wait for an answer for a few minutes. Bennie showed them what a repeater sounded like when it was keyed by using our heavier radio with more power than a hand-held. He reported in and told the watch stander that Harry and Marissa were on their way there in the morning and should be escorted to my parents at my request.

We moved down to I-20 for the night and parted ways in the morning. Two days later, we were told that they made it safely.

We had gone back to our plan that took us south of I-29 to the Rock Eagle 4-H Center near Eatonton. There really is a Rock Eagle!

We went to it first following the signs. It was put together by Indians many hundreds of years ago using large rocks. The fence around the mound of rock was down in spots but the old tower built before World War Two (according to the sign) was solid and the view of the eagle was magnificent. We walked back down and rode over to the lake with the camp on the other side. After looking around, we went over to the camp and used one of the public buildings on the edge of the lake with large, intact windows looking out onto the lake. We found canoes and, after popping a lock, paddles. We paddled all over the lake and had a good time. It was a carefree moment that was good after dealing with the raiders. We decided to spend a second night there even before we spent the first one. We went into one of the cabins and extracted mattresses to give us a comfortable bed and had a great night and a good, though exhausted sleep.

We woke up the next morning with aching arms from the unaccustomed paddling but the aches quickly went away as we exercised while doing our usual morning chores. The day could not have been better. It was one of those clear, bright, hot fall days that Georgia has and we made the most of it. We would skinny dip in the lake and then sun bathe nude until the sun warmed our bodies through. Then we would skinny dip again to repeat the process. We went through the camp's administrative offices and dining hall just looking around. We would leave in the morning. That night on the radio, we told everyone that it was a place that should be visited repeatedly and kept intact for the future.

We bid Rock Eagle a fond farewell and left heading back north to look for more area to explore. We went north back to I-20 and then turned east. It was another beautiful, warm fall day in Georgia. Soon, we passed over the bridge for Lake Oconee and drifted further east following I-20. We rode a little further and then dropped south to follow the signs to Reynolds Plantation, an expensive housing development on that lake before the Day. We rode through it and found it deserted. It seemed that no one had any use for this developed land since there was so much good farming land and so few people.

We left there and headed back north and east cutting across looking for people or I-20. This was good farming land but never had many people in it even before the Day. We continued on at an easy pace for the rest of the day ending up close to Warrenton and entered the town. We saw signs of people but no one around. Bennie gave me his alert signal but no panic. We began to look for signs of people and make ourselves obvious. It was risky but a couple usually did not worry people too much.

We had wandered through the town and were headed back out and around when a man stepping out from a porch stopped us. He had a rifle on his arm but I noticed his eyes flicker to both sides so he wasn't alone. We came closer to him and dismounted. We left our rifles on our saddles as he looked clean and neat which suggested he lived here.

Bennie said, "Hello, it's good to see you. I'm Bennie and this is my wife, Janice. We're from Preservation."

I said, "Hi," and smiled.

He smiled back in a friendly way. He said, "I'm James Robertson and live around here. What brings you people to these parts?"

Bennie said, "We're from a new community, Preservation, located close to Carrollton. We farm and have some manufacturing capability that we have re-established. Janice and I are exploring to find other groups to make contact and find out how people are doing."

"How big is your group?"

Bennie responded, "Let's sit down in the shade while your friends check our back trail and verify that we're alone. I'll be glad to tell you about Preservation and its history and ours."

James thought for a moment and then nodded. He led us into a store with tables and chairs. It looked like a general store that was converted into a meeting place. The shelves weren't bare but weren't full either. He said, "Okay, we'll do that. I think you're telling the truth and the boys won't find anyone. Point guards don't usually have a pack animal. Now, let's hear about this Preservation."

Bennie looked at me so I started. I said, "Preservation started as the outgrowth of the Mathews family who lives and farms close to Carrollton. Most of the members of the family were immune to the virus and survived. One of the grandsons is my adoptive father, Jack. He and his wife were students at Georgia Tech in engineering and married after the Day. They adopted me after I was found. Shirley, my mom, was a ham before the Day. The community is connected all across its territory by radios and we have electrical power. We named the community after we went over one hundred people. We are growing slowly but steadily as people come to us. We had short spots on CNN and other networks after the Day when they were still on. We also contacted many people by radio. Bennie came to us with his parents and friends from Nebraska.

"We protect our territory but aren't interested in conquering others. We are friends by radio with a few other communities. Bennie and I are exploring this area well east of us to see who is still around and try to make friends and seek to be allied with other good people. There are good people out in the world as well as bad. We ran into one of the bad groups a few days ago.

"We had met two couples living and working together and had lunch with them. Later that night after we left, they were attacked. One couple was killed and the other taken prisoner. We saw the smoke and were able to rescue one couple killing off the raiders in the process. There were too many for us to try to take any of them prisoner safely."

James started at that news. He said, "They came though here a week or so ago. They wiped out a farm before we could do anything. We killed off a few of them and they went west."

Bennie said, "They went north after a while and found Charlie, Teresa, Harry, and Marissa. Harry and Marissa survived but were burned out. They were headed to Preservation and have reached one of the outlying farms.

"What we offer are radios and our expertise. We have radios for distant communications as well as local talk. There are people in Preservation who would be willing to help you set up a radio network of your own as well as show you how to put together small electrical stations for power generation.

"We want friends and fellow travelers in what is now a new, yet old world."

James looked at us hard and said, "You have electrical power? We lost the grid and, except for a few generators, have nothing and those are running out of fuel."

I answered, "My adoptive father, Jack, is the one who led that. He figured that the grid wouldn't last long with the spring storms and started making plans for water turbines to generate power. He created a pond on his farm for that purpose and built the first station that powers his house and ours. We can now build water turbines, thanks to Bennie's father and another man in our machine shop. We don't have any natural gas, gasoline or diesel reserves but there's plenty of water to be accessed. I'm proud of my daddy Jack."

James looked at me and smiled. He said, "I can see that and don't blame you. Tell me more about the radios. We might have saved Mike and Linda if they could have gotten a warning out that they needed help."

Bennie said, "It's not hard. It's a step well beyond CB's if you know about those. Hams before the Day had to take and pass tests to get their licenses. They are knowledgeable about electricity and radios generally. My experience is from after coming to Preservation and meeting Janice.

"We use the two-meter band radios to communicate locally and across Preservation. Two-meter radios can talk to each other but also use what are called repeaters to extend the range. A repeater is a two-meter station that is mounted on a high point and tower to give good coverage. It receives a signal on one frequency and re-transmits it on another close to it automatically. We have a string of repeaters interconnected to cover all of Preservation and more. There is a local two-meter net every night for people to talk as well as have conversations during the day. Someone monitors that frequency pretty much all the time.

"The HF radios are for more long distance. Jack and Shirley have talked to hams who survived all over the US and in other countries. They call on some popular frequencies on a regular basis to seek out new people and to talk to others far away that they have already met. Most of that right now is just conversation but we hope to expand our travels in future years."

"And you say you are willing to introduce those radios into our community?"

"Yes, we are willing but the decision is for your community to make."

Two other men came in and said to James. "It looks like they're clean. There are no different tracks all the way to I-20. Just them."

James said, "That's good. Marv and Bubba, meet Bennie and Janice. They come from Preservation, a new place over around Carrollton. They are out exploring."

They shook hands with Bennie and nodded politely to me.

James continued talking to us, "Tell us about how we can get these radios."

I said, "Why don't we set one up at a central point? It isn't hard and doesn't take long."

All three of them nodded. Bennie and I walked out to the horses and he whispered to me, "Be careful. I haven't seen any women. I would be happier if there were some here." I nodded as we took the bag containing the extra radios into the store. Bennie said to them, "Where should we set up?"

James replied, "Here is as good as any place. We meet here 'most every day. Our womenfolk should be here soon."

I wondered if he heard Bennie out by the horses. We had an extra two-meter radio and an HF radio. We set the two-meter in place and had Marv go outside and fasten its antenna to a pole sticking up from the side of the building. We went back outside and brought back a battery. We connected everything up and called Preservation. Our easternmost repeater was very well located and the land was flat between our current location and its site. We made it in! A few seconds later, Momma Shirley said, "Who's there?"

"Hi, Mom. It's me, Janice. Bennie and I are in Warrenton just south of I-20 close to Augusta. How's my signal?" These guys didn't know it but asking for a signal report was a warning that we weren't sure of the situation. The signal from a repeater is always good. Sometimes, the signal to the repeater was questionable.

"Good signal, Janice. There is a little white noise. You said you are in Warrenton?"

"Roger, dodger. We are talking with James, Marv, and Bubba here. They have a group here and are interested in the radios."

"Very well. Hello to each of you; James, Marv, and Bubba. I send you best wishes from Preservation. I am Shirley Mathews. My husband, Jack, is the elected Director of Preservation. He should be in shortly. We farm and raise cattle and horses. Tell me a little about your situation."

I handed the mike over to let someone speak. James took it reluctantly and pressed the button, "Uh, I'm James, James Robertson. We live here at Warrenton since before the Day. Janice tells me that you are over one hundred strong and have electricity."

"Oh, yes, we are closer to three hundred now and every house that's inhabited is powered and has a radio or two. How many people live in your community?"

James responded, "That's a lot of people. Is it true that you stay in contact by radio?"

Warning bells were going off in my head. I am sure the same was happening to Bennie. James was going out of his way to avoid the question.

Shirley responded, "James, I think it's your turn to answer a question. How many people live in your community?"

James looked grim. He nodded at Marv and Bubba who converged on Bennie. My Bennie's a big guy and very strong. James got a surprise when I didn't wait for his move but attacked him. Before he could protect himself, I kneed him hard and he folded. My pistol was in my hand covering the room. Marv and Bubba were down and Bennie was still up and looked untouched. I reached over to the radio and picked up the mike. "Momma, they tried but weren't successful. We have them covered. I will call back when I have more information. Janice clear."

Bennie said, "Now, you will answer our questions and don't pause or you will feel pain. Janice has you covered. James, we will start with the fingers of your right hand."

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