Part 7: Jericho - Part 4.

(Aftermath - Chapter 6!)

Jericho - Part 4.

26th of October 2077, Noon - Jericho:

It was around noon when Kaidan finally got around to waking up, since the bombing and the end of the world, Kaidan didn’t have a decent night sleep. As his body was tense, ready to wake up at a moment’s notice to deal with any trouble that the town might have. The moment that it started to rain radiative rain he was able to relax and not to worry about anything troubling the town for a while, as anyone caught up in this rain would die a slow and painful death. So he knew he could sleep without worries.

Because of this, he was able to sleep longer than he normally would. When he woke up after sleeping for so long, he felt more relaxed than he felt for a long while. As he woke up and looked around and found himself alone in the room, naked, and that the time was half twelve. With no one there, Kaidan got dressed and went to see how things were under the dome.

But as he left the room and went downstairs, he met the last person he wanted to see right now, Heather’s sis, Faye. Knowing that she might bring up what happened to her sister the night, so he beat her to the punch, “Listen, about last night -”

“I don’t want to hear about it!” Faye cut him off, “I don’t agree with it fully, but seeing how she seemed much better than the last few days, I’ll let it be and not say anything more. But I warn you though, Commander or not, I’ll hurt you if you ever hurt her, know this.”

“You have my word, I have no intention to hurt her.” Kaidan admitted to her.

“In that case, we have nothing more to talk about the subject.” Faye told him, “Now, I’m here to see if you’re up seeing how its noon.”

“Thanks for that,” he thanked her, “that was the longest that I slept in a while. So is there anything I should know?”

“Not really, with the rain pouring down, there’s little for anyone to do or nothing they can do to get into trouble. So things are quiet for now.” Faye informed the Commander.

“That’s good to hear.” Kaidan said with a sigh of relief, he really didn’t want to deal with any trouble right at the moment with being able to get relaxed after everything. Dealing with trouble is the last thing he wanted to do.

“But you should know that there was one death sometime last night, a miner named Scott Rennie.” Faye told him, “Nothing for you to worry about, from what I was told, he seemed to have a panic attack that led to him having a heart attack. But I thought you should know about it.”

“Not surprising, to be honest, I was suspecting at least a few deaths in the upcoming days, weeks and months.” Kaidan admitted with a sigh, something even Faye knew would happen and like her Commander, hoped wouldn’t have happened so soon with how people were. “I need to know, was there anything that our Healers could have done to save him? I know that some people might use this against us if our Healers didn’t do anything to help him.”

Faye could understand where Kaidan was coming from, there were quite a few people who didn’t like them there and would want to find any reason to kick them out of town once the rain stopped. Thankfully there was nothing their Healers could have helped the man. “Unfortunately there was nothing they could have done, most of the Healers were asleep or falling asleep. So unless someone called for them, there was nothing they could have done. Not only that, we found him at the other end of the mine, not where we set up the medical area in case of medical needs. So once again, unless someone calls for a Healer or comes to find one, there is nothing they can do about it.”

“I know this isn’t a good thing to say, but I’m glad, at least we can’t be blamed for this.” Kaidan said with a sigh of relief, as they left the house and headed to see the mayor at the clinic. Not only to see how the mayor was doing because of his illness, but they set it up to be a temporary City Hall until they can sort things out.

“But you do know someone might try though?” Faye said knowingly, there were just people who want nothing more but to cause trouble for others.

“You just had to jinx it didn’t you, now we’ll have at least one person try.” Kaidan sighed, it was like the world had this sick sense of humour, where someone says something won’t but another says that it will and half of the time the world seems to make it happen. It was a bother at times. “Whatever, if it happens, I’ll deal with it then, can’t worry about things that I can’t deal with until it happens. For we should try and get the underground facility sorted as soon as possible, so when the weather gets cold, we’ll have a place where we don’t have to worry about the cold and people dying.”

“What about the rest of the people around the country?” Faye asked worriedly.

“Not much we can do other than what we’re doing now,” Kaidan said with a sigh, “sending advice over the radio and hope people can hear us and they take it. Other than that, we can only hope for the best.”

As much as Faye hated to admit it, that was all they could do, send out advice and hope for the best. “So about the facility, what are the plans to clear it out? When are you going to do it?”

“I was thinking that after the recent events, I want everyone to recuperate, mourn for their lost one and come to terms with what happened.” explained Kaidan, “So I’ll give it a few days before I decide what to do next.”

“To be honest, I think that’s a good idea,” admitted Faye, “too much has happened, people, as you said, recuperate, mourn for their lost one and comes to terms with what happened.”

By the time they came to this point, they found themselves in front of the clinic. As they entered, they met up with Alice. “Commander, it’s nice to see you up, are you okay?”

“I’m doing good after having a long rest, thanks,” Kaidan thanked her, “how are you? Anything that I should know?”

“A bit tired but I’m good, Commander.” Alice replied, “There’s nothing of importance that you should know, but there’s something I think you find interesting. Some of our people were able to hack into the computers in the underground facility. As you would expect the information was deleted, but we were able to recover a few things. It’s a bit of hit and miss, but there seems to be another facility in the mountains, where they have been breeding some sort of animals.”

“Really?” asked Kaidan, “What sort of animals?”

“That we haven’t been able to recover,” admitted Alice, “but what we did was that they are meant to be able to survive the cold of the nuclear winter and able to use them to get around.”

“So, they knew about the bombing beforehand?” Kaidan asked with a hint of anger, thinking that whoever was behind creating L’Cies and the two hidden facilities was also behind the end of their world?

“I’m not too sure about that.” Alice said unsure, “From the records that we recovered, it’s highly possible that they foresee this possibility and so designed animals that could help them should it ever happen.”

“Hmm, I see.” Kaidan said thoughtfully, but there was doubt in his mind though, there were way too many things unanswered and it would seem that all these answers led back to these people who created the L’Cies and the two hidden facilities. Who knows what else they might have done if they were behind the bombing or not. He would have to look more into this when they could search the facilities. “I want you to build a team to search the place when the rain stops, as I want to see what sort of animals we’re dealing with. So you know, I’ll be coming too, no matter what you say. I need to see it first hand. It’s not like we’ll be going to battle, as more than likely they abandoned the site when they abandoned this facility.”

Alice could see her Commander’s reasoning, as it was highly possible that was the case, but at the same time, there was some risk to it. But she got a feeling that no matter what she said, he would come either way. So, she made a compromise, “That’s fine Commander, but only if you agree that you stay behind the people I send and if any trouble happens, you make a run for it, no matter what. If you can’t agree to this, I’ll have to force you to stay here or send people without you knowing.”

Once again Kaidan really hated being the Commander, as he couldn’t be in the fields as much as he liked. He was a man of action, but now he was forced to be a leader and work behind the scenes, something he was quickly starting to hate. But without another person to take his place, it was difficult, he would be forced to make compromises to work in the fields when he wants. “Okay, that’s fine with me.” Kaidan agreed regretfully, then thinking of other matters, he said, “Alice, I want you to get a few Earth L’Cies from here and in the mine to create a tunnel to connect the two of us. I would like for everyone to rest, but hearing the report of someone having a heart attack got me thinking. What if there was another emergency, something that the Healers can’t handle and need the clinic? With the rain, they wouldn’t have an easy time of it. So we need a way to let them get here. Not only that, but I feel as if it’ll help them relax more, so they don’t have to panic and wonder what is going on.”

Alice had to admit that the Commander had a decent idea, for people being stuck with nowhere to go could be hellish. They would have panic attacks being in a small place, with no way to do anything like have a walk, do exercise or doing whatever it was to keep them sane. This way they can go back and forth and be able to talk to their friends and family. This should help a lot, have fewer people stressing and fewer fights.

So with a smile, she said, “I’ll get it done now.” And with that Alice left to find L’Cies in the area who would be willing to help, before using the radio to talk to those in the mine to see who can help there. She hoped that the tunnel would be done by the end of today or at the very least tomorrow.

With that out of the way, Kaidan turned to Faye and said, “Well, with that sorted I’ll see the mayor, to see if he is okay, that I need to find Anna May and talk to her. What about you, what are you going to do now?”

“To be honest, I have no plans, not with unable to go out until the rain stops.” admitted Faye.

“In that case, spend time with your sister. As once the rain stops, we’ll be busy with the facilities that we won’t know the next time we’ll have spare time to spend with our loved ones.” Kaidan suggested to Faye, wanting her to spend time with her sister for a bit. Make sure there was no feeling between the two and him, he wanted an efficient relationship with Faye.

As Faye thought about it, she realized that the commander was right, when the rain stops, they’ll be busy for a while and won’t be able to talk as much as they would like. Not only that but because of her work as Spectre and her undercover work for the Spectres, so it would be great to spend some free time with her sister. “Thanks, Commander, I think I’ll just do that, it has been a while since I’ve been able to do such a thing.”

“That’s good. I’ll come and find you if I need anything. Have a good day Faye.” said Kaidan as the two parted ways.

o0OoO0o

26th of October 2077, Sort time later - Jericho:

It was about an hour later that Kaidan and Faye parted, since then the new commander spoke to the mayor of this town, seeing how he was. The mayor was resting and Doctor Kandel told him that as long as he rests and take things easy, he should be fine within a week or so. The mayor was upset about the death of Scott Rennie, he knew him and his family, it was a great shame. He wished that there was something he could have done to prevent Rennie’s death.

Kaidan told the mayor about the tunnel that he had the Earth L’Cies doing so that they could come and go from the mines and the town. The mayor was happy to hear this, this way they could see their friends and family and give hope to people. Something that they all need right now. After some small talk, Kaidan left the mayor to rest as he went to find Anna May, this leads to now, the two of them in the house that they were staying in.

“Anna May, why did you let what happened last night happen?” asked Kaidan. He wasn’t blaming her fully, he was more to blame than her, as he could have easily said no. But she went to the loo and never came back, so she must have known or at least suspected that something was going to happen and she wanted it to. But he couldn’t think of any reason for it, so it was better to ask her outright instead of guessing and suspecting things.

“To get you used to having more than one partner Master.” explained Anna May, deciding it’s best not to lie or beat around the bush here.

“What do you mean?” asked Kaidan, not sure what she was getting at, “I’m fine with just having you. Why would I need anyone else?”

“If it was any other time, I would be happy to hear you say that Master.” Anna May said with a bright smile, glad to hear this, “But with how the world is now, that isn’t practical.”

“What do you mean?” asked Kaidan, wondering where she was going with this.

“You see Master, whilst you’re trying to save as many people as possible have you thought about how we’re going to rebuild this world?” asked Anna May.

“What do you mean?” Kaidan inquired, “We use the survivors to rebuild the world.”

“Yes, but we don’t know how many survivors there will be.” explained Anna May, “The best/worst-case scenario, the death count right now is around three hundred million deaths, that’s not counting the deaths to come, from lack of food, radiation poisoning and whatever new threats that we’ll be forced to face. So that count will go higher.”

Kaidan knew this, but he was hoping against hope that it wasn’t going to be so bad, that there would be fewer deaths than suspected. That with the advice that they were giving out over the radio, they could save many more lives. But still. What had this got to do with her wanting him to get used to having more than one partner, so he asked, “What has this got to you wanting me to get used to having another partner?”

“Because I was thinking that to repopulate the world when things come down, even before then, we would need to have men to be with a small group of women, for them to have a small harem.” Anna May informed her Master of her idea.

“Before I give you my thoughts on this, do you think this would actually work? How would it work out?” asked Kaidan, wanting to know this before he could say anything. He already felt that this idea could go wrong, but he wanted to hear Anna May’s thoughts before saying anything.

“Haven’t you seen how many more women there is than there are men in town?” asked Anna May, “Because most women that don’t live in large towns/cities stay in their small towns or villages to work, unlike men who normally work in huge towns/cities, they are alive now after the bombs. As for the men, they are alive because they work in the small towns or villages, that or they were ill or were having the day off for whatever reason and so weren’t able to get into work.”