Percy's Mission (22 page)

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

It took Percy less than a half an hour to mount the camera, return to the house, and decontaminate. He’d put a time limit of a half hour on all of them. He paced while he waited for Sara and Mattie to finish their half hour. They seem determined to stay the full length of time, though both had seen him go into the garage.
Percy managed to wait for them without calling them on the radio and telling them to come in. He was waiting by the door when they came through, each woman not starting to remove their respirators, rubber boots, or Tyvek suits until they were in the mudroom. Percy had a simple decontamination shower in the garage that drained to a dry sump in the yard. They’d hosed each other down thoroughly before going inside.
“Barely getting a tick now,” Sara said, handing Percy her dosimeter. He checked it, then Mattie’s. They picked up only a tiny dose, as had he. He made a point to log it on the chart he’d printed for each person. He’d enter the data in a computer later to keep a running track of accumulated dose over given time periods.
The Doctors Bluhm had been reading up on radiation sickness in the library and were now familiar with the symptoms. At the doses the three had been exposed to, there was no danger. The doctors, as well as Percy, intended to keep it that way.
“Just a tick,” Sara repeated. “Inside the berms of the house. Outside, of course, it’s still over one. Do you think we can do the animal barn tomorrow and maybe let the animals out, one at a time?”
“Not yet. They’re going to want to run free a bit. I want to use the sweeper on at least one of the pastures first. I’m debating whether or not to strip the top soil. I want to look at the crops, too, and decide what to do about them. I’ll do what I can in the greenhouses, too. The automatic systems are okay, I saw the watering system go on as I was coming back to the house. We should be able to recover quite a bit.”
“Whoa!” Jock said. “Even if all that needs to be done, you can’t do it all. Not in one day. It’s low enough that a couple of us can get just a little exposure the next couple of days. It should be below zero point six in less than a week, if my calculations are right. We’ll be able to do a lot then.”
Percy frowned.
“Come on, Boss. We spray the outsides of the greenhouses, and then I can go in and work the greenhouses for half an hour,” Susie said.
“Yeah. I know you and Mrs. McLain, and Mrs. Simpson will do most of it right away, but we can risk a little exposure,” Andy said. “Except Doctor Bluhm, of course, since she’s still pregnant.”

“And I will be for another eight months. I don’t want to go out much, but a few minutes of fresh air, in the decontaminated zone won’t hurt, will it?”
Jock looked reluctant, but his studies told him that the risk was minimal. They had to wear the respirators while they were stirring up dust, but a few minutes without one in the area that Sara and Mattie had cleared today should be okay. He said as much.
Melissa smiled. The others frowned. “Tomorrow,” Jock quickly added. “After the area is tested again.”

“Well, okay,” Melissa said. She touched her belly and said, “I don’t want anything happening to junior here, but I really need to get outside. I could stand it when I had to. Now it’s hard.”
“We all feel the same way,” Percy said. He hung up the suits and racked the boots, gloves, and respirators for their next use.
They had the entrances and work areas decontaminated by the end of the week, including the patios atop each of the buildings. It hadn’t occurred to Percy to do it sooner. As soon as they were hosed down, and the slopes of the dome, there wasn’t even a tick on the survey meter in the center of the patios, being as high as they were and with the mass of the earth covering the domes between the remaining fallout particles and those at the patio center. The radiation was very little higher even at the edges.
Percy decided, for the first pasture to be decontaminated, to till it very shallowly and scrape the tilled soil up. He dug a pit just outside the pasture and buried the dirt he scraped up. Percy had washed three large patches of grass near the barn. He’d used a fire hose run from the barn to wash any fallout from the patches to the surrounding grass. He left the washed patches when he tilled the rest of the pasture. When they turned the animals out the horses and cows went immediately to the three grassy areas. The hogs and chickens were happy with the large expanse of bare ground.
Percy debated about trying to reseed the pasture. The occasional rain they were getting was washing some of the high flying, very light fallout particles out of the sky, but the radiation levels were so low, and Percy knew it would continue for months, if not years, that he decided to go ahead and get the pasture reseeded. He waited until the next day and used a broadcast spreader on one of the Unimogs to get the seed distributed.
They were still limiting their exposures, keeping the time outdoors down, and wearing the exposure suits and respirators whenever they were doing decontamination work, which was at least a little every day it wasn’t raining. Percy decided the field crops were going to be a total loss, except as feed for the methane generator and the alcohol still. They would be cut down at ground level, raked into windrows, collected, and then fed to the stills.
After the alcohol content was extracted the material would go into the methane generator. The remains would be buried in a pit. Percy knew it would be useable as compost eventually, but decided to let it wait a couple of years in the pit. Then the compost would be used on fields set aside to grow crops not for human or animal consumption. Those fields would be used for fuel crops for the biodiesel operation.
There was some loss in the greenhouses due to the lack of attention the first few days when radiation levels were too high to go into them from the earth-sheltered structure to which they were connected. Sixteen days after the radiation had peaked at six hundred Röentgens, Percy decided to make a run into town with the produce from the greenhouses. Susie loved the animals and could not help when Percy butchered a dozen chickens, a calf and two of the yearling pigs to take in, too.
He’d always sent the animals in to the butcher shop, but had everything needed to handle the job at the estate. Percy was a bit surprised when Jock offered to help. He wasn’t surprised when Andy did. Andy wanted to learn everything. With the meat and fresh milk on ice from the large ice machine in the product barn, they headed into town with six dozen eggs, the produce, milk, and meat.
Percy was both pleased and disappointed with what he found in town. He, Jock, Andy, Sara, and Susie went. Percy and Sara were in a Unimog with the products, the others were in the van, with Susie driving.
Percy and Andy were both armed with HK-91 rifles and P14 handguns. Susie carried one of the HK-4s in .380. Jock declined, as did Sara.
What pleased him was that those that had stayed in shelters until the worst had passed had come through with flying colors. It had been crowded and uncomfortable in both the public shelters, but they had worked. What was disappointing was the number that had forgone shelter or left it early.
They had stopped at the clinic on the way in to pick up some of the medical supplies that had been stocked. The clinic was still intact and everything was okay. Jock took everything he thought he might need for those in town. He gave the care to the injured, sick, and dying that he could. There were many in the last two categories. Only a couple of injuries were sustained while cleanup and decontamination were being done. He treated them as well.
Like Percy’s group, people had been rotating outside work, with everyone still sleeping in the crowded shelters. Progress had been good. David Reynolds had run out of fuel for his backhoe and there were several still unburied bodies. Percy transferred most of diesel that was in the tank of the Unimog to cans for Reynolds to use.
Word was sent around the town by runners that Percy was at the town hall with food. Patrick Wilkins had already made his demand for his week’s supply of food. And as Percy had told Andy right after the deal had been made, there was a difference of opinion as to what a week’s worth of food was.
As people began to gather, Percy put it up to them. “There’s going to be lots of trading and bartering going on. Think about this. I’ll let what a week’s worth is be decided by vote. Remember, many of you will be growing gardens and trading labor, so think about what’s fair for all parties. Should there be more than I’m offering Mr. Wilkins for our agreement of a week of food?”
Quite a few hands went up. Wilkins demanded a lot more. Percy, pretty sure he’d be handling it like this, had shorted the pile somewhat from what he normally would have given. He added six more eggs and cut off another small piece of beef.
People looked at the quantity of food for the one person. They’d just gone through over two weeks of food rationing and knew what it took to get by. Patrick Wilkins was not a well-liked man. He’d been a constant source of trouble during the entire shelter stay and after. The consensus was that the pile of food was adequate for a week.
“You want to take it all now, or a little at a time as I come in occasionally?” Percy asked Wilkins.
“I want it all, right now,” came the growled reply. “And don’t none of you think you’re getting any of this. It’s mine. I traded for it all legal and square.” Wilkins gathered up his bounty and disappeared.
As Sara, Susie, and Andy began handing out the food, asking for an hour of labor out at the estate at some point, but not doing any barter slips, Percy talked to Tom and some of the city council.
“My field crops are pretty much a washout,” Percy told them. The greenhouses are okay and I think most of the fruit will be all right. But things are going to be short.” He waved Steven Gregory over. “I’ll get you that food in a minute. We were just discussing the situation.”
“Nothing to discuss,” Abigail Landro replied. “The city council will take over the farm and handle the distribution.
“I don’t think so,” Percy said. His temper suddenly was close to the surface. He’d expected something like this, but not this soon. Another of the town council was nodding in agreement with Abigail.
“I’m willing to share, but it will be on my terms,” Percy said, rather forcefully. “I have the means and the willingness to protect what is mine.” He made no move for the rifle slung over his back or the handgun on his hip, but several pairs of eyes took in the sight.
“Let’s be reasonable about this,” Tom quickly said. “We can work out something. Percy is a fair man. Always has been. He’s managed that place for thirty years and knows how to get the best out of it. He’ll help where he can, but has to have the resources to do so.”
“Oh, he has resources,” Jeb Canada spoke up. Wilkins told me he stole that last load of fuel that came in before the stuff hit the fan.”
“That little scene a few minutes ago was part of the pay off for that fuel. Wilkins was more than willing to sell it.”
“Yeah. For food to keep from starving and twenty pieces of silver, Judas.”

“Judas is the one that took the silver,” Percy said. “Not the one that gave it. Now, are we going to discuss this or do I pack up and leave you to your fate?”

“Come on, Percy,” Tom said placating. “We will work something out. You do have a right to get for give. What is it you want?”
“For the moment a day’s food for one person for one hour of labor at the estate. I’d figured to have Steven Gregory here act as my agent. He knows how to run a store.”
People were beginning to gather around. “I want a piece of that action,” said Rodney Stalinsky. He’d been the manager of the other grocery store in town. “I can run a store, too.”
“Not for me, you can’t,” Percy replied coldly. “I heard what you did when things started getting tough. You won’t be handling anything for me.” Percy looked back at Tom, ignoring the crowd around them.
“Steven did a good thing, rationing out what he had, even giving it away. I plan to bring in things as we can produce them, and let Steven run a store just as he has before. We’ll work out something between us for his doing this for me. The food will be bartered, at least for the moment, for future labor. I’m decontaminating my fields, but the fuel will eventually run low. I’ll have to farm with the animals and by hand labor.
“I’m going to need lots of hands. Everyone will have plenty to do, and not everyone can do that much physical labor. I’ll need people to watch the hands’ children, others to help cook for them, and so on. So just about anyone can provide an hour of labor from time to time. Steven will give everyone a barter slip. I’ll have a record of who owes me labor and work with the individual to pay it off. I’ll do all I can to work it out to the person’s best time, but some things on a farm just have to be done at a certain time. I’ll expect the town council’s help on seeing that people follow through on their agreements.”
“That’s forced labor, bub,” Jeb said. “We don’t go for that around here.”
“Shut up, Jeb,” Tom replied. “It’s not forced labor. This is still a free country. People still own their property and have the right to price it the way they want. I know for sure I’m willing to work for an hour picking corn or slopping hogs to get a full day’s worth of food.”
Tom had turned slightly and was addressing the crowd as he continued. “We’re scavenging from houses of those that died or abandoned them. If anyone comes back we’ll give the individual the equivalent of what we took. Everyone is helping, that can, to start the recovery. And everyone is receiving a share. This is America. We’re not inherently socialists. Many people will want to start selling or bartering whatever they can to have the things they want, in a free market. Mr. Jackson is just already ready to do it. What do you say? Do we strike a bargain with Mr. Jackson?”
Not everyone left in town was there, but a majority were, and there was an overwhelming yell of approval of what Tom and Percy had discussed. Percy asked Tom if he could say something else and Tom nodded.
Percy turned to face the crowd. “I’m going to need lots of things myself and I’ll barter food for them. For some things I’ll pay hard cash. I’ll also take hard cash if anyone has it, for food and fuel.”
Someone call out, “You mean gold and silver?”
“Yes,” Percy replied.
“What about bills?” someone else called out.
“Not right now. I don’t know about the future. For now, for me, it’s labor, gold, silver, and specific goods. Anyone that wants to convert large denomination gold to smaller denominations or silver, to make trading easier, let me know. Most of the gold I have is the one tenth ounce coins. I also have silver dimes and quarters. A few halves, but not enough to count.
“I’m figuring on converting using the ratio of thirty six ounces of silver to one ounce of gold, just to keep it simple. Two hundred pre-1965 quarters per ounce of gold, or five hundred pre-1965 dimes. That’s twenty quarters for a tenth ounce gold coin, or fifty dimes.”