Part 11 - Jericho Part 9

26th of January 2078 - Jericho:

It has been about a month since Heather left for New Bern. Over that time, things had gotten harder for the settlement, food had gotten harder to find, be it animals or going into towns to look for them. Because of this, the rations got tightened and they had to move out further from the town and areas. There were even arguments and fights about this, people believing that the refugees should leave, as the residents of Jericho should come first. The problem is that the towns that they looked at were already looted, and the animals had all disappeared, not even their bones or bodies could be found.

They found out the reason for this when Jake and Stanley took Mimi to learn about hunting, as Stanley wanted to make sure that should anything happen to him, she knew how to look after herself and his sister. When on a hunt, they found camps, where people were heading south trying to escape the cold winter, not realizing it was no good. On their way south, they hunted and looted places to take care of themselves.

On their way further out, they were attacked by bandits. They tried to escape them, but before they could, and before Jake could activate his powers, they were run off the road and the car was turned, trapping Jake under it and Stanley and Mimi were slightly hurt. With Jake unable to use his powers, Stanley had Mimi go off to get help as he kept an eye on Jake. Although it took until nightfall, and Mimi got lost, Jake was saved by his father and mother who came looking for them.

As Gail went to find the others, Jake nearing unconsciousness and not thinking right, informed his father that he killed a child of no more than ten or twelve when he was abroad. When Kaidan walked into a conversation between father and son, he heard about this and wanted Jake to see one of the Spectre’s counsellors, as he knew how bad it could be holding such things in. Whilst not physically damaging, it was mentally damaging and if not sorted out, could do damage to the person eventually. Only a rare few can get by with this sort of thing without breaking down.

At first, Jake didn’t want to do this, but his father told him that he should, as a former Ranger, as he too had seen a counsellor in the past for the things that he had seen and done. It helped him, and he believed that it would help Jake eventually. Whilst not one hundred per cent about this, Jake agreed to this, as he was doing this for his father and hopefully help him with the nightmares that he had been having since that day.

Whilst the counsellor couldn’t tell him everything, they were able to tell him that during his time aboard, Jake’s convoy was attacked and some of his men were killed. With no rule’s engagement, and knowing the village that they went to, they went to the village and started to attack to get their things back. They killed six of the shooters but at the same time four bystanders, one of them being a twelve-year-old girl. The problem that Jake had was that there were no repercussions, as the army nor the police had no authority over them, most of the men went back home as nothing happened. But Jake, he was never the same again, he had been trying to forget about it all. As the company wanted the incident gone, and because they had so much power and influence, it was done, and nothing was said about it again.

The only other thing the counsellor was willing to say was that coming back home and the end of the world, Jake was sure it was a way to redeem himself. To protect his town and loved ones, and so would be willing to do whatever it took to do so. Hearing this, Kaidan knew he had to be careful with Jake, as he knew people would go as far as nearly killing themselves or killing themselves to do this. Something Kaidan couldn’t allow to happen, as Jake was a key player in the town, should he die, it would be hard around the place.

Now, a few days after this, a platoon of Marines arrives with a tank and promises to help with reconstruction, saying that the government has been sorted out and was slowly fixing things. Unfortunately for these Marines, there were people who knew the truth, that they were conning trying to con the village, as there hasn’t been a government for almost a year now. When called out about it, the men in the group pulled their guns to try and get themselves out of there, realizing that their con wasn’t going to work.

Not wanting to risk the lives there, on calling on a highly possible bluff, they allowed them to go. But as they left, Kaidan saw that one of them, a female, didn’t seem to want to leave. But went anyhow, more than likely she didn’t know if she could trust them, and it was better the devil that you know sort of deal.

Then a few days ago, a new set of refugees came into town, this time it was a small group of ghouls. A lot of people were against having them there, not only because of the shortest of food, but they fear that being around them would turn them into one. As they believed that the ghouls were leaking radiation, as the Geiger Counter showed that it was above normal, something that should be watched.

But the ghouls informed them that whilst they can eat and drink since they became what they are now, they don’t need to. They only do so out of habit and to be polite when they are offered something. So, this pushed back that reason for not having them there. As for the other reason as to not having them there, Kaidan admitted that it was worrying, and they should stook up on Rad X just in case people got ill. He told them that he didn’t believe that high radiation was the only reason that they became ghouls.

As if that was the case, why hadn’t those who were sent close to hot spots searching for food, water, and other items that they needed haven’t turned into ghouls yet? As they were in areas that had more radiation than what the ghouls were letting off. But if they really do have a problem with being around ghouls, the ghouls can live on the third floor of the settlement until they can prove they are safe. If people want to visit them, they have no problem. This shoots down the last reason why people wouldn’t want the ghouls there, and after some talk, the ghouls decided to stay with them.

That was a few days ago, right now Kaidan, Anna May and Heather Lau were on the surface with Johnston Green and the ghoul leader, William Walker. Now whilst a lot of people would prefer to stay in the underground settlement or in the dome, many people wanted to go on the surface and walk around the town when they could. It was cold sure, but they didn’t like being stuck in the underground and the others, some of the elderly, believed that if they were going to die, they’ll do so in their homes, not some underground settlement.

Now as Kaidan, Anna May, Heather, Johnston, and William entered the town, Kaidan asked William something he wanted to ask for the last few days but waited for him to settle in before doing so. “So, William, can you explain what’s the difference is between a ghoul and a feral ghoul?”

“I wish I could, but I can’t.” admitted William, “We’re still trying to figure it out ourselves. So far, all we know is that we have above human strength right now answer immune to radiation. We can go into radiative areas and don’t feel a thing.”

“That sounds good enough for now.” Kaidan acknowledged the skills, he was hoping for a bit more, but these abilities were good to know, “Now I haven’t brought this up before, but I was wondering, can a ghoul become a feral ghoul?”

“Why would you ask such a question?” this came from Johnston, finding it insulting to ask such a thing from a new resident. He could understand why, but he wouldn’t be able to ask such a thing to someone he barely knew. Sure, given time where trust and respect have been built, but not after a few days of just knowing them.

“I mean no disrespect, it doesn’t change the fact that they can still stay here, but I’m doing this not only to protect us but for them too.” Kaidan explained his reason for the question, “We don’t want one of them turning into one and attacking them and us. We need to know so we can prepare for such an event.”

“I understand and to be honest I was expecting such a question, even if I was hoping you wouldn’t.” admitted William, “To be honest, there have been two people in my group that turned into feral ghouls. My brother David and some survivor of the bombing named Andrew, thankfully because we are ghouls too, they didn’t attack us. But we had to kill them, as we didn’t want them to live like that. The thing is, there was no real reason as to why they turned though.”

Kaidan and the others felt sorry for William’s loss but didn’t say anything about it, as they felt he didn’t want to talk about it. Instead, Kaidan asked, “Were there no signs of them turning into one?”

“Well, I don’t know if this means anything, but days before they turned, they began to become more aggressive and they seem to lose reason in what they were doing.” William began to explain what happened, “As I said, we don’t know if this has anything to do with them becoming feral ghouls or not, we put it down to the Great War and us becoming ghouls. With so much that has happened to us over the last few months, I was surprised that not more of us didn’t go mad. So, I was happy that it was only two of them.”

“Hmm, I see.” Kaidan hummed thoughtfully, a bit upset that they didn’t have any real leads as to why a ghoul become feral ghoul or no real warning signs that a ghoul was going to become a feral ghoul. As they walked through the town and towards the City Hall, Kaidan came up with an idea. So, he asked, “Listen, William, I was wondering if you don’t mind if you and the other ghouls could take part in some experiments?” He didn’t like experimenting on people, but to know how one becomes a feral ghoul, they needed to do tests to do so.

Johnston didn’t like the idea of experimenting on people, it was wrong on so many levels for him. But before he could say anything about this, William asked, “What sort of experiments?”

“Two experiments,” Kaidan informed the ghoul, “the first is to find out how much stronger you are against the average human. The other test is to try and find out how you lot become feral ghoul, is it by too much radiation or is it something else?”

“What!? Are you really planning to turn these folks into those mindless monsters?” Johnston asked angrily, not liking this idea one bit. “That’s wrong on so many levels, how could you do such a thing? If I must, I’ll find a way to stop you.”

“Command, even I don’t like the idea of this.” admitted Heather, whilst she would be willing to do anything for the commander seeing how he saved her, this idea of turning people into monsters felt wrong.

In fact, even Anna May didn’t like the idea of this, seeing how someone forced her into becoming a monster. But unlike the rest of them, she knew her master wouldn’t do such a thing without a good reason, seeing how he knew about her and her story and how she hated the idea.

“Do you really think I like this idea? Do you think I would do this if I had any other option?” Kaidan asked with a deep sigh, “There’s too many people who already doing this, I don’t want to be another person to do that.” He hated this part of being a leader, being forced to do things that would hurt others, but meaning to protect so many more. In fact, as a Spectre, he was forced to do this too, but as a leader, it felt so much different, maybe because before he could put it down to that what he did was an order, but now seeing how he was in charge, there was no one to put the blame onto other than himself.

“How else are we going to learn how ghouls become feral ghouls, without turning ghouls into them?” Kaidan asked darkly, “This is to protect them and everyone else. If we know how it happens, then we might be able to prevent it in the future.” He would like to find a cure for them too, but he suspected that once they become a ghoul the damage was already done and there was no way back. Whilst they might have no idea how they become one other than being close to high radiation, because of the high radiation, the damage was done and if they won’t ghouls, they would be dead or dying a slow painful death. So, he wasn’t sure if becoming a ghoul was a good thing or not.

“Johnston, I thank you for your concern, but the Commander here is right.” William thanked the former mayor, “As much as I hate to admit it, we really do need to know why some of us turn into a feral ghoul. I don’t want more of my friends to become one of them if we can prevent it, prevent them from becoming mindless killers. So, if it means that a few of us are turned into a feral ghoul to find a way to prevent it or slow it down, I and I believe the rest of my group would be willing to take such an experiment.”

“And I won’t be forcing anyone to partake in this experiment,” explained Kaidan, “because of the risk of it, I’ll only be asking for volunteers. Those who volunteer will be going to go to radiative areas the longest, I want to see if radiation is part of the reason as to why ghouls become feral ghouls.”

“So, you’re thinking that because we’re taking in too much radiation if we stay in radiative areas, or got hit by more radiation than other ghouls, they might become feral ghouls?” William asked the commander, “As if so, I don’t think that’s the case, seeing how me and my brother should have taken the same amount of radiation to become ghouls.”

“I don’t think that,” admitted Kaidan, “but at the same time, I think it’s also part of it. All I know each ghoul is different and so want to know if too much radiation is part of becoming a feral ghoul or not. Once we know for sure if it’s part of it or not, we can investigate other areas as to why one would become a feral ghoul. Maybe it’s part of the person’s emotions somehow, or it could be something else. Therefore, I want to do the experiments, to find out why it happens and to see if it’s possible to prevent it and if not, well, we must deal with it when the time comes.” said Kaidan, not wanting to think about what would happen if they couldn’t prevent ghouls from becoming feral ghouls.

It would be an extremely hard road for them, fearing that one day they would become mindless monsters, attacking those they are close to. “For now, we should deal with learning what we can and go from there.” Kaidan explained with a sigh.

Before anyone could say more about this, two pickup trucks arrived at the great hall. Upon seeing them, Johnston recognized the people in the trucks and so said, “It’s the guys from New Bern. they were actually able to build the thing. I can’t believe it.” He wasn’t suspecting them to be able to build the generator, at least not this fast.

“Hey Russell.” greeted Johnston, along with Kaidan as the two shook hands with the man, with some small talk about how they were.

“Johnston, you SOB, how are you?” a man with Russell greeted Johnston, as the two shook hands. He then asked, “How the hell did you lose an election?”

“No, the question is how did you get to be in charge in New Bern?” asked Johnston, shocked that the man had become the mayor of the town. “They got tired of you being the sheriff?”

“No, I’m still the sheriff. But I just got a little more authority.” the man informed Johnston.

“Well, anyway, this is our new mayor. Kaidan Alenko.” Johnston introduced Kaidan to the man, “Kaidan, this is Phil Constantino.”

“Mayor Alenko.” the Constantino greeted Kaidan.

“Nice to meet you. I would prefer Commander Kaidan, seeing how I’m the Commander of the Spectres. But mayor will do.” Kaidan informed the man. He knew was being a bit rude, but Constantino rubbed him the wrong way somehow. So, he wanted to let the man know who he was and that he wasn’t someone to trifle with.

“Oh, I see.” said Phil, as he realized he was talking to someone with great power, and someone he had to be careful with, “Congratulations.”

“Thank you.” Kaidan thanked the man, “So, you were able to build the Windmill Generator huh?”

“Yeah, we’re about to get about 1500 watts an hour out of one of these.” explained Russell. This was great news for Kaidan, as it would mean they could run the farm with at least one of these. But as he thought about it, he could use some more generators for lighting and other stuff around the town and not worry about power surges when running a lot of things at the same time. And unlike fusion generators, he would have to worry about them blowing up and taking part of the town with them should they get raided.

But before anything could be said, Jake came into view, running towards them, “Have you seen Eric?” Jake asked, breathing hard as he caught his breath. He had run here looking for his brother.

“He’s with Mary and a few others, gathering some wood.” explained Kaidan, they needed decent wood to build huts and other things in the underground settlement. He had been sending people out in small groups of two, every other day to find wood that was usable and bring it back, today it was Eric’s and Mary’s turn.

In fact, Eric had broken up with his wife to be with Mary, as he didn’t want to be with April, not even when the Harem Plan was announced. At least for now, things were changing every day, those who didn’t like the idea one day changed their mind sometime later, so you never know what would happen. Things were rough though, as April was pregnant with Eric’s child, so things were a bit problematic. Eric’s mother, Gail, blamed everything on mainly Mary, even though she knew that the marriage wasn’t working, and Eric wanted to leave before there was too much damage.

“Why are you looking for him?” asked Kaidan.

“There’s something wrong with April.” explained Jake, worried for his sister-in-law.

“What happened to her?” asked Johnston, starting to worry for his daughter-in-law.

“I don’t know the full story, but she passed out,” explained Jake, “but Doctor Kandel believes there’s a problem with the baby.”

“Johnston, go, I’ll send one of my men to find Eric.” Kaidan informed the older man.

“Thank you.” was all Johnston said as he and his son run off to the underground settlement, whilst Kaidan dealt with the generator and Phil, as well as sent some of his men to find Eric.

o0OoO0o

Kaidan found out later that April had gone into labour. With the end of the world, finding out that her husband had cheated on her, finding out that she was pregnant, among other things, she spent a lot of her time working at the medical ward in the underground settlement so that she didn’t have to think about it all. But it didn’t really work, working all the time and the stress in her life caused problems for her, she fainted and caused her to go into labour sixteen weeks early.

Kandel tried to prevent this, but April began to bleed. This went on to put April and her unborn child’s health in danger, to save both mother and child, Kandel was forced to operate. Thankfully, as Eric arrived at the ward, Kaidan was able to save both mother and her new-born daughter, at least for now. Both mother and daughter weren’t out of the woods yet, the next few days/weeks were essential. If they could fight the infections, and being born early, they should be able to live. But the problem was that without the right medicine, it wasn’t going to be easy.

Kaidan also heard that Gail was putting much of the blame on what happened onto Mary, saying that if it weren’t for her, her son and April would still be together. It had gotten so bad that Kaidan had to step in and tell the woman some home truths that she didn’t want to hear.

Kaidan started off and told the mother that it wasn’t Mary’s fault that this happened, instead, it was down to her son and April. It would seem as if the marriage weren’t doing so well for a long time. Instead of talking it over and trying to sort it out, April decided to fool herself that everything was fine, whilst Eric decided to cheat on his wife with Mary. Kaidan admitted that this wasn’t the right thing to do, but it happened.

Then he told Gail that if her son didn’t end up with Mary, it would have been someone else. Her son was the one who decided to cheat on his wife, and he could have picked anyone to be with, unfortunately for Mary, it was her. Kaidan said that it could have been a short-term deal and he could have returned to his wife. Unfortunately, he had fallen in love with Mary and had strong feelings for her, something that he didn’t have for his wife. Sure, the Spectre admitted that Eric could have broken up with the wife sooner, but he suspected that Eric wasn’t sure how to.

Eric didn’t want to disappoint his family, seeing how he was the golden boy in the family and didn’t want to disappoint them like Jake has many times before. Not only that, but he might still have a few feelings for his wife and so wasn’t sure how to inform her that their marriage was over. It was thanks to the end of the world and not knowing when or if they were going to die that he got the courage to break up with his wife, if he were going to die, he would want to be with the person that he loved if possible.

Lastly, Kaidan told Gail that if they did stay together unless something drastic happened to change things, the marriage could have become toxic. On the outside, they might look like a happily married couple, but on the inside, it wasn’t. They could be fighting each other, hating each other, and blaming each other for many reasons. None of them would be happy. So, it was better this way, sure it wasn’t the best way, but at least it happened, and they could move on. Sure, Eric found it easier than April, but he knew the marriage was over for a long time and found love again, he just needed something to push him to openly admit it aloud.

Kaidan once again told Gail it wasn’t Mary’s fault that the marriage didn’t work out, but it was down to her son and April. They should have dealt with it a long time, instead of pretending everything was okay.

After saying his piece, Kaidan left Gail to think about what he said, but not before warning her that if she keeps on at Mary, she might lose Eric. It seemed as if he really does love her, and should she keep going on at the person he loves, he might just stop having anything to do with his mother.

For Gail, she felt ashamed that it took someone not from the town to make her realize how wrong she was. The commander was right, it truly was down to her son and April that the marriage didn’t work, seeing how they didn’t talk things over. And it was down to her and her husband that her son didn’t do anything sooner, as her husband put into him that he should be a good man, and not to disappoint them, unlike their other son Jake. Because of this, he would do whatever he could to be a good son and not disappoint them. Because of this, he was stuck in an unhappy marriage. So, she promised herself that she would be a better mother and allow her son to make his own mind up who he is with, even if she isn’t happy about it.

Now before Kaidan dealt with Gail, he had to deal with the bastard, Phil Constantino. When Kaidan first met the man, he had this gut feeling that there was something about the man he didn’t like, by the end of the meeting with the man, he disliked the man on such a higher level.

When Kaidan asked if he could create another five Windmill Generators. First, Phil said he wanted some salt from them, seeing how they had the only salt mines around for four hundred miles, as without it, his town would become a ghost town. When Kaidan asked how much, asking if Phil wanted five hundred pounds of salt, Phil said he wanted a lot more than that. That they wanted food.

Stanley, who was helping in the town, pointed out that they had no food to spare, that thanks to the radioactive rain, which destroyed all the crops that they had planted, they had to regrow new crops. The problem was that they wouldn’t have enough to share with anyone. Kaidan even admitted that even with the new crop, he didn’t know it would be enough for the town to survive, that he didn’t know when they would have enough crops to share again, if ever. So, he asked Constantino to be reasonable.

But Constantino wasn’t having any of it, he said that for five generators, he wanted five per cent of the crop. Russell agreed with his mayor, saying that they were only trying to survive. From the look on his face, Kaidan knew that Russell didn’t want to do this, but for his friends and family to survive, they had to do things that they wouldn’t normally do. Something Kaidan could understand, but at the same time, Kaidan knew that they couldn’t give something that they didn’t have. But before Kaidan could reason with the man, Phil said he wanted five per cent of the crops or no deal, that’s when he left with Russell following the man.

When he talked about this with Johnston, when he returned, Stanley suggested that they lie about the offer. Saying that they could agree to the deal, but when the time comes, just inform the man that they didn’t have the crops to share. Both Kaidan and Johnston agreed that this was a bad idea, as this was how wars started. With how things were now, they might not have the strength to fight, so it would be pointless as it would end up with pointless deaths.

As Kaidan thought about it, he had one resource that he could use to trade with, magical crystals. You see, a few of the recent refugees were dwarfs, a race that is known for mining and blacksmithing. When they arrived, they searched the area for hidden resources that the town might not know about. The reason that they might not know about them was that they weren’t magical or dwarfs, as there were certain mines where you can’t find them unless you were one. But a lot couldn’t be found unless you were dwarfs, as they had powers to see mines that many others couldn’t. Like magical crystals.

Now the dwarfs were able to find a rare low-grade magical crystal mine, ones where they can be made into lighting and heating items, something that they can use and trade with. If the crystals were of a higher grade, they could use them to power certain things, but the problem was just like the low-grade ones, the higher ones are rare to find, even rarer. However, the low-grade crystals had one other use other than creating light and warmth, they could be used to create certain weapons, namely arrowheads. (For something more powerful, they needed higher grade crystals.)

Whilst most of them were a one-time use item, the arrowheads could be made into a blinding light, or make the person paralysed, even able to create a small explosion to blow doors down or arrows that can send people to sleep. Now, these were rare among the human race seeing how they had guns and such, but among some of the magical rares, they were used a lot. Either way, seeing how they were going to create bows and crossbows, these crystals would come in handy.

Even now, they should be able to help Kaidan get the generators without giving up any of their food. The Spectre Commander didn’t like the idea of giving Constantino such items, but food was more important to them, as finding anything to eat was getting hard to do. So, if it meant giving such items to Constantino will help with the food shortest, then so be it. It’s not like he couldn’t be able to get them later, as Kaidan was planning to trade them at the trading post anyway, at least this way they didn’t have to give up the food. At least, Kaidan hopes he wouldn’t have to.

After some negotiation, Kaidan was able to come up with a deal with the bastard for the generators. They still wanted some food, but instead of having 5% of the food that they might grow, Constantino wanted 2% of the food that they had now. It wasn’t something that Kaidan wanted to do, seeing how short they were, but it was better than worrying about the future. That, they still had a few places to search for food, and with the ghouls in their settlement, they could now look in highly radioactive areas that they had problems with in the past.

But for the lower amount of food, Kaidan had to give more clothes, the newly made weapons and new arrowheads for the bows. The deal went on that the food needs to be given right now as New Bern was running low on food, the other stuff would be given half now, whilst the rest would be given once the generators were done and back in town. But there was a catch, he wanted at least ten people to come back with him to help to make the generators.

Constantino told him that if Kaidan wanted the generators as soon as possible, he would need at least ten people to do so. As much as Kaidan hated the way that Constantino put it, he could understand where the man was coming from. Sure, he suspected that Constantino wanted to hold the men as a guarantee that he’ll get what he is owed, but he wasn’t wrong. If he wanted the generators as soon as possible, he would need to send people back to make them, as New Bern would have their own problems than helping them out right now.

So, in that case, Kaidan asked William if any of his people would be interested in helping to make the windmills, as they didn’t need food and so wouldn’t take up too many resources from New Bern. William said it was fine, just as long as the other ghouls were happy to help.

Constantino wasn’t too happy with this idea, as he had dealt with a few feral ghouls before and he and most in his town don’t trust normal ghouls. They fear that they could become feral and attack them, so they don’t trust any ghouls. As much as Kaidan hated to admit it, he could see his point, but at the same time though, until they turn feral or show signs of doing so, they should be treated as any other living being.