Chapter 12

I was looking through my diary of notes and realized it's been two years since I last wrote in it. Jennifer and I now have a daughter, also, named Angela. She and Steve are growing like proverbial weeds. Rob and Terry should have their second in a month or so. John and Carol are parents of a son, named Carl. The only sad item in our little grouping is that Jack passed away one night in his sleep. I had come to like the old man and trust his opinion. His son, Gordon, and his mate, Carol, had their first child, a son, just after his death. They named him, Jack, after his grandfather.

Camp Pen has continued to grow. Jennifer and I continue to lead though we have a council that helps and brings people from different areas of the camp together for decisions. The Sanburn's are not an issue because of our strength and weapons. They apparently consider us bad for tilling the earth but are losing strength for that very reason. We do maintain a watch in all directions because we are a well known valuable target. Traders are now coming into our area and Jennifer's people have come once. Her father and I are not comfortable with each other as he doesn't care for women in authority positions and I won't bend on that issue. People from Jennifer's group have joined us at Camp Pen and become happy, valued members of our community.

We are concerned about the Southlanders. They are the biggest group that is not friendly to us. We represent a juicy target to them with so many women and children. They respect or weaponry and don't raid south toward us much.

Jennifer and I have discussed an expedition against them a few times but it's hard to go out of your way to pick a fight. If they made a concerted effort to attack, then we would take a further step to halt that possibility. Until then, we would let them be.

We continued to explore the base. It was so big that we would probably never know it all and people from my time probably had no one who knew it completely either. It seemed that rarely a week would pass without the discovery of something new occurring. I had found a stash of fuel and was trying to determine if it was still useable. If it was then we could power generators and vehicles. It would create a new situation for us. It would allow for faster travel with more safety using an armored Humvee or the like as compared to horses. I am sure the Southlanders would be worried if we came through their area in something like that.

I took some fuel from each tank by hand and set it out. It would burn and did not appear to have water in it. That was step one. Step two was to power something. I found a lawnmower and tried the gas in it after going over the motor and making sure it would turn over and had oil. Much to my surprise, it cranked! It also scared everyone who could hear it. After the excitement died down, I actually mowed some grass just for fun. Now I was ready for a next step. I found a generator that could be hand cranked. I went through the same process with it and had success. I connected up some lights and, for the first time in many years, electric lights were burning at night. Everyone in the Camp came by to look at them in amazement. Jennifer was interested in the lights. John and Gordon were more interested in the motor. They wanted to learn about motors and we started to think about charging batteries and using them to start a larger motor.

We found a battery charger in the motor pool and some batteries for a Humvee. We also found batteries for a diesel generator. We began to charge all of them. It took a while to find batteries that would take and hold a charge but, eventually, we had batteries for the generator and the Humvee. I checked out both at length satisfying myself that they would work. We had diesel and loaded tanks. We started the generator first. I had set it up a couple of hundred yards from our houses and ran a line to the electrical panel of our house. I hooked it up and our house had electric lights. The Humvee was more of a challenge but not that bad. I had to go over tires for a while before I had four good ones and a spare. Once I did that, I went over the motor to be sure it should start. It did! For the first time in almost a hundred years, a vehicle ran up and down the streets of Camp Pen without using horses.

It scared the hell out of a lot of people but everyone could quickly see value in what it could do in a fight. That was tested much sooner than I would have preferred. One of our northern sentries came in warning us of a large party of approximately forty Southlanders coming our way. A machine gun had been mounted on the Humvee and ammunition was found for it. We filled up with fuel and bullets. Rob and I took it out to meet the Southlander party.

We found them advancing toward us over the open fields that we were just starting to plant for the year. They were in a somewhat bunched up line with the lead at one end and close to us. We parked and stopped the engine. Rob and I stood in the hatch and called out to the Southlanders. "That's far enough. We are from Camp Pen and you are on our property."

They charged us without comment. I let them get within one hundred feet and opened fire with the machine gun mowing them down. The only ones who survived dropped to the ground quickly and stayed there. I ceased firing and hollered out, "Now, will you listen or do more of you want to die?"

One man rose up slowly with his hands up and empty. "Come forward and we will talk." I shouted.

He came to the Humvee and I said, "Why did you attack us?"

"We are Southlanders. We take what we want."

"We are citizens of Camp Pen. This is our land. We will not be taken. We will kill any who try. Many of your fellows are now dead. Should I kill the rest of you or would you rather leave and never return?"

"We will leave."

"If you return, we will kill you all and then go after you in your own lands. Do you understand?"

"I hear you!"

"Then, go. Do not return."

He turned and walked back to the men lying on the ground. They rose up and turned away from us. Rob said, "Do you believe they will not return?"

"No. I think we will have to be on guard. They know we can kill them but I don't think they will give up yet."

"We stayed on watch for over two hours. Our sentries came back and set up their watches. I warned them to be extra careful as we expected the Southlanders to return. We had armed them with flare guns for signaling. We could sure use some radios but we hadn't figured out how to get batteries charged for them. We had returned to our home and reloaded ammunition for the machine gun. While we were gone, another Humvee had been readied, fueled and loaded with ammunition for its machine gun.

We had been back an hour when a flare was seen floating in the air. It was sent up to the east of the last battle. Rob and I jumped back in the Humvee and headed in that direction. Everyone else was preparing for a fight. Our mates along with Gordon's wife and John's wife all went to our main fortress to wait. We moved quickly but carefully toward the site of the flare. We met our sentries for that area as they were heading back. We stopped and I told them to get aboard.

They jumped in and we headed toward the Southlanders. Now, there were at least fifty and they were more spread out. They may be bad, but they weren't stupid. I saw the man who talked with us directing the men. I had the sniper rifle. When we stopped, I went to the top and took careful aim and shot him. He spun and went down. I picked off a few more before all of them went to ground.

"Sal, what are they trying?"

"I think they are trying to draw us out while another group attacks." I had no more said that than we saw another flare go up well to our west. I would have preferred not to have been so right.