John slowly nodded his head in agreement as he watched the younger man taking charge of what had been a free-for-all just a few minutes prior.
Jared was locked on Barry, who had turned and faced the group now. “I propose if you want to stay here with us, we would have to decide whether or not your reward outweighs your risk. After that, you will be here on a probationary basis.” John smiled inwardly as Barry remained silent. “How long would the food you’re carrying last you?”
Barry looked around the table. Everyone simply stared back, waiting for his answer. “Two months if I ration,” he replied, the arrogance mildly evaporating from his tone.
“Okay—well, I see no need for a two-month probation, but how does two weeks sound?” Jared observed.
Barry shrugged and nodded in a noncommittal yet agreeable manner.
“For two weeks you use your own cache of food and water, you pull watch with one of us, and you can sleep inside the house. After you’ve passed the probationary period, you combine your supplies with ours, and we work together for the greater good of the group from that day going forward,” Jared finished. He glanced about the table, searching the faces of his two friends as he waited for Barry’s answer. Neither John nor Calvin appeared to disagree with Jared’s proposed plan, which gave Jared great relief.
“How much food do you guys have up here?” Barry asked, getting straight to the point.
All three adult residents of the house looked at each other in obvious discomfort at the thought of divulging that information to an unknown entity.
“We have enough,” John said in response to the question.
“No, you don’t,” Barry shot back.
“Why don’t we worry about that stuff later?” Jared said, trying to head off another pointless argument.
“No,” Barry said, shaking his head. “I have to know the people I’m taking up with are not only serious about living to see their next birthday, but that they are smart enough or are capable enough to achieve that goal. I’ve seen nothing to indicate to me you all won’t be dead within the year.” Barry leaned back and crossed his arms after finishing.
John leaned in. “I think we’re doing just fine; we have a car, a water source, and plenty of food.”
“For now, but what happens when the food runs out? Do you have a plan to start a food source before that happens, or are you all a bunch of reactionaries here?” Barry gestured towards the paper still lying on the table in front of John. “That list is all wrong, and I assume it was put together by what the government considers intelligent people. I know all those people, and they are not the ones I’d choose to help rebuild the world.” Barry scoffed, looking at the paper again with disdain.
“Enough about a list no one in this house put together,” Jared said. “Let’s hear what value you bring to a community.”
Barry nodded and squared himself up to the table. “Okay, here’s how I would do it. Trusting you have enough food for, let’s say, six months, we could potentially get up and running before we all die of starvation. I would make a different list of people who really are smart and really could help your community.” Barry emphasized the word really each time he used it.
“The people on your list”—Barry gesticulated in John’s direction—“are useless and would spend months pontificating about matters they know nothing of—then they’d die. Jared, you and I have skills in the electronic world that can and will have to be applied in the current world. We understand how electricity works, and after a few scavenging outings, I am sure we can start getting some crude elements of our lost society working. Maybe a water heater or some lights, things like that.”
Jared’s mind raced as he thought about what Barry was saying. Up to this point, Jared had only thought about how not to get killed and where he was going to get his next meal. Water had been fairly easy to find so far, but even that would become an issue as their community grew in numbers. Now Barry was talking about hot water, which Jared thought was one of the things he missed the most.
“First,” Barry continued, breaking Jared’s daydreaming session, “we have to figure out a way to produce food and do it in a way we can sustain year-round. Won’t be easy, and we may have to move from this house you all have here. Of course all this is what we do after I make a new list and we go bring those people up here to be part of the community. They can help out using their individual skill sets.”
“Now you want to kidnap people?” John quipped, looking down his nose at Barry.
Jared laid a hand on John’s arm. “How would we find these people, and why would they want to come with us, and are they even still alive?” Jared pressed.
Barry smiled. “’Cause I know ’em all. I grew up in that mess, knew more billionaires than I knew normal people. I went to their clubs in the city…The Battery Club for instance, I was a member and so was everyone else. I was a member for a different reason than most, of course, but everyone wanted to show how diverse they were, so they would join a club that preached diversity, but cost thousands just to join and thousands more every year in dues. How much diversity do you boys think were in those clubs?” Barry leaned into the group, a smile on his face.
“Not much, I can tell you that. Yeah, there were females and Indians, and your Asians had a good showing, but they all worked in the top tier of all those Silicon Valley companies. I never saw a janitor or someone who worked in Google’s cafeteria at The Battery, not once. Funny thing is they didn’t even
