the others we picked up and for any we find. I want everyone that is here or comes in trained,” I answer. “I was thinking of having one team here on standby in case any of the teams run into trouble. They can help with the training and your being a previous drill instructor puts you at the top of the list to develop it.”
“Okay, I can do that. Do you mean everyone? Like Little Robert? Like Bri?” She asks.
“Well, we have to have a cut off on age but I want Bri in on that along with Robert. Not Little Robert,” I reply.
“Hmmmm… Okay, Jack. I’m not in agreement with Bri but I’ll put a program together,” she says.
“Bri gets put in, Lynn,” I say hearing Bri give a little sigh just behind me.
“Are you sure, Jack?” Lynn asks referring to the loss of Nic. A quiet hush falls among the group at the reference. The noise inside of people shuffling around on the other side of the balcony, getting ready for bed or just moving, rises above the silence. The hammering of the night runners rises above all else at times.
“Yes, I’m quite sure,” I say quietly. I still have qualms about anything that puts my kids in danger but I definitely want them trained. I don’t know if it would have made a difference with Nic or not, but if it could make difference later to save the lives of Robert or Bri, I want them to have it. It doesn’t mean I’m about to launch them out into buildings, I just want them trained.
“Okay, Jack, I’ll put it together. We’ll train during the day while the others are gathering items, but if I’m to do this, then I’m in complete charge. No interference, Jack,” she says.
“What? Are you implying I would interfere with any training?” I ask.
“Of course not, Jack. I would never imply that. How could I possibly ever think you would interfere?” She answers with her total innocent look, which of course brings a smile to my face.
“Okay, point taken. You’ll have complete control and I won’t say a thing,” I say.
“Oh yeah, that’ll happen,” she says rolling her eyes. “Just remember this conversation, bucko.”
“I hate to bring this up, but what are we going to do about all of the dead bodies and the probability of diseases?” Frank asks.
“Yeah, there’s that. I think we can agree that we don’t have the manpower to carry them out or bury them in mass. The only thing I can think of is to burn the housing developments with carefully controlled burns. I just don’t see any other way,” I answer giving my opinion.
“What about any survivors though? They’ll get caught up in that,” Drescoll asks and says.
“That’s a good point. We’ll have to make sure any teams assigned to that detail roll through the neighborhoods with loudspeakers and try to find anyone around prior to setting the fires. We’ll have to make sure of wind direction and such as well,” I respond.
“And how will we keep the fires under control?” Frank asks.
“We’ll have to get some fire trucks with water tenders from the fire station. We’ll train on the trucks and use the streets as fire breaks,” I answer with Bannerman starting to write again.
“How many trucks?” Bannerman asks.
“I don’t rightly know. I think we’ll need two teams on the burns; maybe Alpha and Bravo. I guess every truck we can lay our hands on. Have the trucks run behind the main line of fire and put out anything that jumps the streets. Of course, that could quickly get out of hand with the embers in the air and if they settle somewhere downwind starting other fires. We’ll just have to keep the fires limited and not let them rage out of control. All I’m thinking is that we need to get rid of all the bodies within a fair piece of area around us,” I answer not knowing the right solution.
“If I could go back to the wall for a moment, how high are we looking to build it?” Bannerman asks looking at his notes.
“I think twenty feet high should do it provided we can put the partitions together without creating hand or foot holds,” I answer. “Anyone else think differently?”
“I think that should be high enough,” Lynn answers with her opinion. “I mean, the night runners have tremendous capabilities from what we’ve seen, but they’re not supermen nor can they fly. At least not that I’ve seen.”
“I agree, that should be high enough,” Drescoll adds. “Are we planning to look for others outside of the burn areas?”
“I think eventually we will be out doing just that when we have a few more people. Right now, at least the way I see it, we should be concentrating on getting our place up and running; building the security. We’ll need to bring in livestock and build greenhouses if we want to sustain ourselves in the long run. I have it my mind that we need to get the wall up and the long-term food in place by winter. We’ll be able to eat through the winter on supplies we can find on hand and our fuel situation may be critical by next year; that is, the fuel will be unusable by then. My opinion is that we should use that fuel to make sure we have a viable, long-term place for the people we do have,” I say in answer.
“I’m not disagreeing with you at all, just asking if we are going to look,” Drescoll says.
“Most definitely. I think we owe it to them to look for them when we can,” I say to which everyone nods.
“So, speaking of long-term, what about using solar power for our long-term energy needs? At least for this building,” Franks asks.
“I think that’s a good idea,” Bannerman says flipping a page on his notebook and writing more.
“As long as you’re writing, you might put down some of those towable generators found at those road construction sites. We could rig one up with a breaker so we can use the pumps at gas stations,” I say. Bannerman nods and his pen flies across his pages.
“What about integrating a nightly training session for the entire group? We get together before dinner and have a topic for the night or several nights running, finding someone who has an expertise at something, anything, and we all learn. Complete with both classroom and practical applications if necessary. Everyone knows something so we should share the knowledge. I could draft a schedule along with the other training,” Lynn says after Bannerman’s pen slows down a notch.
“I like it,” I say nodding.
“Yeah, sounds good to me,” Drescoll adds.
“What do you want me to do?” Frank asks.
“I’d like you to have someone by the radios at all times. Mark and coordinate team locations at all times just in case something happens. We’ll need detailed maps of the areas,” I answer hearing Bannerman’s pen start up again.
“You’re going to wear that thing out,” I say to Bannerman who chuckles in response.
“My magic wand went missing so this is the best I can do,” he says without looking up.
“So, I think that may cover it for the short-term unless anyone can think of something,” I say chuckling at Bannerman.
“Well, there are a few other things Frank and I discussed,” Bannerman adds. “We were thinking about cleaning and such while we were sorting through the clothing here. I think it would be a good idea if we found some commercial washers and dryers. We’ll need a way to keep what we have clean.”
“Agreed, add that to your list as well. Speaking of clothing, we’ll need to gather up some scent maskers or at least make sure any teams going into buildings for supplies have smoked themselves,” I say.
“And we were thinking we should go raid Madigan for hospital equipment and supplies,” Frank says. “We could set up a dispensary and small hospital here. I’m not talking x-ray machines and the like and it’s not like we have anyone to run some of the stuff but you never know. IV’s, monitors, beds if we can get them, needles, drugs, maybe even a breathing machine if we can. Those are nice to have items but I’m not sure if they’re worth the risk of going into a place like that.”
“It’s seems more items we’ll need rather than want items to me,” Drescoll replies.
“I agree with you that they should be up on the priority list if we’re to make a long go at this,” I say. “Let’s get started on the wall and supplies and revisit a hospital trip afterwards.”
“Anything else,” I add looking at the group.
“Well, you have mentioned everyone else. What are you going to be doing? I don’t imagine you just hanging around on standby,” Lynn asks.
“Well,” I say with a smile, “I thought I might get in some helicopter training. That might come in handy down the road when we’re searching for others.”
