Mark looked to be visibly doing calculations in his head. “There’s enough that we could shoot off at least five hundred rounds. Like anything it is going to need to be refilled and there’ll be more of it needed of course to continue making our way further.”
“How hard is this stuff to come by? I mean how long will it take you to make more, to make enough to keep us supplied for a helluva long time?” Clary questioned.
“Well, we aren’t going to be able to gather most of these things at the local Wal-Mart, unfortunately, but there are going to be places I’m sure that will have plenty of this to make what we need.”
“You don’t think that we are going to have it on a military base?” Clary asked.
“No, probably not. We need to go somewhere that is interested in saving lives, opposed to the latter.”
Clary didn’t want to get into a debate over the military and their purpose. It seemed like a moot point at this time in the world’s current situation. “Look, I don’t know what is in it, but if you make a list or have some idea where you can get what you need then we will be good to go and can move from there.”
Mark pushed a list over towards Clary and it was not short. Clary said, “Christ, is this really everything that you put into that little powder?”
“Sir, if it was easy then someone would have figured it out by now. I don’t know if there is a CDC center here or a college campus, possibly. I’m sure you’ve got colleges here right?”
Ellie said, “Well we have to walk by foot of course on gravel roads to get to college, thank god they take our pa’s corn harvest as trade for our schoolin’.”
“Okay, okay,” Mark held up his hands in defeat, this round table wasn’t going well for him and he wasn’t sure how to continue with such a wonderful foot in his mouth. “What college is closest?”
Shaun thought about Iowa State in Ames but going a half hour back then would have to be hours travelling now, easily. “Drake College has to be the closest, but there are some community colleges we could check on the way. I really don’t know much about what they have for classes offered though. I’d think they are going to have some of what you need but I don’t know.”
Earl held up a hand. No one was interested in what he’d like to know but when he started to look as if he might crap himself if his questions weren’t answered Clary nodded towards him. “Sorry, this might not be protein to the situation but I gotta ask something.”
“What is it, Earl, did you have a college that you’d recommend?” Clary asked.
“No, I’m sure the ones that Shaun over there suggested would be right fine.”
Clary took a deep breath and he wasn’t sure what the hell he was going to do with this man. “Right, then what do you need?”
“Well, it’s just that my grandpa was a farmer, you see. I asked him to help me pay for college once. He told me to go into the army and that they would pay for it if I was smart enough to get in.”
“And?” Clary asked.
“Well hell, I mean, I learned more ‘bout guns than I could ever forget. But if I could’ve skipped all that and just went right into college then I could’ve skipped getting thrown out of a plane back during basic.”
“Earl, I’m lost, but I fear if you keep explaining that I might have my hand around your neck again.”
“I was just saying my grand pappy could’ve just went and plowed the east field a couple of years if they would’ve taken trade. Hell, it would’ve been just fine if I’d have gone to good ol’ DMACC even and gotten me a mechanic degree or something, you know what I mean?”
Clary took his ball cap off and set it on the table and rubbed his hands through his dark, thick hair. He took a long drink of coffee and looked to Ellie who was shaking her head and hiding what was going to very quickly become an infectious laugh. He said as cool and collectively as he could, “We are going to try two groups; anyone have any problems with that?”
Shaun raised his hand but Ellie couldn’t help herself. “Uh, yeah, I got a problem with that. Every time that we split up, we go off on our own, the worse things that can happen, do. We don’t have the numbers to try and do this right now.”
“We don’t have the numbers? Christ, how many people did we have when we took this base over? What are we going to do to see how long it would take? We’ve already wasted enough time trying to figure out how to get rid of them when we could,” Clary yelled as he slammed a hand down onto the table.
“We’re going on two years right now. What difference does it make if it takes a few extra hours? We didn’t have much luck with the time that we’ve spent in Des Moines and Ankeny,” Ellie said trying to use some reason.
“Yeah, and we were in Ankeny looking for your dumbasses in a snowstorm. You remember that, right? Or, maybe you don’t, given the fact that you ended up in a coma, you remember that, right? That day didn’t go to well, we lost Shelman, Phillip…”
“I get it. You don’t need to be a dick.”
“I just
