Chapter 19: Rise in Power

I was awakened at 5:00 by Kristy; she told me that we could go outside now. I had her open the doors and I went up for a shower, a long one felt good. I then got dressed and went for a run. I was half way through my first lap when I realized Buddy was following me. I continued and completed 4 laps then made my way back to the house. Kristy was waiting for me.

"You realize extensive modifications will need to be done to the runway and structures at the new airport, correct?" she asked.

"Yes I know but there is room, correct?"

"Yes there is, that won't be a problem. We have seen a few survivors near the airport but not too close, they do know someone is working at the airport though."

"Then we should go down there so they can see our presence, we will leave some of the vehicles there anyway. Will the two trucks be done by tomorrow?"

"Yes they will be done tonight."

"OK, I will talk to Mike and make plans for tomorrow; we might just stay until it's done. Let the people get used to seeing us there."

"OK, I will have the drones at the base concentrate on the structures first so you have a place to stay. Don't forget it's going to be hot down there so make sure you take precautions. The uniforms will help, but make sure you keep hydrated," she said.

"We will," I replied, then went off to the cafeteria to find Mike and talk to him about the mission. I found a wide selection of MRE's for lunch. The steak sandwich looked interesting so I grabbed one. I found Mike and went to sit by him and gave him the information on the mission.

"So we should plan on staying a week?" Mike asked.

"Well someone will need to be there, remember it's only a few minutes away by chopper."

"Ok, so you just want our presence there to talk to the survivors?"

"Yep, that's it, and hand out supplies if needed."

"Ok, we will be ready, just taking the 4 vehicles?"

"Yes for now, Jenny and I will be going so we will take a Stryker, the others you can pick."

"Ok," he said.

After we talked I headed over to Patricia and the rest of my girls to eat. I told them about the mission and that I would send for them if everything was ok. After eating I went down to the vehicles to check on them and help with loading supplies, Mike was already there checking things out and looking at one of the books.

"Is that one of the books Kris made up?" I asked.

"Yep I like it; it's got all sorts of ideas in here and tells everyone to work together. It gives information leading people to the airport as a gathering point," he said.

"Good we can give those out, and the MRE's."

"You think we should take some communicators? We might come up with people in the area we could use as agents," Mike said.

"That's a good idea but the units might stand out though, I have another idea that might work. I will work on for that before we go."

"Well then, we should be ready to go in the morning."

I thanked him then walked up to my office and called for Kristy. "Yes," she said.

"I would like you to make up a new communicator. Can you make one that looks identical to a watch, and only work to the person it's given to. I like the way ours work for us but we might want to give a few out to the general public and ours would stand out to much."

"Sure, they would be limited to voice only."

"That would be fine, that's all they would need."

I studied the area around the airport on the monitor so I didn't get lost. I could see the differences the drones had made since I looked at it earlier. It did look like the perimeter fence was almost up; they hadn't worked on the runway yet. I knew we would be leaving before the sun so I decided to try and get to bed early. I went and found the girls and kissed them goodnight and went to bed.

Kristy woke me quietly at 3:30 in the morning; I gave her a kiss and jumped in the shower. I put on my uniform and grabbed my two duffel bags and met Jenny on my way outside.

"Thanks for taking me," she said.

"You're welcome, you know I would have brought Patricia as well, but I know Amy would have wanted to come and I was not ready for that yet."

"It's ok I understand, she is too young to take care of herself if we have problems."

"Yes she is! You need to be careful to, if we have problems, make sure you follow directions."

"I know, I will be fine, I can follow orders, and Mike has been teaching me to shoot," she said and smiled.

"I didn't know that," I said shocked.

"Well its one of those things, it's good to know how to do even if you never need it. Besides I like going on missions so I need to learn everything. I might be a sheriff when I get older."

"You would make a good one, I'm sure of it. There are not any women with the sheriff's right now so we do need some."

We met everyone out front and they were loading in the vehicles; we jumped in the Stryker and took up rear guard. We headed east on the 38 and then down the mountain. Then we headed west on 18 into Apple Valley. It wasn't too long until we hit the airport, the sun was just coming up. The main building and one hanger was upgraded and complete - have to love the drones. We all pulled into the hanger and unloaded the trucks then parked them outside. I had one of the drones install the power generator we brought and got the electrical working along with the security fence (the drones told us was electrified and not to touch it). Well that was nice of them I climbed up into the control tower and looked around, I didn't see any movement at the moment. I called Kristy and had her send the chopper and one of the small remotes down so we could use it to scout the area; there was still quite a bit of fuel here we could use.

I went to the lobby that we were using as an office and had two of the drones we brought with us act as statues by the front door. They made good statues too; they could also scan anyone entering and act if needed. We hung a sign out front stating who we were and we had food and water if anyone needed it. We also offered security if anyone needed it or was in trouble. The chopper arrived about 30 minutes later and I sent it out just to recon the area and maybe draw attention. I used the small remote just to watch the Airport and perimeter until we were fully secure. It was two hours later we had our first survivor, a man standing out front with a shotgun yelling hello. I walked out so he could see me.

"I can here you come on in, we won't hurt you," I said.

"Who are you?"

"My name is Justin. I was in the military until the government broke down, now we're running our own recovery operation. Come on in and bring your gun, I promise you won't need it," I said and walked back in.

Eventually the man came inside still holding his shotgun, now rendered useless by the drones.

"Sorry for being skittish, I was just being careful," he said.

"No problem, I understand, I am the same way. Here this is for you, take a seat and read it, if you're hungry grab one of the meals over there," I said handing him a book.

He took the book and went over and grabbed one of the breakfast meals and sat down and started eating and reading. I went over to the monitor and watched the image from the remote helicopter as it was flying. Well I didn't see anything but did catch movement once in a while; I did see a pack of wild dogs jumping around at the front of a house nearby.

"Sir have you had a problem with dogs?" I asked.

"Yes twice now, I think there all starving and looking for food," he said walking up to the monitor.

"They appear to..." I started to say as he broke in and said, "Shit my family is in that house."

"Damn I'll take care of it," I said as one of the drones at the door stood up and took off.

He stood there watching the other statue and said, "Those statues are alive?"

"You could say that. They provide us with security; they actually disabled your gun when you came through the door. Don't worry, it will work again once you leave, like I said I am careful too," I said smiling. The drone arrived on the monitor and made quick work of the dogs.