Chapter 11

Day Eleven: Wednesday

A large crowd greeted us the next morning. Sheila drafted Lana, Laura and Julie to help prepare breakfast. I met early with Tom and Jim who both let me know right off the bat that several of the other men seemed curious about our future plans. Tom looked at Jim and back at me as if he was speaking for both men and said, "Both of us let them know in no uncertain terms that you're our leader. We explained what we've done so far and as best we could what we plan to do. All of the men I talked to agreed that we're moving in the right direction. They just want to find out how they fit into the picture."

Jim took his pipe from his mouth and said, "Maybe you ought to say a few words this morning. You know, welcome everyone."

I looked into Tom's eyes as he nodded his agreement. I wasn't a public speaker. I knew I worked best one-on-one. I could see that with the size of our group working one-on-one would end up unwieldy at best and maybe even unproductive. These guys were farmers, used to making important decisions on their own. Hell, there were hundreds of tasks to perform and I wasn't even sure what they all were yet. I was playing it by ear.

Irene brought me a plate of food. I was concentrating so hard on what to say and how to say it that I don't think I even paid attention to what I was eating. My mates gathered around me to eat. Julie, the last to arrive, kissed me as I she sat down. I noticed her looking around at the seven tables that were surrounded by people eating and talking, then she looked at me and realized I was nervous. I know she was trying to give me a boost when she said, "Steve, you realize you're responsible for bringing these people together. It was your vision that started things and a lot of your own work that made it happen. Trisha and Beth both told me they would still be at home worried about being shot by a neighbor if you hadn't brought them here. Sheila swears she would be dead by now if you hadn't found her. Instead now she's got her cap set for Jim and acting like a woman half her age. All that and we haven't even been here much over a week."

I looked around the table and saw others nodding in agreement. I was half surprised to see Lana and Laura sitting at the table with us. They both broke into knowing smiles at the same time. I found out later that Kari had let them know my feelings about everyone being open about our relationship. Laura told me afterwards that she and Lana felt it was just as important for them to be open about how they felt about me.

I was still nervous when I stood up and looked out at all the tables. Everyone had been watching me and I knew I needed to say some things. I stood and cleared my throat and it immediately got quiet; even the children stopped talking.

"I just wanted to start out by thanking Sheila Barker, her lovely granddaughters Laura and Lana and Julie Bradford for that wonderful breakfast." I paused at a smattering of applause and with my pause the applause grew louder. I resumed, "I'm not sure if everyone knows everyone but if not I hope that you'll take time sometime today to get to know those people you haven't met. Our idea here is to have a friendly community that can carry on in the face of whatever happened Sunday a week ago. Our flights so far have shown that there are few places with people remaining. I have no whys or wherefores about any of the missing people. We will keep looking and most likely find other people."

"In the meantime, life goes on. We have to feed, house and clothe those we bring in. Irene here is the only medical person we have so far and she is a damn fine nurse. Be patient with her, she is not a doctor."

"Tom has started turning the arable land on the base into a farm that we hope will be capable of providing food for us all. He will need a lot of help doing that. I expect all of us not doing other things to help Tom, first with fencing the area for the livestock and later doing the other things that need to be done."

"We also need someone to educate those children that are here and those that will be born in the future. I understand Beth Adams and Jim Bagley have both taught at one time or another. I hope that they will take the lead in this area."

"Defense is another important area. Most of you know how to shoot. I know that Tom, Jim and Bill have had prior military training. Whoever put that guy in the deer stand yesterday had the right idea. We don't want to be surprised and unprepared to defend ourselves. Most of the ones here prior to yesterday have been to the range and know how to shoot the M9 pistol and the M16 rifle, which are the main weapons we have for our defense. I would like the rest of you to all learn how to shoot and maintain the M9 pistol at least. All of the adults should learn the same for the M16 rifle."

"We have a command center, the Mobile Command Post, the MCP, which is the eyes and nerve center of our base defense. Kari is our operations officer. She will familiarize everyone in the operation of the MCP and coordinate with Sheila so that everyone gets a turn manning that post. The MCP will be our deer stand."

"The main thing we are trying to accomplish now is finding other survivors. So far I am the only pilot in the group. If any of you have flight or aircraft maintenance experience let me know. Kari has had some flight lessons and will eventually be trained as a pilot."

"Overall, I have to say we are learning as we go. If you see something that can be done differently or better then let's change things. That doesn't mean that we have to have 27 people doing things differently. We have to talk and reach consensus before we make changes and I hope none of you are so stuck in the past that you won't embrace change, when it comes."

"The next item is personal. Before any of you arrived Kari, Irene, Julie and I fell in love with each other. I know that's not traditional but it happened. We live together now and plan to one day soon have a commitment ceremony. I'm not asking that you to approve or disapprove of this arrangement, but I am asking that you respect our decision. I know some of you may think what we're doing is immoral but we do not agree with that. If you have a problem with any of this please find me in private and discuss it with me. We don't need rumors and gossip."

"I would like to meet with all of those 16 and older after you finish eating to help plan the day's activities. I would appreciate it if the older teens would watch after the younger children while we have that meeting. If you have questions I will be happy to answer them at that time. Thank you."

After that I sat back down and took a long drink from my coffee cup. I had tried to shift my gaze during the latter part of the speech to each of the adults in the new families to gauge their acceptance of my statement. I was surprised that there were more looks of surprise from my own table than the newcomers. As soon as I sat back down Kari asked, "Am I really the operations officer? Why haven't you said anything about that before?"

I smiled at her and said, "You've been doing the job and with the small number of people we had no title was necessary."

Kari then asked, "Does that mean that I have to man the MCP all the time?"

I said, "No, of course not, you just need to make sure those that are in the MCP are qualified."

Irene asked, "How come I'm not the medical officer then?" The remark was made tongue in cheek (or so I hoped) and so I didn't answer.

Julie crossed her arms and acted hurt. She said, "I guess I'm just a gofer and scullery wench." She then made a big production of puffing her lower lip out. She tried to hold it but when I started laughing she broke out in a smile.

Irene said, "I think you covered everything pretty well. With this many people I sure hope we do find a real doctor before anything major goes wrong."

Lana crossed her arms and said, "I think you missed a lot."

I looked puzzled so Laura added, "You forgot to tell everyone that we were concubine apprentices and that you are spending time with us to get to know us better and try us out for spots in your harem."

I winced at the word harem then laughed and said, "That's exactly the word I don't want to hear any of you using, even in jest. People think the worst when they hear about 'multiple partner marriages' anyway. We need to emphasize the love and commitment we have for each other. Harem makes it sound like I'm forcing you and am just using you for my own perverted pleasure."

Julie smiled a wicked smile and said, "Welllllll ... what are you using us for then? Oh yeah, I remember, cooking and cleaning and your own perverted pleasure." She then burst out laughing.

I said, "Very funny. That reminds me though. I do need to thank whoever has been doing the laundry and stocking the fridge. I have no idea which of you have been doing all of that but..."

Irene popped in and said, "It's not us. Sheila has been coming around and looking for things to do. I tried to explain that we would do it but she says she has little enough to do with the meals and cleaning their units. She feels it's the least she can do."

I nodded and made myself a note to thank her later in the morning.

The meeting took 15 minutes to get started. I opened it by saying, "I'm not big on meetings and so we probably won't have too many of these. Frankly, I'm glad to see our numbers go up. I think that we're going to need a large group of people to get everything done and protect what we have. There are possibly going to be scavengers out there, people that won't build but just want to take things. That idea is encouraged by the large amounts of food and other items that are there for the taking but eventually those items will run out and those scavengers may decided to try and take what we have grown or made. I also think that the larger our group grows, the more choices our children will have for the future. They won't be forced to be farmers or foragers or hunters. I can see that you are all people that are used to hard work and that is a good thing. I am not the man with all the answers. I don't know how many it will take to run this farm on base to feed us all. Hell, I don't even know how many people we'll end up with. I do know we will need a group of dedicated farmers to grow the food, a scouting group to forage for things we can't grow or make, at least in the beginning, and a smaller group of teachers to teach the kids so they will have the wherewithal to lead the next generation.

"I also think we need to form a militia, composed of women as well as men, to defend our homes. I have no idea what your talents are but I will need to know them so I would like each person to take time today to list their talents and interests. Don't be modest. Include work experience, military experience, interests and hobbies. I doubt there will be a big need for coin collectors but you never know. Every farmer I have ever known has been a kind of jack-of-all-trades. Put it all down. I'll ask someone to take the list and smooth it out so that we'll have that information available for those that need it.

"I think the first order of business will be more helo flights to the farms of your neighbors to see if any others want to join us. We will stay away from those who are known zealots in Pastor Sam's church. I will need a volunteer, preferably someone with military experience who knows the people of the area, to take Tom's place with Jim and me on that mission. Tom probably has more experience than any of us but he needs to get back to supervising construction of our farm. Do I have a volunteer?"

At that point most of the men and about half the women raised their hands. I looked around and said, "How many of you new people are qualified with the M16 rifle?"

At that point there were four people still with their hands up. One of them was Bill, who I knew was wounded. I said, "Bill put your hand down. You were shot yesterday."

That left three people still with their hands in the air: Frank Willoby, John Simmons and his wife Pat. Pat surprised me. I was inclined to take either Frank or John as Pat was a mother with two children to take care of. I decided to try to find my person another way. I asked, "Which of you three best knows the area and the people that we are likely to be visiting and their sentiments about the church?"

John Simmons raised his hand and said, "Hell, I don't want my wife to go but I don't know anyone that knows more of the people in Piney Woods than she does. She's worked at Junior McCall's store for ten years and probably knows more about folks in that area than anyone here. Now Frank there is a salesman but his territory was over the line here in Florida so I'd have to say my Pat would be who you need."

Frank nodded his agreement and so I asked, "Pat is that alright with you? I know you have children and the job may be dangerous."

Pat quickly answered, "I can take care of myself. I was a staff sergeant in the Alabama National Guard and did a tour in Iraq as an MP. I can handle the job."

I said, "Okay, if you would get with Kari afterwards she will get you set up with an M16, an M9 and some Kevlar body armor. I think I saw an issue room for the body armor in the security office. Jim, you and I need to get some too. Whoever the guy was in the tree stand yesterday has me kicking myself in the ass for not wearing it yesterday."

"The next thing is that Tom needs people to finish the fence that he started so we can get livestock moved into the fenced areas as quickly as possible. Tom, how many people do you need for that?"

Tom looked around and said, "I can use three or four good workers. Any more than that will be just standing around."

"If you can help him on that I would appreciate it. Can I have a show of hands so that Tom can pick some volunteers?"

Hell, everyone remaining raised their hands. Tom chose four, all men. They were John Simmons, Frank Willoby, Kevin Gordon and Fred Johnson.

I spoke up again and said, "Hopefully by tomorrow or the next day we will have a proper assignment sheet made out. Sheila Barker will be in charge of that. I think that we will rotate everyone through M16 Rifle, M9 Pistol and MCP training. Anyone who wants to fly as a spotter in the T-34 when we get back to our searches will be rotated through that as well. Sheila was also our main cook and I even found out had been doing my laundry for me. Don't expect her to do that for everyone. In fact, I didn't expect her to do it for me, but I really want to express my appreciation to her for all she has done. That's the type of thing that has made it easy for us to keep on track since the collapse."

"Speaking of Sheila, I need two adults to assist her in preparing the meals and looking after the rooms. This doesn't include my laundry or cleaning but we will need to open rooms for any new neighbors that we add to the group. Sheila also keeps an eye on the younger kids while the rest of us are away working at other things plus she volunteered to make out the duty rosters. As the group grows we may end up needing even more people for this job. I know most of you have kids, but I plan to let the older kids watch after the younger kids under Sheila's supervision when they're not in school. Do I have any volunteers to help Sheila?"

Most of the remaining people held up their hands. I looked over the group and chose Beth Jenkins and Susan Gordon. I figured Beth would want to keep an eye on Bill, who was shot yesterday, and Susan appeared to be the oldest of the other women.

I knew this meeting was running longer than I expected but I needed to give everyone something to do. I didn't want to leave anyone feeling less than useful. I said, "Janet Barker was working with a group yesterday to change some of the various buildings on base to farm outbuildings. Janet, how far did you get with that before all hell broke loose yesterday?"

Janet acted a bit embarrassed to be speaking but said, "Umm, we didn't get much done. We found some buildings in the right place but got called back before we could really get started cleaning them out."

I said, "Fair enough, how many people do you think it would take to get that substantially completed today?"

Janet shrugged and said, "Probably four or five people. These buildings had stuff in there and I don't want to just pile it outside. We'll have to find places to store it first."

I said, "Looks like that will require some work then. You know where the truck is. Can I get some people to volunteer to help Janet?"

Again everyone remaining lifted up their hands. I looked out and chose Tom's daughter Lana, my mate Julie, Trisha Willoby and Marsha Johnson. That left the kids and Irene, Kari and Laura Barker. I let everyone know that Kari and Laura along with Billy Barker would be used as ground crew. I asked Irene if she would check the dispensary out again and be available to show people where needed things were. I also asked each of the parents to talk to the children and explain that they would need to mind the older kids and Sheila while we were all working.

Finally I said, "That will organize things for today. You can see that this process took us about an hour. We can't afford to spend that amount of time every day on it. That is why we will try to post an assignment sheet. Eventually things will smooth out and we will know who can do what best and who can get things done and iron out our priorities. Soon foraging will become necessary and I am sure there will be a lot of other work that we haven't even thought of yet that will have to be done for us to survive. Thank you for your patience with this. Does anyone have a question?"

There were no questions. Everyone seemed almost eager to get to work. I saw Tom's group get together and watched as Pat went over to her son and daughter and spoke to them before heading over to where Jim and Kari were talking. I drained my lukewarm coffee and joined Pat, Jim, Kari, Laura and Billy. Pat pulled me aside before I could reach the rest of the group and said, "My son isn't going to be content for long baby-sitting the younger kids. He's use to doing a man's work. He helps his dad in the fields and on weekends and can pull his own load. He's also a good shot. He was the one up in the tree stand that fired the warning shot yesterday."

Pat said all of that with a good deal of pride. I walked over to Ron, a gangly 15 year old boy, and said, "Ron, your mom tells me that you can do a man's work. That's good to hear as we can use every hard worker we can find. I'm going to leave you where you're at for today. Tell Sheila that I asked you be put on the roster to help the flight crew on the flight line tomorrow. There are a couple of training tapes on the M9 pistol and the M16 rifle that are on the coffee table in my room. You can get the room key from Sheila. I would appreciate it if you would watch those tapes today so we can start your qualification on those weapons also."

Ron looked at his mom and broke into a grin and said, "Yes sir!"

Kari turned the MCP around and waited with Jim and Billy for Pat and me to get in. As soon as we were inside she headed for the security offices where we fixed Pat up with an M16 and M9. After that we looked and found a small room off of the main security office where new Kevlar body armor was stored. It looked like there was enough in the lockers for 30 or 40 people. We rummaged through the vests and fairly quickly found sizes to fit us. It would be hot but I'll take a little discomfort over a bullet any day.

Next we went straight to the hangar where Kari outfitted Pat with a torso harness and helmet. Jim and I found that our torso harnesses had to be readjusted to fit over the Kevlar vests. Then we held a quick briefing in the MCP and marked our destinations and matched those to the map on Kari's desk. I quickly preflighted the helo with Billy in tow. I figured that Billy could do the preflight by now but always made it a practice to preflight my own aircraft.

Soon we were in the air and headed back north of the Alabama state line. I was getting familiar with the area around Piney Woods as we moved towards the first farmhouse marked on our map. In order to land in the field adjacent to the farmhouse but remain out of sight we flew in low over a single-lane dirt road. Flying low I almost missed spotting a beat up old pick-up traveling fairly fast along that same road. Jim spotted the pick-up about the same time I did, which was just as I was flaring the nose on the helo preparing to land in the field. I transitioned to forward flight as quickly as possible and regained some altitude. Airborne again I noticed that the pick-up didn't stop but increased speed moving away from the farmhouse we planned to visit.

Jim jerked his thumb towards the pick-up and I gave chase. Hopefully no one knew how people were leaving the area or where they had headed and we wanted to keep it that way. Jim moved back into the cabin and hooked his gunner's belt into one of the deck rings and opened the sliding door. Pat mimicked Jim's actions on the other side of the helo. In minutes we buzzed past the pick-up truck, which by that time was throwing up a rooster tail as it sped down the dirt road. Jim plugged his helmet into the interior communications system (ICS) near the door and said, "I see two men in the pick-up."

I passed the truck and flew about a half-mile further down the dirt road to a spot with no trees on either side of the road where I swung the helo around and hovered 25 feet above the road facing the oncoming truck. Jim let me and Pat know that they would fire short bursts in front of the pick-up as soon as it came in range.

As soon as the pick-up spotted us it slowed down. It sat there a while and I could see the two occupants arguing. Then the driver tried to turn around on the narrow road and soon had the truck buried to the axle in the soft sand. I slowly inched the helo forward. I told Jim to let me know as soon as he was within range. Two hundred yards from the pick-up Jim told me to hold my position and began to sight in the tires of the pick-up. That shot would have been hard for me to make on the range under the best of conditions. Pat was covering the cab of the pick-up where the driver was still digging the wheels in deeper as he desperately fought to move the truck out of the loose sand. Even I could see that the passenger was agitated and trying to give the driver instructions. As I watched Jim settled things when a bullet from a three-round burst tore through the front tires.

I moved in closer keeping an eye on the occupants of the vehicle. I was close enough that I could see the red face of the passenger who seemingly paid no attention to us as he continued to berate the driver. I couldn't land on the road because of the trees and was afraid to move closer as the sand from my rotor wash would block our view of the truck. Pat suggested I land in a clear area next to the road and allow her and Jim to approach the vehicle on foot. Jim nodded in agreement and I flew to the field beside the road to land.

I sat down lightly and Pat and Jim stepped onto the marshy ground about 50 feet from the pick-up. As soon as they were down I pulled-up on the collective and almost sprang into the air and moved back in position near the pick-up. I noticed immediately that the passenger was now armed with what looked to be a hunting rifle. I realized the danger to Jim and Pat but had no way to communicate since the helmets they were wearing did not plug into the two-way police radios on their vests. I did the only thing I could think of, moving forward and lower creating a small sandstorm around the pick-up. The dirty sand was so thick that I could no longer see the pick-up which meant the occupants were most likely blinded as well. As soon as Pat and Jim were properly positioned in the bushes at the side of the road I flew the helo over and behind the pick-up. The passenger came out and ran towards me with the rifle at his shoulder as if he was going to shoot. All six shots from both Pat and Jim's dual three-round bursts simultaneously hit the passenger and ripped through his torso before he could fire a shot. I circled and by the time I moved to the front the driver was on his face on the dirt road with Pat's foot in the middle of his back. I landed in an adjacent field that seemed drier than the marshy area where I had dropped off Pat and Jim and shut down the helo.