Part 9: Jericho - Part 6

13th of November 2077 - Jericho, Bailey’s Tavern:

A week has passed since the deaths of the outsiders and only a few things had changed. The first thing that changed was that Kaidan had started to move some people down to the underground settlement. These people were to help with building small homes for people on the second and third floors that were cleared, bedrooms and living rooms, they had a canteen for meal times so that people can interact with others with two huge bathrooms for males and females. The reason that Kaidan had people sharing the canteen and bathrooms was to save space. Whilst the floors were huge, he had no idea what they would need in the future and things they would need to build for the future, so it was better to save room now instead of breaking things down in the future. As people would complain more than then they would now, as they would be used to it by then. But everything that he did was to make their lives better, than if they don’t fully like it.

Now with the weather getting colder and a few people already dying because of the cold, any warm clothes that they found in the now-abandoned homes, were stored away safely or given to people who needed them. In fact, Kaidan was planning to send some people out to search for warm clothes, as they would be needing them soon enough. As the long winter was upon them and before they knew it, it’ll be the survival of the fittest, where clothes and food will be the main point of surviving in this new world for the next few years.

Now the people that he had living in the new settlement were those who were living in the salt mine. The reason for this was that he wanted to use the mines for the animals instead of them going in the dome, as he wanted to use the dome for the farm area to grow even more food. In fact, Benitez had created tunnels under the entrance of the mine; it had small caves where people could live. But Kaidan was going to use this area for other things, a place to grow food for them and keep the tools needed to look after the animals. He was also having a place to store the wool, milk and the like down here too, anything that could help them in the future.

Another thing that changed was that he was removing the items from the homes under the dome, where their owners were no longer there and moved them to the settlement to be sorted out. Once the home was empty, it would be levelled so that the only thing that was left was sole. The reason for this was to prepare the land to be used as a farm area. As once most of the people were moved to the settlement, Kaidan was going to level all the homes apart for a few for the farmers to live in, and the hospital. The hospital was staying up for one main reason, the place was going to be used as a research centre to research new medicine, seeing how they won’t be able to get any of the old ones and so have to design new ones if they want to live. So he was going to use the dome not only as a farm but a place to build a few greenhouses to grow herbs and such to create new medicine.

Now the last noteworthy thing that Kaidan did was to visit the facility in the mountains, now that was an interesting event. As they found a new race of human hybrids, just like Anna May, but unlike her who was half cat and known as a Khajiit, they were huge humanoid mammoths. You heard right, humanoid mammoths. You see, this group that called their new forms Mammothodon, were looking after a huge herd of mammoths.

As it was explained by the Elder of the Mammothodon, they and the mammoths were created by a group called the Enclave. The Elder explained that one of the people who were here years ago before leaving a few months ago was really talkative to them and so explained a few bits. Like how the Enclave created other hybrids like them, that they were part of a shadow government. This government was trying to create a new human race, a race that wouldn’t be easy to destroy, a race that could live in space. The person also said that they had plans to test people before going to space, to see how people would react to certain situations. But before the person could say more, he was removed from the facility. Not that Kaidan was surprised, as the saying loose lips sink ships came to mind. Whoever these Enclave people were, they didn’t want people talking about their secrets and so would remove the person, even killing them.

The Elder went on to explain that apart from creating them, the same back story as Anna May’s, these Enclave people also somehow created the mammoths. From what they understood, these Enclave people recreated the mammoths as they feared with the war going so badly, they feared that nukes would be used and there would be a nuclear winter. So the mammoths came about, to be used to get from point a to point b, they were modified to withstand radiation and any other virus and illness that may happen after a nuclear war. And as for them, the Mammothodon, they were created to look after the mammoths because of how powerful and big they were, these Enclave people didn’t want their people to be killed by the mammoths, so they designed the Mammothodon as they would be bigger and stronger than normal humans.

That day was very insightful, as Kaidan learned about these Enclave people and that they were behind Anna May and the others who became Khajiits and the Argonian. The Spectres suspected that there could be more like them, humans becoming hybrids, but until now had no proof, but here it was. Not only was there a shadow government experimenting on people to create a new super race, but they were also planning to do more experiments, but Kaidan had no idea what. Not that it mattered now, he had other problems to deal with. He learned that the Enclave for some reason abandoned the Mammothodons and left them to their fate, leaving behind just the basics, tools, seeds and less important things, since then the Mammothodons.

At the moment the Elder of the Mammothodons and Kaidan were in talks, Kaidan was hoping that he could gain these Mammothodons as allies. This way he could get his hands on the mammoths and have the Mammothodons help when it got too cold for them on the surface. Right now, there was no movement in the talks, but Kaidan was hoping that in the next few days/weeks he could gain an alliance, at least before the ice and snow started to fall.

Either way, Kaidan was at Bailey’s Tavern having a drink. It had been a hard time recently, with everything he was forced to do of late, thanks to becoming the new Commander, he thought he would take a break for a while. Sure he might like to keep busy, but even he needed to take a break and think things over and rest. With everything he has been through, he thought he would take one now before getting back to work.

“How’s your brother?” he heard Mary Bailey, the owner of Bailey’s Tavern, ask Jake.

“Eric pretty much keeps to himself.” Jake informed her, “Spends a lot of time at work making sure the town stays on its feet.”

“Really? That’s odd.” said Mary, I just figured he’d be spending a little more time with his wife with the world ending and all.” Like she really cared, sure he might only have been in town for a short while, but Kaidan soon found out that she and Eric were having an affair. He was surprised with how small the town was, more people didn’t know. Then again, it could be something new and no one knew yet, or they did but decided not to get involved or both.

“They seem pretty happy together.” said Jake, although Kaidan sensed that Jake suspected something was up but decided not to say anything. Kaidan could tell that Jake and his family didn’t get along because of whatever happened in the past, he just hoped that the past wouldn’t be a problem.

Like a hex going off, he heard someone say, “Mitchell, wait up.”

Here a man in his late twenties came into the tavern and walking up to the bar, he said, “Looking good, Mary.”

“Oh no, we are not doing this again, Mitch. You’re not welcome here.” Mary told him, it would seem that the two had history and it wasn’t a good one.

“Come on. After everything that’s happened?” Mitchell told her, “Listen, I’m just looking for a cold beer.”

“We haven’t served anything cold in a long time.” Mary informed

“Just give me whatever you got.” Mitch told her. But when she didn’t move to get him a drink, he said, “Or I’ll get it myself.”

“You might want to rethink that.” Jake told him, making himself known.

“Wow, everyone thought you went up in the blast. But I knew you’d find a way to survive.” Mitch told Jake, as he walked up to the man and held his hand out for Jake to shake. Which he didn’t do, and so Mitch said, “Oh, come on, let’s not do it like this. Besides, anyone should have a grudge, it’s me. Right? I mean, you left me holding the bag when you blew town.”

It would seem that these two have history, and it didn’t end up well. Kaidan knew he should stop this, but he wanted to see how this panned out, to see what type of man Jake really was like. So he let it be.

“You know what, you’re right.” Jake said as he stood up from the bar and began to walk away, but saying as he went, “Don’t make me kick your ass again.”

“Is everything all right?” asked Robert Hawkins, who moments ago entered the tavern and saw Miitch grab hold of Jake’s arm.

“You travel with your own personal bodyguard?” Mitch asked with a smirk, “You know, it’s probably not a bad idea.”

“I don’t need a bodyguard,” Jake told him as he pulled his arm away, Kaidan could see that Jake was holding back, not wanting to hurt the other man, “I’m not the same man as I was five years ago.”

“What’s the trouble here?” asked Robert.

“Oh, no trouble. We’re just two old friends catching up.” Mitch told the black man.

“Well, maybe you should do that some other place.” said Robert, trying to prevent a fight. “And some other time.”

“I’ll see you soon. Right, pal?” asked Mitch, but he left without getting an answer, not wanting to start problems with only him and his mate there. As he and his friend left, Robert followed them to make sure they stayed away.

But as the three left the tavern, Kaidan walked up to Jake and asked, “Is he going to be a problem for the town?”

“No, everything will be fine.” Jake told the Commander.

“Listen, I can tell you two have history and normally I would let the past stay in the past.” Kaidan informed him, “But if that past is going to cause the town or me problems, then I can’t let the past stay in the past. So I ask again: Is he going to be a problem for the town?”

Jake sighed at this, knowing that the commander needed to know this, even if he didn’t want to talk about it. So he said, “Mitch isn’t a problem, his bark is worse than his bite, he isn’t someone I can’t deal with.”

“But?” Kaidan asked the man, sensing a but coming.

“It’s his boss, the person that he works for, Jonah Prowse, he could be a problem.” Jake admitted with a sigh, “You can say that five years ago I wasn’t the man you see today, I ran among the wrong crowd, a survivalist group that Jonah ran. But I got into something that went south badly. A job that I didn’t want to go on, a bank robbery, but had to do to keep a friend safe, Jonah’s son and Emily’s brother Chris. But it didn’t work out as planned and Chris died because of it. In a moment of flight or fight, I picked the latter and fled town, leaving Mitch with holding the bag you can say.”

“I see, so that’s why Mitch has a problem with you and Emily gives you death glares when she thinks no one sees, they blame you.” Kaidan worked out what was going on.

“Rightly so,” admitted Jake, “I’m not happy with the man that I was, nor the things that I had to do during the five years away, but I’m trying to be a better man now. Making a change, to show that I’m not the same person that I used to be. It isn’t easy, but I’m trying.”

“Fair enough.” Kaidan acknowledged this, before asking, “But I need to know, as a survivalist, would Jonah be someone I can talk to, to prevent any problems down the line.”

“If you give Jonah a good enough deal, I believe so.” Jake acknowledged after he gave it a few moments thoughts, “Say what you like about him, at the end of the day you do him good unless he is protecting what is his or he believes is right unless you can prove him wrong, he can be a reasonable man to deal with. But what you have to look out for is his men, he gave them a lot of freedom to do as they like and that has gotten into their head that they can do what they like unless it upsets Jonah, even then some think they are better than him. So you need to be careful when making a deal with Jonah, if not done right, you might have to deal with his men who might think that Jonah has gone soft.”

“I see,” this gave Kaidan a lot to think about, “do you think you can get me a seat down with the man?”

“Honestly?” asked Jake, “I don’t know, right now, I think Jonah would rather kill me than listen to what I have to say. But if his men are in town, they’ll more than likely inform him what is happening in town and he’ll come to you instead of you going to him. What you’re doing is a survivalist dream come true, he would want a part of it if he can make a good deal out of it.”

“I see...” Kaidan said simply as he set back down to finish his drink as Jake left, he had a lot to think about and things to plan should he meet up with this Jonah. Who knew that three weeks could change a person’s life this much, he didn’t.

o0OoO0o

13th of November 2077 - Sometime later, Jericho, The Green’s Ranch:

It was a few hours later and Kaidan was at the Green’s Ranch, he had gotten news that their horse had been stolen. So he had come here to see if they were okay and see if he could do anything to help. Once he knocked and heard someone call out, come in, he entered the house.

“I can’t believe it’s not broken.” April Green, the town’s doctor, told her mother-in-law. It would seem that Gail was hurt when the horses were stolen, “I’ll get you some aspirin for the pain and swelling. I’m sorry I can’t offer anything stronger.”

“It’s okay, honey. I don’t need anything else.” Gail told her softly.

“Don’t argue with her, Gail. Doctor’s orders.” Johnston told his wife, but as he thought about what happened, he muttered, “Damn bastards.”

Deciding to deal with the problem with the medicine, he asked, “April, don’t we have any stronger medicine? I thought I had people get some when I first got here.”

“Yes they got some, but they got mainly the basics. Since then I have had a lot of people to treat and they recently ran out.” explained April.

Kaidan sighed at this, not liking that they were out of the stronger medicine that they needed. He knew this would happen sooner or later, but he didn’t think it would be this soon though. “Listen April, inform Heather what you need and I’ll have someone go into the towns to see what they can get.”

“Thanks, Commander, I’ll do that.” said April.

“Jake, where are you going?” asked Gail as he came downstairs and was about to leave the house.

“And then what?” asked Johnston as he stood up to stop his son from doing something stupid.

“I don’t know yet.” admitted Jake with a sigh.

“Hold on, Jake.” his brother told him, “You don’t know he’s behind it”

“It was him.” Jake said confidently, he was certain that Mitch was behind all this. With Mitch recently entering the town and this happening, Kaidan had to believe it was no coincidence that it was Mitch behind this too.

“Listen, Jake, you said yourself, you didn’t get a good look.” Eric told his brother, who like his father didn’t want Jake to do something stupid.

“Now look, you know I would like nothing better than to string up the guys who did this, but that’s not the way we do things.” Johnston told his son as he closed the door, “Last time you got mixed up with Mitch Cafferty, you left town and a boy was dead.”

“I’m not that guy anymore.”

“Yeah?” his father asked him sceptically, as he put his hand behind his son’s back and pulled out a gun and said, “Let’s just make sure that it stays that way.”

“Listen, dad, if I don’t take care of him, he’ll come back.” Jake warned his father, “He could be out...”

“We’ve got to do this right.” Johnston told his son, “If this family starts breaking the law, how are we supposed to enforce it?”

“Listen, Jake, there are times where you need to fight fire with fire, and laws be damned.” Kaidan agreed with Jake to a point, seeing that Johnston was going to argue at this, he went on to say, “Listen, Johnston, I know you prefer to keep the law, but with the government gone, the law is no longer there. We need to do what is right and defend ourselves the best way that we can. But you’re right, we have to do this right, for two reasons, so that we don’t become as bad as them, hurting the innocent for no reason. If we know for 100% sure that they were behind this, I’m all for punishing them in a way to make people think twice about going against us. But right now that’s not wise, as it could cause more problems than we need. Not if I want to work with Jonah, I want to keep his men alive. Punished yes, but alive. So we can’t do things rushed and without thought.”

“You’re joking right?” Eric asked in shock, “Do you know what sort of man he is?”

“Yes, a survivalist.” Kaidan said simply, “I have seen many like him, doing whatever it took to prepare for any adverse circumstances, some might work hard to pay for what they need should something bad happen. But some, like Jonah, would commit crimes to pay for what they need. Because of this, he’ll have food, fuel and other things that we might need, stored somewhere only he and his men know of, bunkers, abandoned homes and the like, places where no one would think of looking. So it would be better to have him with us instead of against us. Wouldn’t you say?”