“Ah, do you know where your parents went?”
Seth just shook his head from side to side.
“Did they lock you in the basement a lot?”
Again the boy just stared at him. Kenny came lumbering back up the stairs, not going up nearly as fast as he had gone down.
“Got it! I got it! I can go now.”
The dog was sniffing at Max's pant leg and Seth slowly let out a little slack. Riley didn't bite him, but sniffed around at Max's feet and then jumped up on him with both paws at his waist. The look was not one of a friendly Labrador retriever making peace with a stranger, it was more of one of a lion sizing up the local gazelle. Riley showed her teeth in an emotion that was far colder than any grin could ever be.
“Riley likes you!” said Kenny, rubbing the dog on its head with vigorous affection and then saying, “Down Riley you know dad doesn't like you jumping on people!” The dog dropped to all fours once again, but the fur behind its head did not relax.
Chapter 8
“Higher, it has to go a little higher John!” Bill said with a strained voice.
“I know dad, I can't move it, it's caught on something.”
“Goddamned thing, this is supposed to be easy. I am letting it down, slow.” Bill lowered the solar array, John slowly copied his movements until it was resting on the ground.
“Can we set it all the way down? I need a drink.”
“Sure, let's just go slow.” Bill and his son slowly dropped the array onto it's back until it rested in the grass. As they did so a green army truck buzzed past on the paved road beside their house. They watched it go until it was out of sight. “I hope things are okay.” Bill commented as they went inside. The air conditioner was working overtime today and the kids were gathered around the game console in the living room.
“If they were a few years older…” Bill began.
“Then the array would already be up and you would inside with us?” asked Trisha, handing him a pint of canned beer. “You know that isn't true though, if they were a few years older they would have places of their own and we'd be lucky if they were close by at all.”
Bill nodded to acknowledge his wife's words of wisdom then took a long pull off of his beer. John came out of the kitchen with a tall iced tea in his hand he looked at his siblings and said, “No fair that they get to be in here on a day like today, while we are out working in the heat.”
“Hey, they did what I asked this morning, so you let them have their fun. As I recall you were sleeping while we were out getting the peas in.” Trisha said in defense of the younger kids.
“If I would have known how hot it would be I would have gotten up.”
“Not to cut you off, but any news Trisha?”
“No. The curfew is in effect until further notice, the governor is saying there might be military law he issued an order against hording and rioting. The internet is limited to local areas, we have old copies of some websites, but there is nothing new on Fox or CNN.”
“We still have phones then too?”
“Yeah, the government thinks we won't lose cell or land line services, once they figured out how to re-route the calls the phone service came back. We can't make out of state call, but from what I just saw on the news there isn't anyone to call out there anyway. It's lucky Iowa has some major players in the telecom industry based here or we'd be back to sending smoke signals. Oh, the other thing was they called in some technical people to work too. So doctors, fire and safety crews and their IT people have to report in, as well as government officials who coordinate the police and military. All military personal have been ordered to report to the nearest national guard facility, even if they were retired, I think the governor's exact words were, 'If you can remember being in the military at any point in your life, you need to report in immediately.'”
“Whoa, even the old codgers?”
“Yeah. The pundits on the local news radio are saying that all able bodied men should form up into militias for home defense from the coming hordes.” Trisha scoffed, “What hordes?”
John and Bill exchanged a brief look, then Bill said “Well, ah, it could get bad. No calls from anyone?”
“No calls from Max you mean? No, but my family is fine.”
“I said anyone, that is what I meant. Your family going to come up here?” Bill asked delicately.
“No, they are going to ride it out in Texas. Dad said if Texas doesn't hold out he doesn't have much hope that Iowa will.”
Bill shook his head, “I don't know, none of these things started in our cities. I heard Austin was in bad shape.”
“Yeah that was the other reason, the direct route up here is blocked by the Austin horde. I can't…” Trisha was interrupted by the telephone ringing.
Bill was closest to the wall so he picked it up, “Hello? Who? This is Bill, no who are you? Oh. When? Okay I can be there then. What? Sure John can come. No I am not bringing Will. The hell you say, I am not having a little kid out there…. Whaddya mean I don't have any choice? Okay, okay you are just the messenger, but he isn't going to be there. Alright then I will see you tonight.” Bill hung up the phone then looked at Trisha, “Trish….ah we've just been drafted.”
“What?” she asked the color draining from her face.
“That was a guy, a Major Kimbly, he…and his secretary, are going through the phone book and school records and calling all the families, at the governor's order. We have to meet tonight at the high school gym. He said all men aged thirteen and over have to be there to talk with the military. I am not bringing Will.” Bill looked fondly over at his son, the boy was little more than that, he was late in developing as some boys were, so as an eighth grader he was about the shortest kid in his class. Shaking his head he said, “No, Will is not coming.”
“No women are going?” asked Claire, who had come in from the kitchen and was wiping her hands off with a dish rag.
“No, just men. The major didn't mention women being invited.”
“Are they…are they taking you away tonight?” asked Trisha.
“I don't know dear, he didn't say, just that it was an informational meeting. A mandatory information meeting.”
John had stopped drinking and was staring at his father, “What do we do?”
“Well, for starters we get that array set up and show your ma how to flip over to it, if the power goes out. The meeting isn't until seven and I doubt they are going to haul us off late at night, they will give us more information and once we have that we decide what to do.”
By the end of the day the solar array was up and plugged in, it was generating power, but not as much as it could because the motion control that automatically faced the array towards the sun was not hooked up yet. The motor was sized for a smaller pipe than the one Bill had cemented in, fixing that was going to be a problem for another day. For now the array would at least generate full power for a few hours during the day, more if they remembered to go out and manually face it towards the sun at times. Dinner was a somber affair, made worse by the call interrupting it from a military man who spoke with Bill.
“Mister Carson, my name is Vernon Stack. I am a sergeant in the United States Army. The civilian authority has said that all males thirteen and over need to be at the mandatory meeting in town tonight. Mayor Kimbly called me and said you were refusing to bring your son, William Junior, is that correct.”
“Will is too young, he hasn't even gone through puberty yet. Some thirteen year olds are big, he isn't”
“Okay, I understand your concern, but Will needs to be there, the governor was very clear on this. Look, if the boy is as underdeveloped as you say, he will not be going anywhere, we have standards and we are not interested in taking people who cannot do the job we need them to do.”
“What about mandatory military age? I mean even my John can't join without parental consent. What is to
