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information.”

“How’d he take it?” Lynn asks meaning about my pretending to still be an officer and on a mission.

“Not all that well initially. He doesn’t really seem to enjoy being hoodwinked like that,” I reply chuckling. “But he came to understand the why given our circumstances.”

“Jack, you could talk a noodle into believing it was a tree.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” I ask but Lynn merely gives me that look of innocence.

“How are our supplies?” I ask after realizing I am not going to get a response.

“We’re going to need water. Especially if we add more to our herd. Food is okay for a few days but we could always use more. We have plenty of ammo for the time being.”

“We’ll see if they still have running water and fill up here. If not, we’ll have to go to the BX and see if there’s more bottled water. We need to keep our empty water bottles and caps and fill them when we can.”

“You mean the PX, right flyboy?”

“We don’t speak ‘hooah’ here so it’s a BX,” I say smiling at our always present and friendly Army-Air Force rivalry only to get another of her looks. The look that says ‘you’re going to owe me for that one’ which, in times past, meant that I was going to have to go first when the lights were turned off. Not that I minded that at all!

“As for ammo, you can never have enough right? If they decide to head out with us, we’ll pay a visit to the armory here,” I continue.

Frank breaks away from their group and walks our way with Sergeant Watkins in tow. Lynn salutes as they come to stand with us. Introductions are made and Frank says, “Jack, we talked about it and we’ve agreed to come along with you if you’ll have us. Frankly, given the state of things, I can’t afford to take the risk and have my men and women stranded here.”

I must have been wearing a look of worry or consternation as he continued on, “And, Jack, we’ve also talked about you staying in charge and to fold in under your command.”

“Glad to have you aboard Frank, Sergeant Watkins,” I say shaking their hands. “Sergeant Connell here is the First Sergeant and will organize your men and women into fire teams. Are they all trained?”

“They are all part of the base security team, sir,” Sergeant Watkins responds.

“Are they already organized into squads?” Lynn asks.

“They are. Alpha and Bravo teams,” Watkins answers.

“Okay, we’ll keep them that way for now. I’ll want to talk with your team leaders afterwards,” Lynn says.

“I’m one of them,” Watkins says.

“Frank, are the generators still online?” I ask.

“The tower generator is still functioning but it looks like the base generators went out this morning,” he answers.

“So, no running water then?”

“Not as of this morning,” Frank responds.

“Looks like a trip to the BX then. We’re going to need whatever water we can scrounge up. Lynn, why don’t you have that talk with their team leaders now and let’s have a team leader meeting in thirty minutes. I’ll take two teams to the BX and you take two to the armory. We’ll need vehicles for both to haul the stuff back.”

“Yes, sir,” Lynn answers. I notice she has not dropped the sir. Well, we need to keep that kind of discipline if we’re to make it through, I think.

“I can have my men get crew vehicles if you want,” Sergeant Watkins says to Lynn as they walk away.

I catch Robert’s and Bannerman’s eyes and wave them over. “Robert, we need to fuel up. Take Red Team, find a fuel truck and top off our tanks. Make sure it says ‘JP4’ on it. I’m not interested in finding out how far a 130 will glide.”

“Okay, Dad,” he answers and heads off leaving just Frank, Bannerman and myself gathered.

“If you don’t mind, I would like to use you two in a planning and logistics role. Frank, if you don’t mind taking on planning and Intel and Bannerman, you handle the logistics end.”

“I don’t mind at all,” Frank says.

“Fine by me,” Bannerman responds.

“There’s not much to do in that regards now, but when we get back, you’ll be more than busy organizing and creating a safe haven for us. I plan to use a large outdoor store as the base when we get back. It’s set a little out of town so start thinking about what we’re going to need to secure it. Communications, maintenance, power, heat, fuel, stuff like that. I have some ideas but the more minds on it, the better. We also need to start thinking about how we’re going to handle the rampant disease that’s going to be prevalent very soon.” I say.

“We’ll start putting our minds on that now,” Frank says and the two of them head toward the aircraft. I see Robert, with Michelle by his side, start across the ramp with Red Team. I sure wish for different times and that they didn’t have to go through something like this, I think watching them walk across the ramp. Maybe it’s that I wish I didn’t have to go through this with them as it seems to be an adventure for them. I know I’d probably see it that way if I were in their shoes.

I really seem to be floating in this reverie state of mind today. Maybe because it is one of the first times in the past few days that I have actually had time to think and feel a sense of security for everyone. The mind has its own defense mechanisms and ways of dealing with it. It filters out quite a bit and then feeds it in a little at a time to the extent that it can handle it. I would have thought that I would have pretty much handled a lot of that with the stressful times in special ops. But then again, those were not so broad and far reaching. I always came back to beer and pretty good food afterwards. There is no afterwards here.

There I go again, I think heading towards the back of the aircraft. Lynn and the other team leaders - Sergeant Drescoll, Corporal Horace, Sergeant Watkins, Sergeant Cressman and Lynn — join me there and introductions are made. The sound of four crew vehicles arriving reaches us and I see Robert pulling the fuel truck alongside the aircraft.

“Okay everyone,” I say opening the team briefing, “we’ll leave tonight so that we can have a daytime landing at Brunswick but we need to gather supplies while we’re here. Two teams, led by Sergeant Connell, will head over to the armory to gather all the weapons and ammunition we can get. I will lead my team and one other to the BX to gather water and any non-perishable food. Sergeant Connell, can you assign the other teams?”

“Yes, sir. I’ll be taking Sergeant Drescoll and my team. Corporal Horace will be with you and your team.”

“Sounds like a plan. We need team call signs. My team is Red. Sergeant Drescoll, you’ll be Green. Corporal Horace is Blue. Sergeant Connell, Black. Sergeant Watkins will be Alpha and Sergeant Cressman will take Bravo.”

“How come I get black?” Lynn asks.

“Fits your personality,” I say in response. Uh oh, the look I get in return says that I’ll be going first for a long time to come.

“Sergeant Watkins, do you have keys to the armory?” I say quickly to avoid any response that look will bring.

“Yes, sir,” Watkins answers amid small chuckles from the group.

“Okay, Sergeant Watkins will escort you to the armory,” I say addressing Lynn. “Sergeant Cressman, you’ll take your team and the remainder of Alpha to provide security here. Any questions or comments to this point.”

“No, sir,” the group answers.

“Sergeant Watkins, we’ll need to distribute the radios your team has. Each team leader gets one and I also want Bannerman, Wilson, and Robert to get one. I don’t suppose there’s a Special Forces armory on base?”

“No, sir.”

“Okay, the overall plan is to load up on supplies, fly out of here tonight arriving at Brunswick in the morning, do a quick refueling stop there and head down to the CDC. That should give us enough time to get in and out of there during the day. Rest up in the aircraft that night and head to McChord in the morning reaching there in the afternoon. Questions?”

“No, sir,” the group responds.

“Very well, brief your teams and let’s do this. We leave in twenty.”