Chapter 14: Chicks

Paul, Mike, Frank and Simon joined me for dinner and some conversation, Mike asking, "Ok what next besides us calling everyone, is there anything we still need?"

"We could use everything; Jenny just nabbed us three hundred chicks the other day. So eventually we might have eggs, but we could use some more farm animals. However, as I don't know a good source for horses, cows, or maybe a few pigs, I'm open to suggestions, so please feel free," I said.

"Well let's think about this. When the attack occurs, if everyone dies as in the dream, then we can just go out and collect everything we can, and start over up here in the mountains. If there are any survivors, they can join up with us and we search for whatever we could use. Sound right?" Mike said.

"Yep," I said.

"Ok, what if you are able to warn the ships off and everyone survives? Eventually it will still get so hot that millions will head into the mountains to get away from the heat, but what do we do then? We can't support millions can we?" Mike asked.

"No we can't support near that many, which is a bad choice to make. If we let the survivors come up here, they will eventually destroy the town and possibly die just outside our gate. We could always just keep them from coming up here at all, or at least making coming up here as difficult as possible."

"They would die either way," Frank said.

"True, but if we stop them from coming up here, they may go somewhere else safe and so we can save the town."

"How could we stop them from coming up?" Paul asked.

"Well we couldn't entirely, but we could set charges on all the roads that would block all vehicles from coming up," I said.

"Yeah. If they were at the bottom of the mountains, where the roads started, that may work. Like Justin said, they might just head somewhere else," Mike said.

"I would say take out a few hundred feet of road just to be safe," Paul said.

"Yep, that would do it," Mike said.

"Then again if we take out the roads we won't have access to them in the future," Simon said.

"Yep that's a problem too. Well we don't know what is going to happen yet, and if we need to, we can use the chopper to take out the roads if it comes to that," I said.

I decided I had enough for the day and decided on a quick run so I took off. Afterwards I took a quick shower and jumped in bed.

The next morning I woke up with a little angel sitting on my stomach starring at me.

"Are you here to wake me up?"

"Yep, mommy Patricia said it was time to wake up," Amy said. Mommy Patricia I thought?

"Well I guess I need to get up then. What's for breakfast, do you know?" I asked.

"Pancakes," she said.

I got up and went to the bathroom to get dressed, and then I came out and picked up Amy and headed to the cafeteria. We found Patricia and Jenny, and joined them for breakfast.

"Good morning ladies," I said.

"I guess," Jenny said.

"Yep, its morning all right," Patricia said.

Well they were a little short for some reason, but otherwise we had a good breakfast.

When we were done eating I had Amy sit with Patricia, grabbed on to Jenny and took off. We jumped on the cart and went for a drive and I made my way to the small lake I had originally thrown Patricia into. I pulled up to the side of the lake and got out, grabbing Jenny and putting her on my shoulder.

"Ok, what is bothering you?" I asked.

"Nothing I'm fine," she said.

"Well I hope Patricia told you what happened when we were at this lake before and she was in a bad mood."

"No-no, please don't." she begged.

"Ok then, what is it? Or should I guess Amy is making you a bit jealous?"

"Well maybe a little. I was hoping maybe I could move in with you guys for a while now and well... ," she said.

"Jenny I would love that, but what about your mom? You can't leave her all alone. We're going to go through some really bad times soon; nobody should be alone like that."

"So if I find my mom a boyfriend, I can move in with you guys like Amy?" she asked excited.

"Well if she falls in love with someone and they move in with her, then we can talk about it. That wouldn't change anything between us though; we are just friends remember."

"Yes I know. I can live with that — for now."

"Ok then, make sure you don't push too hard. If your mom gets upset at you, the deal is off. Ok?"

"Deal," she said and hugged me.

"Now about the lake, you remember what happened when I threw Patricia in the lake," I said as I picked her up in my arms and jumped in.

Well she didn't think it was funny at first but when she realized I had jumped in with her — then she thought it funny.

Afterwards we jumped back into the cart and drove home; Patricia and Amy were on the swing waiting for us. Patricia laughed when we pulled up; she wanted to know who dunked who. I just said I introduced Jenny to the lake then I went in and changed. I came back out and sat with them.

"Did you two have a talk?" Patricia asked.

"Yep we made a deal and no, I won't tell you," I said laughing.

"Well as long as everyone is happy," she said.

We were still sitting there and enjoying each other's company when we had more guests arrive. It was Linda Matthew's sister Susan and her friend Julie Anderson. Linda and Mike came out to greet them and introduce us. Mike and Linda took them on a tour to show them around and we went back to our seat on the swing.

Presently Kristy came out to join us.

"Paul was right about the apache attack on the convoy, the communication system has been nonstop ever since. Nobody is claiming responsibility, yet the army admits all the apaches are accounted for so it couldn't have been anyone else," she said.

"Are they saying anything about what the convoy was doing out here?"

"They were engineers on a training mission and weren't even armed."

I laughed out loud and said, "Kristy can you fake gun camera footage from the apache and show them being fired upon from the convoy then returning fire?"

"Sure, that would be great. I could release it to them and the media at the same time, and also put it on our website," she said.

"Yes that would work, I like it."

"Those guys are going to be so confused," Patricia said.

"I hope so; it may be all that keeps them away from us."

"Maybe we can just build a big wall around the mountain and only let our guests in," Patricia said.

Hmm, I thought to myself; that would need to be a very big wall, but it would solve some of our problems.

"Patricia that is an interesting idea but I have no idea how long it would take to build the wall, the word

'forever' comes to mind."

"Oh well, you will think of something."

"Actually there are only three or four main roads into the mountains; we could put up walls in these areas. That would leave the rest of the mountain open to anyone marching in though. Our security system would find them, but we would need to deal with them. We need something that can protect us while only scaring away those trying to get up here."

"You need something like the guard dogs only much nastier."

"Like tigers?" I asked.

"Oh that would do it!"

"Kristy," I called.

"Yes," she said and appeared.

"Do you have any records of a Smilodon Fatalis?"

"Yes, I found the references on the internet."

"We're working on a way to secure the mountains and the hope is we can scare some people away and not need to fight them. Just think on it for a while and then give me a few ideas."

Patricia decided it was lunch time so I picked up Amy and we all walked into the cafeteria. While we were eating we talked over other ideas with Kristy about the security of the mountain. We even discussed the possibility of swarm of killer bees to chase people away; they would actually be more frightening I think. But none of this could happen until we all our guests finished arriving; I wouldn't want to chase them away. While we were talking Mike came in and sat down with us.

"I need to leave a message for the convoy I was going to be escorting to Fort Irwin. They were all good people; I think we should invite them," he said.

"How do you want to do this?" I asked.

"I was thinking of just giving the officer that will take the duty a note leading them to the mine. We can leave supplies for them and also a radio in a shielded container."

"Ok that is fine. Take the chopper to move the supplies and wait till dark, it will be harder for anyone to see you."

"Ok, I'll probably go tomorrow, after the meeting," he said and left.

"Well I feel like going for a ride. How about it girls? Lets go have some fun," I said.

We left the cafeteria and went outside to take the quads for a spin. Amy rode with me and I was very careful as we drove the entire perimeter. We did come across a group of people camping out on the rear of our property; I figured they were just up here and staying out of the heat. I stopped and talked with them for a while, they had some really cool tents up and had plenty of supplies and looked in good spirits. I told them if they needed anything to come around to the front gate and just ask, then we returned to our trail.

We were gone for almost three hours on the trail and Amy was pretty tired when we returned home. I ended up back on the swing with a sleeping Amy next to me and I was still there when another group of guests showed up. I had Jessica come out and talk to everyone for me — I was a little busy. Later, I was introduced to Mike's parents Harold and Dottie as well as his boss from the CHP (Charles Smyth) and his wife (Jenny Smyth). I guess they all took an emergency leave of absence.