the hospital,” I continue.
There’s a silence as everyone ponders the idea. “I’ve honestly thought along those lines as well,” Bannerman finally says. “There are advantages and disadvantages to that. The disadvantages are fairly obvious I think. It’s mostly about clearing those areas. We’d have to have the manpower to do it and keep it clear. Time and resources as you put it.”
“But we’d basically have a functioning city if we could do it,” Drescoll says.
“Keeping it clear and patrolling that vast of an area sounds like it would suck up all of our resources if we could even clear it sufficiently,” Lynn chimes in.
“We’d have to take it in stages and base out of here while we were doing it,” I say. “Then we could keep this area as our food supply although there are enough open areas up there to do that as well.”
“It’s ambitious, I’ll give you that but if we could do it, I think it would be worth it,” Greg says.
“Everything is already in place there. The advantages I see are that the power is in place. Bases were meant to be self-sufficient in that and other regards. We’d have tools, storage, and armories right there. Plus, they already have the water tower in place. We could have a large field of those wind turbines by the airfield and vast arrays of solar panels. There are also fuel depots we could utilize. The disadvantages, like Lynn mentioned, are keeping the night runners out and patrolling. And clearing it to begin with. That will be a major undertaking in and of itself,” Frank says.
“Even putting the night runners aside, I think we may be able to keep them out like we’ve done here, but marauders will be a different story. We don’t, and I don’t foresee us having, enough to keep the entire area patrolled. We could be easily infiltrated,” Lynn replies.
“How many of those concrete wall parts are still in place up north?” I ask.
“I see where you’re going with that and I think there are still miles of them left according to the teams that were up there. I don’t think we’ll have a problem finding enough,” Bannerman answers.
“So what about starting with the housing and hospital and go from there?” I ask.
“Probably feasible and we could have the walls up in a short time with all of the help we have,” Bannerman again answers.
“Will that affect the work started around here?” Robert asks. All heads turn in his direction as this is about his first utterance in one of our meetings. I wanted him and Bri in them to learn and by his question, he has done just that.
“I don’t see a problem with that. We’ll have a learning curve but we should be fine,” Bannerman responds.
“Okay, so we find and hit a distribution center, or centers, train some to drive semi’s and bring back shipping containers, continue to build the livestock facilities and greenhouses, and start putting the walls up around the hospital and housing areas up north. Sounds easy,” I say with my head starting to bleed from all of it.
“That will put us mighty thin on the teams,” Lynn adds.
“Yeah, we’ll need a team to escort the trucks hauling the containers. I want them to convoy with a team of Humvees for protection. We’ve at least learned that from recent days. Any traveling group will have the top guns manned at all times. Then at least one team for the crews gathering the concrete walls, and one for the group setting them in place. One team for the night watch and one on standby. That leaves three teams to help with supply runs. That does leave us pretty thin. When will the first training class be finished?” I ask turning to Lynn.
“Well, the first class is almost through phase 1. Phase two will take a couple weeks following. Then we can begin the next group,” Lynn answers.
“The distribution centers will have to be an all-out effort once the storage containers are in place then,” I say. “I’m sure we’ll find plenty of empty containers in the Seattle shipping yards. Will three teams be enough for you Bannerman?”
“Should be. There are a few things Frank and I have thought about getting but some of the others can get them without having to go into buildings; or at least the dangerous ones,” he answers.
“So, do we have enough supplies now that we won’t have to ‘shop’ around here?” I ask.
“I think we’ll have to make some more runs but not many,” he answers.
“Okay. There’s one other thing I wanted to bring up. That is taking time to search for the families of soldiers. If we decide to do it, we’ll have to do it soon; before winter sets in and before the fuel goes bad. I think it’s only fair to them to at least have an answer. I’m also thinking there could be some who might leave to find out on their own if we don’t,” I say.
“How would we do that with us already stretched thin?” Greg asks.
“Well, I was thinking when we could take a small break in operations. Like maybe after the shipping containers were brought in or after we hit the distribution centers. We’d have to set a time limit and any families we go looking for would have to reside within a set distance from a military airfield,” I answer.
“I, for one, think it’s a great idea if we can afford the manpower. How many Humvees can the 130 take?” Greg says.
“Two to three depending on how we load them. I would think two with the teams we’ll be taking depending on how many want to go. I envision each place will take two days. One for air travel and one for driving to and back,” I answer.
“We should bring it up to the soldiers,” Frank says.
“Okay, so tomorrow, let’s start our truck driving institute and carry on with the fences and buildings. We’ll start on operations after they’ve become proficient and after Alpha, Bravo, and Charlie return. In the meantime, we can also expand our search for any other survivors. My thought is to use the helicopter to fly over an area and make a loudspeaker broadcast identifying a rally point for at a set day and time. We can use the school buses to meet in a mall parking lot or other such places we locate. I think we’ll use the three teams who aren’t on fence and convoy duty and set up a perimeter at each rescue site just in case we call on someone who has different ideas other than being rescued. Each day we can cover a different area. Anyone have any questions?” I ask.
“I like that plan. Where will we start looking for others?” Drescoll asks.
“I’ll leave that up to Frank. If we have any maps of the area, we can designate areas to cover and mark them off afterwards,” I answer.
“I’ll start looking at them when we finish here,” Frank replies.
“Any further questions or thoughts?” I ask.
There aren’t any replies and we break for the evening. I’m still tired and I feel a headache coming on so I sit and chat with Lynn for a while. Robert is off with Michelle and Bri with Julie. The interior settles down for the night. It’s comforting inside not having to listen to the perpetual banging of night runners trying to get in. I ease off into dreamland.
She wakes the next night conscious of the many around her. Many had lost their pack leaders and joined her but several pack leaders joined as well. Still aware of the tickle across her mind the night before, she heads out with her pack. There is still food available where the other two-legged laired and she will start the night’s hunt there. She hopes the other two-legged ones haven’t recovered and are defending their lair as they had before.
She trots through the darkened town with a drizzle starting to fall. The wet slaps of feet behind let her know the others are following. The wet will dampen the ability to find prey to an extent but she isn’t worried. She has more mouths to find food for but the young one riding along with her is the most important. She knows a couple of other females in her pack are also carrying young ones. The gray shapes of various buildings pass by as she heads up a steep hill on her way to observe the two-legged one’s lair.
She senses a couple of other smaller packs prowling the neighborhoods she passes. She sees the compound and halts. The lights that once bathed the perimeter in their glow are gone. The tall structures by the fence are empty and the air is free of their scent. She cautiously edges forward. There is no resounding bang of a gunshot or cry of alarm as there had been in previous nights when she ventured close.
She trots around the fenced area to the place it was brought down last night and enters the lair. There is one of the two-legged lying on the ground by the entrance. The sniffs the air and catches a faint scent but it is an old one. The drizzle has vanquished most of the smell but it’s still there. She doesn’t smell anything fresh or recent. With a look around to check for movement, she begins feeding. The males let the ones carrying young to
