2nd Earth 2: Emplacement (4 page)

I hand my gun to Gary, Bennett starts to raise his at me and Sara tells him to try it, he will be dead before he hears her gun go off. He smiles and lowers his gun. He tosses it on the floor and pushes the girl in front of him towards Gary. As he does that he jumps at me from about two steps up. I am expecting it, but his momentum pushes me back against a table. He is trying to knee me in the groin, and he is trying to get his hands on my throat to choke me. I block the knee with my knee and throw a forearm into his face to push him back. That separates us for the moment. He is a vicious fighter who was known for putting his opponents in the hospital. I know of five confirmed kills he had in hand to hand combat, so I know I have my work cut out for me. I am no stranger to hand to hand combat either, I once heard a soldier bragging in the barracks that he was undefeated in hand to hand combat. One of the guys he was trying to impress told him that was obvious. If you lose in hand to hand, you don’t get to talk about it.

He is throwing kicks and punches in rapid succession trying to knock me off balance. I have been blocking what he is throwing, but I decide I have to go on the offensive to win. I counter what he throws and start moving in throwing combinations of kicks and punches first high, then low. One of my punches gets through to his face and I can see blood flowing from his nose.  Another series of combinations gets a kick into his midsection, knocking him back a step. He is not smiling anymore, nor is he talking, earlier he was telling me how he was going to kill me. He rushes throwing punches and kicks, but I can feel the power has diminished considerably in his hits. I have been working my butt off on the farm while he has been sitting back living a life of self indulgence and debauchery. He is much farther out of shape than he would have guessed about five minutes ago.

I retaliate with combinations that his reflexes are no longer able to block. I am thinking of asking him if he has had enough when he grabs for a gun he has hidden in his boot top. He draws it and starts to aim it at me when I hear the blast of more than one gun and see him jerk erect and fall to the floor. I look toward Gary and Sara, they have their guns raised, but so does the young lady he used as a shield coming downstairs. The second young lady who was upstairs comes down slowly making sure that the danger is over. I look down at Bennett trying to figure out what makes someone who has so much to offer be so selfish. There are too many people outside to stay here for the night, so we decide to go get the vans and take most of them back to the city, at least for the remainder of the night.

We don’t have to go get the vans because those who were still with them could hear the shooting and guessed when it was over that everything was safe. With the vehicles they have here we can get everyone in so we all head to the city. By the time we get there it is only a couple of hours until sunup so we decide to go back to the farm. We have to drive slowly in the dark, but not much slower than normal. When we told everybody what we are proposing we gave them their choice of either coming with us or we would leave them in the city. One of the men asked what the difference is of where they were and where we are going. He said it sounds like they are just going from working for one group to working for another. We already proved we are stronger and better prepared to fight than their last captors.

At first I feel like telling him to get out and stay if that’s what he wants, but then I realize that I would be thinking the same thing if I was him. Before I can answer him Ray and Carol tell all of them that they have been to our farm.

“We understand how you feel because when we first went with these kind people we were as scared and as nervous as you all are. None of us have ever known anything, but running and scavenging to survive. We didn’t even trust each other enough to join forces for strength. Where we are going there are four farms, not one and four different groups living on those farms. We will all have to work, but it will be to build our own homes, where we can raise our families in safety and go to a warm bed at night with a full stomach. We know it sounds too good to be true, but we have seen it with our own eyes. A year ago they were all just like us, living in small groups, being hunted by predators and hoping to find enough food to feed our families. What have we got to lose going with them even if we didn’t know what was in store. Can it be any worse than what you have already been through?”

One of the women in the van we are in asks me if all that is true. I tell her all except the part about having four farms. Some start to ask them why they lied, but I cut them off and tell them that there will be five farms either by the time we get back or soon afterward. The fifth one is for them if they want it. We will help them get settled in and show them how we do everything and they can take it from there. We are getting close to home and it is still only mid-morning, but the people in all the vehicles are getting excited. Every time we see a deserted farm they ask if that’s where we are going. When we finally get to our farm and they see the newly painted buildings, the windmills spinning, and several people out in the yards doing different chores they are very much impressed. Everyone is expecting us, we were able to call on the CB and let them know. Tim, Ken, Billy, and Ryan come to meet us when we park in the area we have laid out for that. The people we brought back are very self conscious because their clothing is very dirty and worn out. They don’t look any different than our groups did when we first got together.

We have some quick introductions, mostly introducing some of our people to them. There will be plenty of time to get to know each other later. I don’t know about anyone else but I smell bacon and fresh breakfast sausage cooking and I won’t be surprised if there are some pancakes and eggs to go with the meat. Dayna comes running out of the big meeting house and yells at me for not inviting our new friends to breakfast. This breakfast is for the new people and for those of us returning. Many of our family come over to meet the new people and to welcome them to the family. While we are eating, one of the ladies that was riding in the vehicle with us turns to the gentleman who was nervous earlier.

“Paul, did our last hosts welcome us this way? If we are going to be this warm and fed this well they can hold me prisoner for the rest of my life.”

The others laugh and agree with her. For all, but a few this is the first time they have eaten fresh meat and had milk to drink. The fresh bread and toast is a big hit as well. Many of the people ask us if we think they can learn to grow and make the great things they are eating. We smile and tell them if we can do it, they sure can. Someone must have sent a signal because just about the time they are all through eating, our friends arrive from the other farms. We all go outside to introduce everybody and we can see that many of our new friends are cold, because although not exactly winter, the temperature is probably only in the high forties, low fifties right now. Our friends and our people come to the rescue with heavy sweaters and jackets to give to our new friends.

The younger boys and girls are met by our contingent of young people and are getting a tour of the farm. We are showing the older people around as well, but not quite at the pace of the younger people. Most of what we are showing them is totally new to them. They are not sure that they can do everything we have, but we assure them we will help them and they will have no trouble at all. When we get the tour completed most of our people are acting pretty antsy. Finally I tell them they may as well say what they want to before they bust. Dayna and Robin ask our new friends if they are ready to see their own farm now. They are careful to tell them that it isn’t as finished as ours are, but they will be able to get it in shape pretty quickly.

We load the vehicles and all head to the new farm. Even I am surprised at the amount of work that has been done on the new farm. There are six houses and three barns on this farm. The windmills have already been serviced and are working fine, so all the houses have electricity. The electric baseboards have been installed so they have plenty of heat, plus each house has a fireplace and a woodstove with plenty of wood cut and stacked at each house. Each house also has a good supply of canned goods from the stores we have visited and a good supply of the fruits and vegetables we canned. The houses are in good shape, except for needing a good coat of paint, and some minor repair work. Most of the people have tears in their eyes as they walk around seeing their new home.

Doc McEvoy and Barb tell them that some of their people as well as some of ours have volunteered to move in here with these people to help them get settled in. That way if some of these people would like to stay with one of our groups to learn by helping us, they are welcome to do that. Most of the people in the new group don’t really know each other very well, but they are all willing to live as they have seen us living. They are not quite sure how to get started, so we help them divide the people into the six different groups that will live in the houses. As we already said, some will come back with us, and stay with us for a while, and others will go with the other groups who will send people to help them. All in all we know it will work out fine.

4

After we returned to our home last evening, we finally had a chance to sit down and discuss the things we saw in the city that we can use. Sara and Gary made a list, as did Roy and Robin on the first trip. Dan and Roy made a list on the second trip. I also made a list so we sit down to relax and discuss our plan to get the items and supplies. There were three main things that caught my attention. There was a very large gun shop in town, it may be empty after Bennett and his men got through, but I didn’t see anything special in the guns they were using against us. It won’t hurt to check it out. The second thing is a lumber yard, it appeared to have large stacks of lumber which may not be any good, but then again it may be. There may be many tools and other supplies there that we can use as well. The third thing I saw is a company that had a sign that said Flour Mill on the outside.

Everyone saw pretty much the same large things and there is a long list of smaller just as important items. Some of those are the gas tankers that we already talked about. We counted at least five between the two cities. That’s gasoline and propane, but we can use both. We discuss whether we should get everything we need from the cities before looking for more people. Look for more people and get the items after, or send one group to look for people and the other to bring back the items. Some of the people we freed told us about another small city about twenty miles east of the larger city we found most of the people in. We decide to get the stuff we can and investigate the other items while a group goes to that other city to see if anyone still lives there. In all the excitement I forgot that it is Sunday, so we are going to rest, the women are planning to show off a little for our new friends and invite them over for a huge roast beef dinner with potatoes and carrots. They even made more ice cream than I have ever seen at one time for dessert.

The dinner is a huge success, at least if you go by the amount of food that is consumed. We hold a meeting afterward and make our plans for the next adventure. Personally I wanted to stay home this time and let the others go on this trip. We decide to do this project in a couple of stages. First we are going to get the trucks and anything else we can use from the small town before going back to the city. We are doing that right now, we are on our way to the first town to get the trucks we want and will definitely need. Sara and Ken are our best mechanics with Gary and Tim second. I can sometimes figure out how to get a motor running, but the others are very good. We get to the first truck and drop Sara and Gary off there with Don to act as a guard. We don’t expect any trouble, but you never know, so it is better to be careful.

Ken and I go to the second truck, which is a propane truck that we saw earlier. We have a tank that holds air to fill the tires with. At least it gives us enough air to get the truck to the gas station where we can start the compressor and fill them correctly. Ken has it running in no time while I put air in the tires to see if they will hold it. Luckily for us they do, and we are able to get the truck back to where Gary and Sara are working on the first truck. We were able to refill our air tanks at the garage, so between us we have enough air to tell us that we may get lucky enough to make it home with both trucks. I know I have made this sound like it only took a few minutes, but by the time we get the trucks back to the farm, it is almost dark.

We did take about an hour looking through the other small store in town and the bank. We also found a house that says Guns on the outside, so we just naturally have to check it out. This happens to be one of those that doesn’t have any hidden compartments or an area for special guns. We do find some really nice guns though and quite a bit of ammunition. Don found several dozen arrows which is a real treasure for him, Dan, Ray, and Andrew.  On Tuesday we set out for the city knowing we will probably not get back in less than two or three days. We take the same group plus Ryan, Carol, Doc McEvoy, Marge, Amy, and Paul one of the men we brought back. They are going to go to that smaller city to see if there are any people living there.

We get to the city before lunch and get right to work on the trucks we want to take back. There are three of them here and there may actually be more. We haven’t really gone over the entire city yet. Maybe we are getting better at it, or maybe these trucks are just in better shape, because we have all three of them ready to travel by late afternoon. We have time so we decide to go to the gun shop I saw last time and are not too surprised to see that there is very little left in the store. This is another gun shop that doesn’t have a hidden stash somewhere. From the gun store we go to the lumber yard to see if there is anything we can use. There are piles of all kinds of lumber here. There are also hundreds of pallet loads of bricks and cinderblocks. There are three flatbed trucks in the yard that look like they were used to deliver the materials. There are also some very large fork trucks that must have been used to load the flatbeds.

It is getting dark when our other team gets back. They have five frightened young women and three men who appear to be in their twenties. We decide to spend the night here and head back in the morning. We get to know our new friends better while we eat dinner and after until we fall asleep. Morning comes early and we decide to see if we can get the flatbed trucks running and at least one of the fork trucks. There is a large compressor right in the yard, so while Gary and Sara work on the trucks, Ken and I go to look at the other building that caught my eye. This was apparently a wheat mill and processing plant. What interests us is the large stone wheels they have to grind the wheat in large quantities, instead of spending half a day grinding enough wheat to make a dozen loaves of bread. Ken and I estimate from the size of the hoppers that feed the big wheels, we could get at least two bushels of wheat at a time in them.

There are actually three sets of the big stone wheels in the building along with several pallets of fifty pound plastic bags full of wheat. There are also several pallets of bags that have been ground. We study how we might be able to get at least one set of the grindstones out of the building and reassemble them back at our farm. Gary and Sara come looking for us and agree that we could really use these wheels. Gary has apparently done quite a bit of maintenance work in factories, because he sees right away how to disconnect the controls and the wheels. He has a note pad and a pencil so he draws the controls and makes a sketch of how the wheels come apart. He says he wishes we had a camera to take pictures because he might and probably will miss something. Sara is looking through the offices, she is interested because as she points out, these are prefab offices that can be taken apart and moved. They could come in pretty handy if we want to put a room in the barns.

I start to ask them a question when Sara tells me that yes, they got the trucks running and the largest fork lift. She also comes out of one of the offices carrying a fairly large book that contains the prints of the equipment as well as the electric schematics. She also found the operation manual for the grindstones and the instructions for grinding wheat as well as other types of grain. We decide we have to go for now, but we are definitely coming back for building supplies and these grindstones. When we get back to the lumber yard, Ken and I can see that they not only got the trucks running, but they got air into the tires and loaded one of the trucks with eight pallets of cinderblocks and two pallets of concrete mix. The truck has two fifty gallon tanks for fuel so we fill them both, as well as our vehicles, from the gas storage tank in the yard.

Gary and Sara want to drive the loaded truck back so we all load into the other vehicles, with the items we are taking back, and we head out. We go about four blocks when one of the young ladies from the other city says she is sure she saw a girl looking out a window as we went past. We stop and she jumps out to investigate. She comes back in only a couple of minutes with a very frightened young lady who looks to be about fourteen. We tell her she is safe now and ask how she came to be alone. She tells us that she used to live in the city where the others were found, with her parents. They were taken by men a while ago. She hid so they wouldn’t take her. After they didn’t come back she started walking and wound up here yesterday. She says she saw the vans going and coming back, but was too afraid to let them see her, so she hid. She was afraid to talk to us when she got here, but she was also afraid to stay here alone. She was so relieved when the lady named Mary came to ask her to join us.

Doc McEvoy says he thinks this is the young lady that one of the couples we took back already asked him to look for. The young lady gets excited and asks if he knows their names. He smiles and says his memory isn’t quite what it used to be, but he still remembers where he keeps the notebook he writes things he wants to remember is. He takes out his little book and asks the girl if the names Andrew and Caroline mean anything to her. She is so happy she hugs him and asks if she can ride in the van he is in. That is not a problem for us. We just want to make sure we don’t leave anybody that would like to come with us. On the way back we get to know our new friends quite a bit better. We get to tell them about the things we have done, we are not sure that they believe us or not, but they will get to see for themselves soon.

When we pull into the yard and everyone sees the truck load of building supplies, they all want to know what our next project is. When they see our new friends, they forget the supplies for at least a few minutes. The young girl’s parents are here, it is a very emotional reunion for them, as it is for several of the new people with those we brought back last time. Once everyone is taken care of, and has a place to live, we can finally relax for a little while and discuss what we can do with the wheat grindstones we found. Billy, Tim, Rod, Tom, Frank, and the others are all excited to hear about our good fortune. We are discussing how much electricity the grinding wheels are going to take when the children come over and show us a picture of a wheat mill being driven by the current of a river.

We decide to take a walk to the river a short distance away and see if that is feasible. The river has a slow, but steady current and none of us can see why we couldn’t make a paddle wheel to turn the large stones. The women are excited to hear that they may be able to grind a large quantity of wheat at a time, instead of having to spend most of a day grinding the wheat before they can make bread or rolls. We take the prints and instructions we have and start to formulate a plan to build a wheat mill. We decide to at least get part of the building up before we bring the stones back. Ken and Gary have had some drafting experience, so they volunteer to draw up the plans for our mill. While they are doing that we measure the barns to see if we can fit any of the offices we found at the mill.

Several of the young single men in each family have built a rough barracks kind of room in the lofts of a couple of the barns. With the weather turning colder we decide we should probably insulate and make the rooms more comfortable for them. With the number of people we are finding to join our groups we are starting to run out of housing within a distance that we can defend. It may be that I am thinking about this problem when I go to bed, or it may be some sort of revelation, but I dream that we have a solution to my concerns. We already have a sketch of the layout of each of the groups in our family. At breakfast I explain to Dayna, Robin, and Melissa, along with all the children what my half formed plan is. In my dream we built several houses mostly out of cinderblock and brick, but they did not exactly look like the average house.

The houses we built were one story with the doors in the middle of the building. The buildings were straight and big enough to house several families if need be. Inside they had a large living room, dining room and kitchen that was an open area. Off of that, there were bedrooms going both directions. I recall seeing at least four rooms on each side of the main area with bathrooms in the middle between the rooms. Each house also had a tower that was approximately thirty feet high that could only be accessed from inside the house. That would be for defense purposes, plus could be used as a lookout post and could be fitted with a radio to keep in contact with the other houses. The best thing about them is that they were along the road we live on heading toward Ryan’s group, and some the other direction toward Doc McEvoys group.

After listening to what I have to say Dayna says she had the same dream, Robin and Melissa say that they have all discussed the fact that we are becoming too spread out to defend each other. We decide it is worth telling the others to see what they think. We do that and they agree that it would be a good idea to at least start to do something like that. While we are talking Gary sketches the house I describe. It looks just like it did in my dream. We discuss what the dimensions of the houses should be, at least approximately. Tim who worked as a mason’s helper a couple summers when he was younger calculates how many cinderblocks it will take to build each house. It will take a lot of cinderblocks to accomplish what we want to do. Billy says that he remembers seeing a very large yard full of blocks, just like the ones on the truck we brought back. A couple of us go into town and sure enough there are dozens of pallets of blocks. We can only guess that we didn’t notice them before because we weren’t planning to build anything.

We decide to put up a building for the mill first. We get the base dug and poured. The instructions we have, explain in detail how to prepare the area for the stone to be set in place. We also found enough insulation and other building materials to finish off the dorms the young men built in the barns. They work on that while we older guys work on the mill. We make it large enough to accommodate at least two of the sets of stones. When we get to the point where we need the stones, we make a trip over to the city to get them. It takes us a couple of days and several pinched fingers and hands to get them dismantled. We mark everything with a number and mark corresponding pieces of the puzzle to make putting it together back home at least possible. Since we can’t all work on this project at the same time, a couple of us load the large flatbed truck we got from here with building materials, and make runs back to the farm with them.