Chapter 16

The whole affair with the Aryan bitch upset me a bit; but I wasn't about to leave such a hostile and aggressive enemy running rampant killing others at will. I felt I had a responsibility for the safety of my community members and the other survivors I hadn't been able to contact yet. If all that the brutish psycho bitch had been guilty of was having a warped opinion and trying to convince others of her viewpoint it might have been possible to leave her to her own devices. Since that wasn't the case and she had already tried to take the life of another with dozens of witnesses to the act, leaving her loose wasn't possible. I wasn't about to start trying to figure out how to rehabilitate a killer either.

As far as I was concerned when Nazi bitch pulled the trigger she had in essence signed her own death warrant. In truth it also helped that the Wizard seemed to be of the same opinion. I already knew that without all of the things he had done there might not be any survivors.

When I'd had to put the asshole that tortured four of my community members down I'd made an offer to let anyone witness it who felt they needed to. I did that because the murderous monster had been in control of some of the women for quite sometime and had tortured them and killed others in their presence. If they needed to see him die to bring some sense of closure to the whole awful affair - I felt I was obliged to offer them that. It wasn't the case here though and now we also had a young child in our community. I didn't think Peggy's daughter the sweet little nine year old Katrina needed to see something like this; for that matter, neither did everyone else.

I wasn't going to create a lot of laws for people to go by, especially if they didn't choose to join my community; but premeditated murder was something I wouldn't tolerate. There are few enough survivors as it is without some idiot deciding to reduce the number even further.

After I returned to TT1 and looked over the recruits we'd gathered so far I was pleased to see our community growing, but concerned about how slow the progress was in comparison to the number of survivors we had yet to contact. What we were doing was working - but I was afraid that it might be too slow in the long run. I had to find a more effective way; still, this was a start.

We had an enormous meal the women prepared and once again we ate on the top deck of TT1 and observed the changes in the sky as day turned to night. After the meal was over, I spoke with all of the survivors who had not yet joined our community officially. I told them the same thing as I had the others who'd joined us before them and was pleased when once again all of these also elected to join our community, or as Moon Blossom, Ezra, and the Wizard called it: House Telford.

Once we had everyone settled into rooms in the Omni, I enjoyed another one of our Mating Nights. This night I shared the joy of the mating ceremony with Rhonda, Tara, Emily, Phoebe, and Anjali. "Oh what a lucky man I am!" I thought to myself as I looked upon the incredibly beautiful women who had pledged to join their lives with mine. The happy smiles on my mates' faces were echoed on the faces of the remaining women in my harem who were waiting for their special mating night. Sometimes I think I've died and gone to some sort of heaven!

The next morning I woke up well before anyone else. While I was running my laps on the top deck of TT1, and later while I was doing my calisthenics, I wondered if Rob Matthews was awake yet. I had some ideas I wanted to run by him as well as a few questions I felt I needed to ask. If Rob thought the ideas were of merit, perhaps I'd share them with the Wizard and see what he thought.

I sensed when each of my mates woke up and sent them my greeting for the day packed with all of the love I have for them. When I went to the bathing chambers I found them there waiting for me. What a wonderful way to start the day!

Later, just as we were getting ready to use the mirror to go to our hotel suite and get dressed, I found that I somehow knew that Rob was awake so I sent a little query his way. "Good morning Rob! Would you have a few minutes to spare for me later this morning?"

"Sure thing Mike. Anytime in particular?"

"Well, it's not an emergency or anything, but sooner would be better than later. I've got a few ideas I'd like your opinion on as well as a few concerns. Why don't you just let me know when you've got a half an hour or so. I'll just pop over your way when you do. Okay?" I asked.

"That's a plan my friend. It won't be too terribly long Mike. Talk to you then," Rob said bringing our short conversation to a close.

My mind had been busy devising ways to reach as many survivors as I could as quickly as possible and I was ready for some brainstorming with other members of the Wizard's conclave and perhaps some assistance from the Wizard himself.

It was mid morning when Rob told me he had some time to talk. Pete and Walt were working with about forty women to assemble a large supply of our care packages. I'd already introduced Gil and Drew to TT1 and arranged to leave them in charge of the morning's package distribution. I'd asked Jamaal to organize and lead a group of thirty or so to gather supplies using the mirrors we'd already put in place and lists that Jordan, Maureen, and Phoebe had assembled. So things were rolling along nicely and TT1 was scanning for danger so he could alert us if there was a problem. I felt things were covered and I could afford to spend a few minutes away knowing that things would stay in motion without me.

"Okay Rob! How do I get to your location?" I inquired.

Instead of any kind of complex instructions I received a visual image. I stood before one of the transport mirrors and visualized the scene Rob had sent me. The mirror changed and I stepped through and found myself in a large room with an ornamental pool and fountain at its center. Rob was there to greet me.

"Good morning Mike. It's good to see you again," Rob said as he offered me a seat on a comfortable chair in the opulently appointed room. We talked about things in general for a few minutes during which I learned that Rob had appropriated downtown Las Vegas with all of its large and luxurious casino hotels as one of the residential areas for his community. The room we were in was in one of the lavish suites at The Venetian.

After a few minutes of just catching each other up on things I decided it was time to share my ideas and concerns with my friend. "I don't know if this is common knowledge or not, but the region the wizard has placed me in charge of has quite a bit higher survivor population than some and it's spread out over a large area," I told him.

Rob asked "Oh? Where is your region Mike?"

"It's comprised of what used to be North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida."

"So in addition to the smaller cities, you've got some that were pretty big like Atlanta and Miami," Rob observed.

"Yes. That's really sort of the whole problem in a way. Everything is so spread out that I can't really ask the survivors to make their way to me and it will take a really long time for us to get to all of them if we decide to do it that way. Right now we are assembling and dropping care packages with parachutes attached wherever there are survivors. The packages have cell phone numbers they can use to contact us and then if they want to join our community we pick them up and screen them.

But it's just too slow. I keep thinking there has to be a faster way to get to everybody - but I haven't quite worked that out yet. I've got an idea or two that could be useful, but I don't know that our group has the right skills to pull them off," I told him.

"Why don't you tell me about your ideas and then we can figure out who can help us," Rob suggested.

"Well for starters I'd like to have some sort of introductory video put together that I could use to get information about our community into the hands of the survivors. I thought of broadcasting it - but I doubt anyone will turn on their TVs after all this time. So I guess I need to get the video produced and then get it on DVD, VHS, and maybe even the Internet.

Really all of that won't matter until I figure out how to gather everyone together or how to get to them faster."

Rob looked at me with a curious expression on his face. "It's all kind of weighing on you isn't it?"

"Well yeah! I don't want anyone to suffer needlessly because they don't have food or they need medical attention; or worse because some lunatic comes after them."

"I gather I'm not the only one who's had a run in with a psychotic nut job then?" Rob asked.

I answered by telling him about Asshole and Nazi Bitch.

"So the big thing is that you're concerned for the safety of the survivors in your region, just like the rest of us are concerned about those in our regions, and your looking to brainstorm about it for a while," Rob summarized.

"You've got it."

"Okay, just sit back and relax friend Telford! It's time to try something I've been wanting to do for a while now," Rob said with a grin.

"And what would that be, if I might ask?"

"A conference call using mind speak!" Rob responded.

"Cool!" I said as I leaned back in the chair and closed my eyes.

"Well thanks for humoring me pal. I'm actually thinking it probably sounds pretty lame in a way; but I always had problems getting this to work right on those damn phone systems. So I'm actually pretty hepped up about being able to do it without 'em," Rob told me.

"Ready Mike?" I heard Rob's 'voice' asking in my mind.

"Sure thing Rob," I replied.

"Jim, you got a minute for a short conference? This is Rob Matthews and I've got Mike Telford here as well."

"Hi Rob. Mike," I heard from a new voice in my mind that I assumed must be Jim.

"Open your eyes Mike," Rob said aloud.

Now I 'saw' an image of myself through Rob's eyes next to an image of a man I'd never meant before all while still being able to physically see Rob. "Mike Telford meet Jim Bridgert. Jim meet Mike Telford."

We exchanged greetings and then Rob told Jim a bit about what we'd been talking about. Jim told us what he'd been doing about recruiting and then Rob and I told him the kinds of things we'd been doing. Jim had been using posters and signs that he'd gotten pre-printed with everything but the date and location of a recruiting meeting. He'd scout over a town for a few minutes to find the best meeting sight and then fill in the date and time on his notes and posters. Then he'd get them placed in locations where they'd most likely be spotted - usually in and around food stores.

I liked the way he was doing things quite a bit: Pick a location people could get to and most likely knew of. Get them to gather there at a specific day and time and then put them through a sort of mass recruiting session.

Jim liked the way I'd been making use of TT1's intelligence gathering capabilities; particularly the bit about identifying weapons people might be carrying. He also thought there still might be a need for air drops into more remote regions where only a few survivors might be.

Rob had taken a slightly different approach. He'd figured that most of the survivors were probably capable of getting along for at least a little while and had concentrated quite a bit of effort into preparing to feed and shelter quite a few people. It wasn't that he'd ignored the recruiting side of things - but he didn't want to be in a situation where he had survivors coming in before he could feed, house, and clothe them.

The more we talked things through, the more refined our ideas became. There was some level of merit to our different approaches - but each of us was able to come up with improvements from listening to the ideas and methods employed by the rest. Jim and Rob really liked the idea of the video. If you could lay out the concept of your community and the basic rules of conduct you expected from community members well enough in the video, then people could know well ahead of time whether or not it was something they could be a part of. I was going to use Jim's ideas of centralized meeting locations. Listening to Rob made me decide to speed up my efforts at securing more housing areas.

When the conference ended I'd made a new friend in Jim Bridgert and told both he and Rob that they were welcome to contact or visit me often. When Rob closed the 'call' I thanked him for his help and headed back to my community feeling a bit more prepared to handle things.

The first thing I did upon my return to TT1 was to recall Gil, Drew, and their distribution teams. We'd be sure to pickup any recruits who might respond to the packages they'd already distributed this morning, but I wanted to get that video produced along with signs and posters so that we could start utilizing some of the larger recruiting sessions that Jim had told me of.

I called everyone together and saw that our numbers had indeed swelled. TT1's top deck was by no means crowded yet, but we now had nearly seven hundred in our community.

"Thanks for dropping what you were doing and coming back so we could all talk. I called you together to share some information and ideas with you and to put some plans into play," I said broadcast with mind speak to my community members.

"First I should probably tell you that I just spoke with two of my fellow members of the Wizard's conclave who have been charged with similar responsibilities to those I have been given. I wanted to let them know what we were doing regarding recruiting and then find out a bit about what they had been doing. We had an enjoyable conversation and each of us could see that the others had come up with some good ideas regarding recruiting in particular.

As you can see by looking around you this morning," I said gesturing to the seven hundred or so present, "the efforts we have made have not been without their rewards. I'm very happy that all of you have joined House Telford and value each and every one of you. I'd like to ask you to think about our situation for a moment. We all have food, secure housing, other people we can count on for help, medical care if necessary, and teachers and instructors. There are just about seven hundred of us here today and we aren't even crowded with the rooms in the Omni and the adjoining towers.

Anyway you look at it we've got it pretty good considering what things could be like for us. Now I'd like to ask you a question and I want you to ponder it silently for a moment. Are you better off as a part of this community than you were before you joined?"

I gave everyone a minute to think about it before I continued. "The reason I ask is that those of us here today can count on each other. We've sworn oaths to protect and defend each other and to serve the needs of this community. Being a part of House Telford makes it easier for us to survive in the world we find ourselves in.

So far we've only recruited from a few towns in North Carolina. We've not even begun to scratch the surface of this wonderful state so many of us have called home. Yet the Wizard did not charge me, and now you via your oath to me, with just North Carolina; instead we find ourselves responsible for North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida."

At this there were some audible gasps. To almost all of my community members this was new information!

"As I have said those of us here are pretty well provided for right now; but there are still another five million survivors left to contact. I'm not telling you this to scare or frighten you. I just want you to understand why I value any and all good ideas that might help us get our arms around this rather large task!

I believe that with our creativity, the help the Wizard has and will continue to provide, and the assistance of other growing communities like ours, that we can and will succeed in this task. Now when you have to move a mountain it's best to plan it out and then move it rock by rock. Let me share a few ideas along those lines..." I said as I told them about the ideas of the video, the signs and posters, and selecting meeting areas near large hotels.

Using mind speak was a real advantage to us since I knew that everyone was able to hear clearly and should be able to recall everything that was said almost perfectly. When I opened the floor for 'questions and suggestions' I had to set a few ground rules so everyone didn't start at once, but all in all people were pretty considerate of one another. I was very pleased with this and with the number and quality of the suggestions that arose from within our group.

Another advantage of meeting this way were people could share their thoughts with such clarity, was that they could share other supportive ideas and concepts very quickly along with their main thought. It made it a lot easier for me to determine who to delegate what tasks to and it made it easy for others to see where they could be most useful.

When we were through with our discussions we had divided the tasks into several major categories and assigned teams to each one. First we addressed the need to keep our own creature comforts seen to while we were busy preparing to recruit and care for other survivors. This meant that we needed to always have procurement teams focused on gathering food and supplies, other teams focused preparing meals, and security teams who maintain a constant concern for the safety of our community members. Second we needed an advance team to prepare for new locations. They would have to secure these locations with security systems and barriers like we had at the Omni, gather the initial supplies to feed and care for recruits who would live at the new location until the location had teams of its own for these tasks, and install mirrors in and about the new location. We also decided that we needed to have three or four teams whose focus was to move through the list of facilities that Stephanie and Jordan had begun to identify. These teams would further survey and assess the potential of the manufacturing plants, warehouses, and other assets the list contained. At some locations they would begin by placing mirrors equipped with transport beads. There were also several specialty teams that would initially focus on short term goals.

As I had already begun to appreciate, several of my mates and soon to be mates had skills that I could utilize. I asked Jordan, Dawn, and Stephanie to work together to establish a system to track the progress of our teams. Stephanie and Jordan both new a lot about computer programs and had some familiarity with databases and project management programs. Dawn had an incredible amount of common sense. I'd already seen that the three worked well together so I appointed them to the task of tracking progress and coordinating efforts. I instructed all of the team leaders to give the trio status updates as tasks were completed.

We ended our meeting and set about preparing lunch. Everyone helped to speed things along since our meeting had gone longer than planned and no one had been working on the meal. The excitement in the air as we devoured our hastily prepared meal was palpable. Everywhere I looked I saw smiling faces and animated conversations. I was starting to pleasantly realize that people were looking forward to their various tasks. Perhaps the work gave them a sense of purpose and being considered capable and responsible probably gave them a sense of pride as well.

The two T's as I had begun to refer to Teri and Tara, my two incredibly accurate gun-toting babes, were both making lists of who needed to receive training to use a gun. Teri's two daughters, Rachel and Cora, wanted to continue working as gun instructors and along with Teri and Tara they would be able to run four classes at a time when necessary; her other daughter Darla wanted to work as part of the security detail for the specialty teams.

"Mike," Teri mind spoke to me, "do you know of any suitable firing ranges here in Charlotte? We're going to need places to train people. If we were back in Raleigh we could just use our old place; but I don't now what there is around here."