“What was that? Are you communicating with someone?” Nikki asked.
“Yep.”
“Who?”
Fred was silent. Nikki asked him again who it was, but it didn’t take a mechanical engineer to figure out he was not going to answer. They rode the next twenty miles in silence before Nikki could not stand it anymore, so she tried another subject.
“I haven’t seen a single zed, have you?”
“Nope,” he replied.
“The latest news is they are now hibernating when it gets cold. Do you believe that?”
“To an extent, yes,” he answered.
“What do you mean?”
“They’ve learned to utilize shelter and they’re digesting again, which means they’re putting off heat. I’ve seen them huddling together for warmth, but that doesn’t mean they’re hibernating. They’ll come out and hunt for food.”
“Do you think they understand weather patterns?”
“I believe this new generation of zeds do, yeah,” Fred said.
“Fifteens,” Nikki said.
“Yep.”
“Alright, what you’re saying is, they know this front is coming and they’re going to hunker down, right?” Nikki asked.
“I believe so, yes,” Fred said and then paid Nikki a rare compliment. “That was good reasoning.”
“What do you mean?” she asked.
“You took the information I provided, analyzed it, and reached a probable conclusion. That’s called inductive reasoning.”
“Not deductive, like Sherlock Holmes?”
“No, that’s different.”
“So, I’ve made an inductive conclusion?” she asked.
“Yep. It is probable that the zeds are aware of this bad weather coming in and have hunkered down. So, you’ve read Arthur Conan Doyle?”
“What?”
“How do you know about Sherlock Holmes?” he asked.
“Oh, we have a bunch of Sherlock Holmes movies on DVD back home.”
Nikki was silent for a long moment. “There’s a woman in our group back at Shenandoah. She was a college professor, back before, and she tells everyone constantly how smart she is. She told me once that I’m stupid.”
“I don’t believe you’re stupid,” Fred declared. “That professor may be book smart, but does she know how to shoe a horse or how to spot a pregnant cow that’s having problems? I doubt it, but you can, right?”
“Damn right I can, but shouldn’t I know books as well?”
“Yes, you should,” Fred said. “I think you should probably move to Mount Weather and enroll in some of the classes – no, maybe not. Not yet.”
“Why not?” Nikki asked.
“Because if your reading comprehension is as low as you say it is, they’ll put you in with the kids. No, Rachel and I can get you going in the right direction.”
“I’ve taken the firearms and zed fighting class,” Nikki said. “I really liked them. Are there other classes?”
“Yes, there are. Zach created a whole program. They have the core education classes, but there are also classes covering almost everything having to do with survival, running a community, heck, even running a country. Zach created the lesson plans for almost all of it.”
“He sounds smart.”
Fred chuckled slightly. “Yes, he is.”
“What formal classes should I learn?” she asked.
Fred thought a minute. “Alright, if you’re serious about this, we’ll get into it more when we’re back home and create an educational plan. It’ll depend on what you want to focus on. If Zach was here, he’d probably have you take an ASVAB test to figure out what your strong points are.”
“What’s an ASVAB?”
Fred grunted. “It used to be something important that everyone had to take in high school. Do you have any idea what you want to do?”
“I don’t know. Maybe an engineer?”
“There are different fields in engineering and math is important in all of them. You said math wasn’t your strong point.”
“Yeah, but you could teach me,” she said.
Fred didn’t answer immediately, but she could see he was thinking about it.
“Well, I think we should first get an idea of what you’d be best at and go from there. We’ll start on it when we get back. Maybe enroll you in one or two classes and see how it works out.”
“I want to be able to build stuff,” she suddenly said. “Like an engineer.”
Fred glanced at her and she thought she saw an inkling of a smile. “Math would be important then. You know, they’re always looking for people to live at Marcus Hook. Roscoe is an engineer and a lot smarter than me. He teaches people.”
“How? You had your own manufacturing business.”
“Roscoe is running a diesel refinery. That’s much more complex than designing a prefab greenhouse.”
“No, I think I want to stick around and learn from you.”
Fred emitted a single chuckle. Nikki didn’t know it, but it was the most Fred had laughed in at least two years.
“If you’re going to train with me, I’m going to put you to work too. I have about a hundred things around the farm I need to get done as soon as possible and the list seems to get longer every day.”
“I can come live with you guys?” she asked.
Fred realized what he said was tantamount to an invitation. He thought about it a moment.
“Alright, I have a proposition for you. Rachel is going to need help once she gives birth.”
Nikki interrupted him. “I’ll do it.”
“As I was saying. I’ve been depending on Sammy to help me with the farm work, but he has school and his family. So, along with Rachel needing assistance, I’ll need a hand with the farm chores as well.”
Nikki jumped at his offer. “I’ll do it, but I want dedicated training time and I want to go on your missions with you.”
Fred was slow to respond. “I’ll try to give you dedicated time, but it’ll be here and there, and I won’t be able to take you on every mission. Plus, I’m still training Sammy. I suppose you two could become study buddies.” He frowned then. “Um, or maybe not.”
“Why not?”
“I guess you might say Serena is a little bit on the jealous side. Sammy is growing up to be a handsome young man.
