Chapter 16: HPS

"Kristy, have you done any work on the patches yet?"

"Yes I have finished them, would you like to look?"

"Yes! I certainly would."

"Ok. I made two of them, one for the military branch and one for everyone else."

I was looking at the patches; they were both in the shape of a square with a pointed bottom. They were red and black; the military one had a skeleton in it with a shield and a sword. On the top it said Clan Lake on the bottom it said Humanitarian Protection Services. The other patch was almost the same but just had a large shield in the middle of it.

"These are great; what are they made of?"

"It is a special fabric, it is also highly detectable by our surveillance devices. It is also encoded with the wearer's DNA when given out by you, so they can be tracked. They can also be used to open secure doors or anything else and only when used by the correct person. In the hands of anyone else the patch just turns black," Kristy said.

"Wow these are great, they look good too."

"Thanks."

"Ok ladies, it's about lunch time and I'm going to find my girls. Feel free to join us if you like."

I found my ladies out front on the swing and we headed in for lunch; we had just sat down when Jessica caught up with us.

"Mind if I join you?" she asked.

"Not at all," Patricia said.

I took my patch out of my pocket and showed it to her and asked what she thought. She liked it and I handed it to her and the patch turned black.

"What happened?"

"The patch is genetically encoded, only the person Kristy assigns it to can wear it," I said.

"Wow, that is cool," she said.

"After lunch why don't you and your team get set up with uniforms and Kristy will get you some patches?"

"I have been watching the surveillance feeds I think almost everyone is gone from the area; I also believe we are going to need more people to survive. I was wondering what we could do about that?" she said.

"Ya I'm not sure, I would hate to just hang an open sign on the door."

"Ya I would guess most of the good people left, the ones that stayed are probably the ones who like the way it is."

"Keep an eye out for convoys, maybe we can get lucky, we also have more people arriving tonight."

The next morning as we were eating I noticed a few gasps and everyone looked at the door, I turned and looked. At the door was a lynx. I laughed out loud.

"Come here buddy," I said as the cat came over, jumped on the table, and lay down.

Amy was just starring at the big cat, nobody said a thing.

"Ladies I would like to introduce you to Buddy; he is a lynx or a big cat. Whatever you like he is our new pet, I hope you like him," I said.

"Is he safe?" Patricia asked.

"Very," I said.

I think everyone stopped by to pet the kitty; Amy was lost; we had to make her finish her breakfast. Then she and Buddy took off for the door, well someone has a new friend.

"Where did he come from?" Jenny asked.

"I asked Kristy to come up with something to protect the family and that's it. I hope the dogs don't mind," I said and laughed.

After lunch I went and checked on Kristy, Kris and their creations. They had everything, well everything from a large dog on up. The drones were too big to be birds and the other small animals. So they used models of larger animals, pretty much everything you could find in the mountains. That led to a problem.

"Kristy, what if some of our people are on a hike and they run into an animal. How are they going to know if it's one that will protect them or one that will hurt them?"

"I never thought of that, perhaps we should make all the animals a small harness. We can put our patches on it, and then they would stand out."

"That would be comical, but it would work so please do it, Buddy does not need one though. Also I was wondering of a way to communicate with them, something I can do without drawing attention to myself."

"We could put a node in the back of your head like we did Frank. You would be able to communicate with any of us just by thinking. The drones will also react to the uniform patches I came up with, so they will be able to tell friend from foe."

"Ok, can you do that while I sleep tonight?"

"Sure."

I went to my office and found Jessica watching the security feeds. I sat down with her and started sorting through my own feeds. The meltdown area had been evacuated; and there appeared to be a convoy headed north on the I-15. I was not sure why they chose that direction unless they were hoping to get to Nellis AFB. I panned over to Nellis and the place appeared to be very active; looking like they were sending people out as fast as they arrived but I was not sure where. I went back to the convoy and studied it, there were 14 military trucks, a few hummers and four tanker trucks that could be fuel or water, I couldn't tell. Then there were about 100 civilian vehicles following with assorted busses and campers. They weren't traveling very fast, it looked like the cars were overheating.

"Think they're going to make it?" Jessica asked.

"I don't know. I wish I knew more about them. We need a spy ... a four legged spy," I said laughing.

"What?" Jessica said.

"Kristy," I said.

"Yes what can I do for you?" she asked as she walked in the door.

"I would like to know more about this convoy. Do you think we could set one of the animal drones down in front of them and have it join the group?" I asked.

"We could do that; I'll send the chopper out with a dog right now."

"If they're good people we need to find out by the time they reach the top of the pass, in case we need them to change directions."

"The chopper is leaving now."

"Maybe you should have the dog in the pilot seat and fly around the convoy. That would get their attention," Jessica said.

"Yeah it sure would!"

We stayed in the office and watched as the dog was dropped off well in front of the convoy. It made its way towards the convoy, making sure to keep its tail wagging. One of the trucks did pull over and put the dog in the back so I guess we had another dog lover. It was three hours until the trucks neared the top of the pass; we found the soldiers were mostly young kids from MCRD San Diego. They were with a group of soldiers that was led by a man named Rigs. I wondered if that's who Mike was waiting for. They were heading to Nellis hoping someone was still there and the civilians had joined them on the way. Then I had an idea. I tapped on my com and asked Mike to the office.

"What's up?" he asked as he arrived.

"I would like to invite this convoy to join us; and I was wondering if we could plan for your friends to run across them? One of the men in the convoy goes by the name of Rigs."

"Captain Rigs? Ya we could do that, they're ready to leave now; they were just waiting for it to cool off. I guess the best place would be at the freeway here, I can have them wait under the overpass," he said.

"Ok let's do it," I said. He called his friends and set up the appointment and we hoped for the best. I went back to scanning anything that looked interesting. It appeared the other reactors were doing ok; they still had activity at them. I guess people could live there and remain as long as they could find food; they would have electricity for a while. It was about dinnertime. I wasn't hungry but I didn't want to miss it, so I found the cafeteria and joined the girls. Buddy had a table of his own but was surrounded by kids. As I was eating, when Frank and Mike came over and joined me.

"I was thinking you said the city would be protected from the 'EMP' correct?" Frank asked.

"Yes from the 'EMP' but we need to be underground just to be safe," I said.

"That's fine but the electronics should be safe in the city?" Mike asked.

"Yes."

"Well we were thinking of making a run down the hill and grabbing all the electronics we can. This city will need things after the 'EMP' and those things are still working, if we bring them here they will be safe," Frank said.

"Ok that sounds logical, what is your plan?"

"I was thinking of the Wal-Mart distribution center and maybe a few other places," he said.

"Ok that sounds good, make sure everyone gets their new uniforms and patches first. I don't want anyone mistaking who we are; take everyone that wants to go and anyone that can drive a semi. Plan on going so you can travel back at night, the semis will work better."

"Ok, we can plan it for the morning and hopefully be back tomorrow night," Frank said.

"Take a drone with you and I'll have Kris supply a power unit so you can power the building. It will help with the loading."

I realized it was past time for the convoy meeting we'd arranged so I pulled it up on video. I guess it was a fast meeting. The convoy was headed this way, all of them, we'd need more room. I talked with Kris and Kristy about needing more room and possibly a bunkhouse for the soldiers. I finished up with the guys and went to talk to the dispatcher. I informed her of the convoy heading up the mountain; she said she would inform the officers. I went to the storage area to check and see how much room we had. We had unloaded all the meat trucks into our freezers, so I guess we could take them for the foraging run. I hit my com and sent Mike the message about the trucks. He said that would be fine and I continued on my rounds. Later I made my way to the cafeteria for some dinner.

It was pretty empty; everyone was busy so I ate by myself. As I was eating, the girls came in and joined me. They talked about the list they gave Mike, items they just had to have. I smiled at them as they continued; this was no simple shopping trip. I told Gloria they should keep the kitchen open for our new guests when they arrived and headed out. According to Kristy, the convoy was almost an hour away, so I thought I'd wait out front. When I arrived on the porch I found where everyone was; the area was full of semis getting ready to move out. They had 12 semis and 3 of the newly converted strykers going, they should have some fun, I wondered if they had AC units in them. I liked the addition of the police flashers on top of the strykers. That must be Kristy's attempt at humor. As I was looking everything over, Mike caught up to me.