This is week 9 in volume 3 of the Saturday Survival Serial. To learn more about what the Saturday Survival Serial is, click here. To start at week 1, click here.
That afternoon, Jimmy was feeling pleased with all they had accomplished so far that day. By having as many people as reasonable working on one problem at a time, they managed to race through shoring up the levee including making plans for a more permanent solution. Getting drainage cut into the garden took all of twenty minutes and now they just had to wait for it it finish. Before lunch, they had gotten over half the buildings checked for leaks and structural problems. Thankfully, only one had needed some attention at the foundation.
After lunch, Jimmy left the rest to finish checking buildings and went to the Comm Shack to check in with Jessica. He walked in, smiling and thinking about Amie and the twins. He jumped when Jessica spoke.
“That is twice now you have come in here smiling like a simpleton. What gives? Amie pregnant again?”
That wiped the smile right off his face which made Jessica laugh. “Sorry, Jimmy. I just need you to be here with me and not in lala land. She isn’t pregnant again, is she?”
“God I hope not.” Jimmy sat down. “No, I guess I am just getting a different perspective is all. All I can really control is how I react to what’s thrown at me.” He eyed her. “And being all pissy and doom-and-gloom about it’s not the right way. What’s with you? Are you pregnant?”
It was Jessica’s turn to be shocked and sputter. “You know very well that-” she was cut off by Jimmy giving her a grin. Gathering herself, she took a deep breath.
“Fair enough. Now that we both have that out of our system, we need to talk about this very real threat coming our way. The problem is I’m not sure what form it will really take. The settlement camp puts a reasonable doubt on what they are really doing. Are they going to still manhunt for you as Mister had said? Or are they turning their focus on these settlements?”
Jimmy nodded. He had been filled in the day after he’d gotten back with Ryan. Though it was only 4 days ago, it seemed a lifetime.
“Well, let’s get them in here and see what we come up with. Word will have to be gotten to the other camps as well. Speaking of, any word from Al or Marian?”
Jessica shook her head. “No, but I’m not overly worried. The storm just ended yesterday and they have less people to help with the workload. The next all-camp check in is the day after tomorrow and if they don’t transmit, then I’ll be concerned. They’ll send a runner if needed, too.”
Jimmy nodded and went outside to ask someone to get RR and Tyler. While they waited, they talked about the twins, the lack of seed to replant with, and general camp status. RR and Tyler came in and took seats after exchanging hellos. They got right down to business.
“I will be honest, I have no idea how to handle this threat. You know about what happened here a few months ago. We aren’t sure what to think about the settlement camps. Are they still coming back up here? Am I still on the radar and what can I do about it? If the idea of these camps is to get people to come to them, what about those that never volunteer? Has anyone gotten any idea who is giving all these orders?”
RR looked at Tyler and they both shrugged, much to Jimmy’s frustration. RR said, “We know little more than you do, if that. I know I don’t have an answer to any of your questions but I do have an idea of how to get those answers. It’s risky and will require people to willingly go to these camps, get information and then somehow get it back to us.”
“I thought you said you already had people on the inside feeding information. Why can’t we just have that intel relayed to us through the communication system being built?”
Tyler replied, “We aren’t certain any of our people are in the settlement camp at Plymouth. So, we need to send people who will be skilled enough to be needed but not so specialized as to put these camps in jeopardy. We also don’t know how they will get information back to us. That is something whoever we send will have to figure out and hopefully have the skills to be able to pull it off.”
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Jimmy sat back in his chair, all the details and possible outcomes whirling around in his head. Despite his earlier lighthearted mood, he couldn’t help seeing all the possible ways the plan could fail. Who could we possibly send that fits the bill?
“How many are you thinking?” Jessica asked.
“Half a dozen at least, maybe 10 at most just in case something happens to anyone on the way.”
Jessica gave a grim nod. Sending more than you may really need, betting that not everyone will make it was a harsh reality.
Jimmy eyed Tyler. “And would you two be going with or just people from our camps?”
Tyler met Jimmy’s eyes directly and replied, “No, we would not be going. Instead, Sticks and Roger would be two of the group going. We believe that there will be more of our people inside, otherwise we would be.”
Jimmy nodded, satisfied. He was starting to trust the newcomers more but it was still a challenge. “When do you want to get people down there. As soon as possible, I assume?”
RR nodded. “They should be accepting residents by now. You think we could send runners to the other camps?”
Jimmy looked at Jessica who nodded. “They will go out tomorrow. I need you to write out 3 copies of the same message, though. Oh, and we will need to work out some more details before you write it…” They began hammering out a plan to present to the other camps and calling for volunteers, two from each camp plus Sticks and Roger for a total of ten people.
When the door opened, Jimmy was surprised to see how long they had been there, evidenced by the darkening of the sky. His eyes focused in on Holly who looked exhausted.
“Holly? Are you ok?” Jimmy stood up and offered his seat. She shook her head.
“I can’t stay. I wanted to let you know that the medical tent is at capacity. Ms. Emmie is getting worse and I believe four more people have caught the bug. We’re getting the quarantine tent prepared for the overflow.” She went on to tell them that one of the younger girls, age 9, had also taken a turn for the worse. Ryan wasn’t worse but wasn’t exactly better, either. With the wet conditions and humidity in the air, respiratory problems coupled with seasonal allergies made even minor colds and viruses particularly nasty. Pneumonia was a real threat under the current conditions.
The news shook Jimmy to his core. Why is it always the young and the old? He nodded and thanked Holly for the report, offering any help he could give. She made a half hearted joke about robbing a pharmacy but they all knew those had been cleaned out long ago. They decided to work more on the plan and message to the other camps the next day and went to their respective homes.
*************
They had stayed two nights in the shelter ‘cave’ and the third morning dawned clear and brisk with promises of warmth from the sun coming. Al was already up and had walked down to camp, happy to see the waters had receded enough that people could go in and salvage whatever they could before the group headed to Center Camp. What he saw was enough proof for him to know that North Camp was gone.
After he had made it a fill mile down the trail toward Center Camp that had been cut in over the last year, he turned around and lightly jogged back to the shelter. He wanted to take full advantage of the sunshine.
When he made it back, he was happy to see that most people were already up and had eaten from the communal pot that was set up. Al smiled in what he hoped was encouraging and gathered everyone close.
“I went a mile down the trail without seeing any flood water. So today, we will make for Center Camp. First, I need a few of the men and stronger women to come with me to salvage whatever we can, supply wise. I also need another few to go to the camp caches that are buried and dig them up, we will need them. Leave them closed until we can open them in front of everyone. We will do an inventory around lunch time and then after that, head out. It will be the warmest time of the day and we should be able to make it to a spot I know that will keep us out of any wind tonight. Questions?”
Once everyone went their separate ways, Al trudged down with his group to find what they could in the camp. Everything was covered in a thick mud and footing was treacherous. They didn’t find much of anything useful and were about to head back to the shelter cave when someone had the idea of walking the same direction that the water had flowed.
Though they didn’t get anything near what they were hoping for, many items had been caught in tree branches, broken limbs and brush as the waters had gone down. Along one of the banks were several jars of home canned jam that had come through unscathed. Seeing it made Al laugh. “Of all the things to make it through…” The others agreed that it was odd but also very appreciated.
At lunch, the pile of items in the middle of the shelter was impressive considering it was mostly things people had grabbed as they ran for their lives. The camp caches they had made were all found and only one had been cracked open, allowing water to get inside. The medical items in there were ruined but the aluminum canned goods from the world before IT happened had survived just fine. They would be heavy, but they were as valuable as gold in their survival situation.
Just as he was about to congratulate everyone on their supplies, his wife stepped forward with a closed dive bag. He looked at her curiously and she grinned with a mischievous twinkle in her eye before she turned to everyone gathered.
“Before the first disaster with the virus, we were preppers and thank goodness for it because I don’t think we would be alive. We had a garden last year thanks to our prepping, were able to eat until food grew, were able to preserve it when harvested, and had warmth and shelter. We couldn’t have produced enough or gotten everything in place that we needed to without everyone here. I know that we wouldn’t have made it through this last winter so easily if not for the whole camp.
“On our last trip up here, I brought this bag. Al doesn’t know about it or the money I squirreled away to buy the items in here. This bag was my ‘Ace in the Hole.’ Though this Spring had wreaked havoc on us and taken away everything, we are still not as bad off as we could be. We have a place to go to and I know you have thought about the resources they don’t have to support all of us, too. I am sure some of you have worried about just being a larger group that is starving instead of this smaller one.” Sarah bent down, opening the bag. She pulled out a silver sealed can in each hand and raised them up.
“These are seeds. Enough to grow the garden we had last year five times over!” She put those aside and bent down again, pulling item after item out of her bag. It almost seemed unnatural, the amount of over the counter medicines she pulled out, bottles of fish antibiotics, and a vacuum sealed pack of bandages, gauze, and sterile packs of emergency medical supplies for stitches, burns, and general scrapes.
Al watched open mouthed with the rest. When she was done he cheered as loudly as the rest when she said, “We’ve made it through this far and now you know there is no reason we won’t continue to as long as we keep working together!”
With renewed energy, the supplies were divvied up so no one was too heavily weighed down and the group headed out toward Center Camp.
************
Shannon woke up with a start. She looked around, wide eyed at the unfamiliar surroundings. Heart racing, her brain kicked in and memories of the last 24 hours came flooding in. She laid back down on the surprisingly comfortable bed in what was now ‘her’ apartment.
After Joli had finished eating, they both went to get housing assignments, expecting it to be one way and were both thrilled and suspicious about how it turned out. They were allowed to look through what was available and actually choose where they wanted to live. Shannon couldn’t believe it and it must have showed on her face because the guy on the other side of the table commented on how things would be better here.
Joli and her had chosen to live in a side by side duplex that resembled more of a townhouse. The apartments were narrow with one bedroom and one bath in each. They were told they couldn’t use the toilets until water and sewer had been turned on but there was a honey bucket at each corner. When she had walked in, there was a large sack with linens and towels inside. They each had an Army style duffle bag filled with clothing, toiletries including two rolls of toilet paper!, and some basic food staples like sugar, flour, shortening, salt and pepper.
The apartment was furnished spartanly and nothing really matched. Shannon was both grateful and hated feeling so, knowing she was being given a comfortable jail cell to labor her days away. She had a moment of panic; it would be easy to be caught in the rose colored glass again and lose sight of what was really happening. She had to grudgingly give credit to whoever came up with the plan. People whether inside or outside the U.N. camps would happily come back to living like this and simply not care that they were being controlled slaves.
Book 2 in the Jimmy Walker Series covers humanity’s first winter without modern conveniences. The dark gets to some people and the cold gets to everyone. Available in paperback and on the Kindle App (free app on all platforms!) Get your copy here!
She thought about the meeting the night before where the “mayor” of Plymouth addressed the “residents.” She could see straight off that he was military, dressed in a monkey suit and trying to be a politician. He ended up coming off like some pompous nobleman of old, decreeing to the peasants how ‘generous’ and ‘benevolent’ he was. He would remind them about freedoms already given, and then lay out how they would be expected to perform, behave, and what they could and couldn’t do…all for the sake of the greater group, of course.
“As you have already learned, you have many freedoms here. You were able to choose you living situation. You are able to choose what clothes to wear, what and when to eat, you are free to do whatever you wish so long as you stay within camp borders and report for your duty shifts.
“Guards are not allowed to roughly treat any citizens and that is why there will be a group formed by the residents to ensure there is no abuse of power. On the same coin, we want to avoid any reason for riots or rebellions to form and there is a process for grievances to be heard before it gets to that point.. Should you suspect any of your guards, peers, or resident-formed groups of such behavior, you are to report it to the proper authorities. It is every person’s responsibility, resident, or not, to ensure the safety and continued well-being of this and other settlement camps.”
Shannon wondered what they needed safety from and the answer was just as quick: Free thinking people who want to do their own thing. One thing you cannot do is just go out with some friends and say, go camping.
A sudden realization made her feel ill.
The only real difference between how it is now and how it was before is that they are more open about their control over the population. Before, it was disguised by passing bills and laws, votes, and legislation. No matter what we wanted to do, we had to get permission from some government authority. Fishing, hunting, building on your property, inspections, what you can and cannot do on property you supposedly own…and now they don’t have to worry about any of that because they are blatantly and fully in control.
The sound of a bell, dinging twice, told her that food was being served in the gym. She wondered what else would happen with a little worry, feeling very paranoid. She hoped Dale would be at breakfast so she could talk to him about getting out of here as soon as possible. Before it became too normal, too comfortable.
*************
Jimmy shook the hands of the two runners that were heading in opposite directions. One would head to North Camp and the other to both Main and South Camps with the same message. He felt confident the plan they came up with was the best they could do under the circumstances.
After he had slept on it, he was able to come up with a few people he felt would be able to do the majority of what was needed, or at least had the skills to contribute to the others to make the infiltration of the settlement camp a success, not to mention getting information back out. Jimmy, RR, and Tyler said their well wishes to the runners before walking back to the Comm Shack.
“How long do you think it would realistically take them to get there? It’s over 200 miles away and that’s if they walked the interstate.”
Tyler grunted and replied, “That would be a suicide path. Add a week for the roundabout way they will have to take, plus the average person can walk 8 – 10 miles a day, especially on the roads. A month?”
Jimmy let out the breath he didn’t realize he was holding. “That’s a long time. We have to do better than that. On the outside, it may be six weeks before they even get there, let alone being able to get information to us.”
They walked inside the Comm Shack in silence, each mulling over possible solutions. Jessica was in the other room at the HAM Radio, doing check ins. Jimmy heard her repeat something in a more urgent tone.
“North Camp, this is Center calling. Is anyone receiving this?”
Jimmy stood up, his chair teetering loudly behind him. He walked into the radio room and asked, “How long have you been trying?”
Jessica pulled the headphones off and looked at him worriedly. “Ten minutes.”
Jimmy shook his head. “If he hasn’t answered now, he won’t be. Shut it down and let’s get plans in place to send some people up tomorrow morning. If they are in trouble, it could be they’re already on the way down so plan on refugees, too.”
The door opened and everyone turned to see Holly come in. When she looked up, it was obvious she’d been crying.
“Ms. Emmie has passed and we may lose Kimberly, too. I just can’t keep her fever broken for more than a few hours.”
**************
Al walked out tentatively across the old railroad bridge. The water had come up over the tracks and rotted beams but since it was higher up than the bridge built for traffic, had managed to stay intact. The other one was gone, save for a few concrete pillars sticking up. Though the water level had dropped, it was still churning with debris.
He was tethered in a line of ten people. Directly behind him was Austin, then Sarah who also had baby Leo, and behind her was Brandi, then another child, then adult and so on. The other 31 people with them were tethered to one another in groups of varying numbers and were waiting on one side until the first group made it across.
Al hated having to look down but there was no choice as he had to decide where each step was safest. The going was slow but steady. When they neared the center of the bridge, Al was grateful to see several beams that looked like they’d been replaced in the last decade here and there. Those would give some stability but the rust he saw underneath gave him reason to worry.
Once they made it passed the halfway mark, he called for the next group to start coming. Sighing relief when his feet touched solid earth again, he turned and was happy to see the second group was already at the halfway mark and the third was just starting to cross. The fourth and final group was waving and smiling. Austin waved back.
Taking a drink of water, Al made faces at Leo to make him laugh when he heard a loud groan from the bridge. His head snapped up and everything went in slow motion.
The second group had turned to see the concrete support under the tracks crumble and the rusted iron buckle before someone shouted, “RUN!” Tied as they were together, some were jerked forward as those in front did as they were told and dashed for the other side.
The third group was just before the halfway mark where the support crumbled. As the metal gave way under the weight, the people in front began to slip. The others were able to bring them up safely but only for a moment. When the third group got into trouble, the final group decided to go forward and help, adding more weight to the fragile structure.
Time snapped back into focus so suddenly that it made Al dizzy. He cried out in both shock and pain as metal screeched under the lack of support, the generous years of rust, and extra weight and gave way on one side, dropping almost everyone in the water. A few managed to hold on for the few moments the section of bridge held there before breaking off and flipping as it went down the fifteen feet to the flood waters below.
Al had to get up and hold people back from trying to get into the water to help people. He knew that even though it didn’t look it at first glance, the current was strong and the water deep with a lot of things that could grab hold of you and drag you down.
He was in shock, along with the rest. The way the bridge had fallen, anyone underneath it would have been crushed or held down to drown. Anyone who tried to rescue them would likely end with the same fate. His hearing registered someone screaming and he turned his head, trying to make out the words.
“….downstream! We have to check for survivors, Al! We can’t just leave them!”
Al shook his head. “Did you see the bridge? They were crushed. Anyone who tries to get in that water will die, too and I have to think about THE LIVING!!” Everyone looked at Al in silent shock. He had never yelled at anyone that they could remember.
Al’s mind reeled. He knew on some level that he was in shock. He had already lost so many people from the flood and was desperate to get people to safety. Trying to look for survivors could get even more people killed and there were no guarantees they would even find anything other than bodies.