Saturday Survival Serial – Volume 3, Week 12

This is week 12 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.

Former Sergeant Jeffrey Miller of the United States Army felt uncomfortable wearing civilian clothes after wearing a uniform non stop for the last fourteen months. Though he was well past his prime, he had fallen back into military life with ease and going back to civilian life, let alone a politician’s life, made him edgy.

He watched as the trucks that would take the people going to form his new settlement camp were being loaded, appreciating the quick efficiency of the soldiers and tried not to frown at the slower moving refugees. He frowned, realizing that he was going to have to change his way of thinking. The marine-turned-mayor’s words rang in his head. No matter how low they may seem, each person is needed…at least until people start to come in from the woodwork. Then you can pick and choose as needed.

He had been given a stack of manuals and whatnot to read but had left them in their sealed packaging until later. He was surprised to see actual cardboard boxes filled with various manuals that were to be handed out according to some system he was sure was detailed in his “CONFIDENTIAL” sealed stack of paperwork. He chose to ignore it for now. He was too wound up to concentrate on reading anything. Though his face didn’t show it, he was both excited and concerned at the next phase his life was going into.

Hearing footsteps to his right, he turned to see Eugene walking toward him. Nodding at him once, Miller turned back to watching his camp’s supplies being loaded. They would be leaving in the morning with five trucks, four of which were filled with supplies and one with skilled workers. He would be in his vehicle with Eugene, the driver, and three soldiers-turned-security guards. In total, he had 37 people with him to get Reed City ready for the initial 400 residents that would be moving there.

He was also told that the first thing he needed to get taken care of was a place for a helicopter to land. HIs deadline to get all of it done was a mere six weeks, where the first round of people would be coming whether he was ready or not. Then, there was the likely chance that other survivors would have heard the radio message and seek him out. If he had been any less of a man, it would be enough to make him feel stressed.

Miller turned when Eugene said, “I don’t know about you, but I sure am glad to be getting out of here tomorrow. That is, assuming you still want me along?”

Miller grunted in a rare show of emotion. “Your idea about the spy turned out pretty well for me. I am a man of my word. I will help you get your Jimmy Walker. Maybe not exactly in the way you want, but you’ll complete your mission.”

Eugene’s jaw dropped open, making an most unattractive expression. That was the closest thing to something nice, being thanked, or being acknowledged Miller had ever come. He didn’t know how to handle it. Realizing he was standing there, not saying anything, he closed his mouth and wisely chose to nod and shrug like it was no big deal. “You’ll complete your mission.” That was music to his ears and he found himself even more excited for tomorrow morning. He would be back on the hunt!

After he had composed himself, he asked, “I have to wonder why Reed City? I looked it up on one of the maps and it’s nowhere! There’s nothing of importance there, no big natural resource or anything. The only thing notable is its elevation.”

Miller raised an eyebrow and turned to look at Eugene directly. “Its elevation? What do you mean?”

“The state of Michigan doesn’t exactly have any majestic mountains, right? I think the highest one is less than two thousand feet, Mount Averon or something. Reed City sits at just over a thousand feet above sea level. Not like that’s really anything special.” Eugene tried, as always, to read Miller’s thoughts and failed when the man turned back to watch the trucks. The last one was almost loaded up and ready.

“That is an interesting observation, Eugene. Off the beaten path, over half of the highest elevation in this area? Interesting indeed.” Maybe he would have to break into that sealed package sooner rather than later after all.

*************

Word spread quickly about what happened at North Camp. Not only did it get to the other camps in the overall group, it was broadcast out by Jessica and was heard by those in the outlying areas, even reaching to those in Liberty’s Teeth where word again spread. It was known that RR and Tyler were at a place in Michigan though few knew all the ins and outs of it.

Communication had been steadily improved for the resistance groups, thanks to their plans of sending people north to create a network. Cell towers had been successfully reconfigured to boost signals and intercept conversations. Though small for now, it was beginning to pay off.

There was three days of mourning for those lost in both North and Center camps. The night North Camp arrived, little Kimberly passed from her illness. It had gotten into her lungs and the fever made her dehydrated to the point her body shut down. Ryan had reacted to the antibiotics well but had lost it when he learned that there had been another death in camp. He felt responsible for getting them sick that caused their deaths. After his initial outburst he had almost completely shut down and was non responsive. For now, Holly just let him be to give his brain time to process and come to terms with things. If he didn’t snap out of it, she would call in Jimmy.

On the fourth day, Jimmy knew he couldn’t put it off any longer and called a meeting of the camp. He told everyone about the need for volunteers and their current situation. He had been told there would be three people from Main Camp going and he had approached Kory who agreed to go so long as his place was looked after. With Roger and Sticks going, that made six. Jimmy wanted one more.

He was met with silence and didn’t really blame people for not wanting to get anywhere near a place that had anything to do with the United Nations. He was about to just go with who he had when his former boss from the waste management plant in Indiana, Bill Allen, stepped forward.

Jimmy raised his eyebrow and asked, “You sure about that, Bill? It’ll be hard going and you aren’t exactly a spring chicken.” There were a few chuckles, Bill included.

“Well, that’s true. It’s also true that I’m sick of looking at your ugly mug every day and I’m feeling a little cooped up anyway. I’d like to go along.”

Jimmy nodded and said, “OK, that’s settled then. The day after tomorrow, you’ll head down to Main Camp and meet up with the others. We will fill you in on the rest later.

“Now, on to other camp matters. Next month is the spring gathering. Some of you have asked if we’re having it and the answer is “Yes” though, it will not be as many days as we had previously set. With the needs of many, including reseeding gardens and securing our winter food stores, instead of five days, it’ll be three.”

There were a few small protests at the news. Jimmy was banking on people being happy to have something to look forward to that they would take the shortened event pretty well overall. He switched the subject to fishing different areas and getting groups out to do overnight trips for foraging. After some people had their say, he ended the meeting and brought Kory, Roger, Sticks, and Bill Allen to the Comm Shack to give them more information about their overall mission.

Jessica, Al, RR, and Tyler joined them. Once everyone was settled in the smaller room, Jimmy got right down to business.

“The bottom line is you’re to get down to the camp at Plymouth as fast as you can. Captain says he has you covered at least until you get to the safe house that RR and Tyler stayed at before they came here. You will still be a decent way from it and will have to be careful. You’ll be given two handheld HAM radios and you can’t pack them together. It’s the best thing we could come up with to give you a chance to get information back. There’s a few people between here and there that we hope will be able to relay information, at least until a cell tower closer to here is reconfigured.

“We want to get what the real deal is with these camps. The more information we can get, the better. Even little things can help us wipe out these guys. Women are not incubators for them to pick and choose who lives and dies.” Jimmy took a breath to calm his temper from rising further.

Kory asked, “How long are we supposed to stay there? Until we figure out how to take it out? These aren’t supposed to be walled places. From all accounts, it’s more like a converted town or something.”

“That’s just it, we need more information on how they are run. It’s up to you guys on how you get information back to us. We couldn’t possibly come up with any kind of viable plan from here.” Jimmy sat back. “We have some supplies you can take but you’ll have to fish and forage on the way down, too. Main Camp also has some stuff but after so long, prepackaged goodies are becoming a thing of the past.”

Kory laughed and clipped Jimmy on the shoulder. “Ever the optimist, Jimmy. Always know how to boost morale.” The others laughed too, breaking the melancholy atmosphere.

“To answer your question a little better though, if you can keep them from getting to us or get warning that they are coming, their location, anything – that would be a big help. Unlikely but just throwing it out there.”

The men nodded and after a few questions got up to go pack and prepare for their journey south.

************

Marian pulled back the plastic sheeting that had been covering her lettuce and other green seeds. Her face lit up and she laughed loudly as bright green seedling leaves greeted her in perfect little rows. A couple others helping in the garden came over to see, laughing with her. Together, they managed to pull the covering off without harming any of the fragile plants.

“I can’t believe I’m drooling over the thought of lettuce, spinach, and kale leaves,” someone said.

Marian laughed again, “If they’re anything like what we grew in cold frames, I don’t blame you. In the meantime, at least we have the ferns and dandelion leaves to munch on.”

The group went back to their various tasks, discussing ideas for other projects or ways to improve their current infrastructure. Marian had been reading some books she had in her pack and decided she was going to try and have a worm farm that she would be able to feed her chickens, whenever she got some. With the die off at Main Camp, it would likely be a year before she had a laying flock of her own and needed to get food stockpiled up somehow. She hoped they would be able to get the bag of birdseed they’d found to grow. It would be able to start a nice cycle of growing to get more seed to then sprout and feed to the hens, while saving enough to replant of course.

Standing up, Marian felt a wave of satisfaction wash over her. She enjoyed how each season, each cycle, wove into the next. If you planned well and had some luck, everything would just flow along. Of course, nothing in life flows steady forever and she was working on plans to help secure their chances for surviving another winter in this new world.

While none of the people in South Camp would be going on the mission, she felt there was still stuff she could do close to home. There were only so many ways a large group of trucks and people could really go to get to their general area. If she used some guerilla tactics and old school thinking, she could provide a day or more’s worth of warning that the U.N. was coming.

She hadn’t said anything to the others yet because she wasn’t sure which way to handle it. The old Marian would just do what needed to be done and let the others know so they could add it to the overall plan and list of resources. This group tended to make larger decisions together and it had worked well for them so far. They were still here, a year later. No one was overly thin or malnourished. Other than the recent illness that took two lives from Center Camp, everyone was pretty healthy considering what the world was like. The loss of life at North Camp was devastating but somehow, it was easier to accept loss from a natural disaster than a man made catastrophe.

She knew her intentions were right and creating a system to get them warning was akin to a tornado siren, just with a much longer lead time for them to react. She had figured it would take them around ten days to two weeks out there and it would have to be after planting and the spring gathering. She knew that each passing day brought the statistical possibility higher and higher that the U.N. would just be there all of a sudden. That was enough. She would send a few people out and stay behind to be at the gathering. If they left now, they might be able to make it back in time, too.

Later that night, she called a couple people into what had been made their communications area and told them her plan. Grabbing a map, she showed them the areas she wanted scouted and, if possible, implement some of her plans.

“If all you get is information, that’s fine. Just do your best and make it back safely, OK?” She waited for them to agree before adding in, “Oh and the other camps don’t know about it yet so keep it quiet for now. It will benefit everyone but I don’t want to wait for them all to agree on stuff.”

She watched them leave to get ready for the morning and hoped her plan would be enough.

*************

The morning the group left to Main Camp to meet up with the others heading to learn about the U.N. settlements, RR and Tyler went on a long hike that would keep them out overnight. Tyler was going crazy, wanting to listen in and broadcast on his mobile HAM radio system and RR admitted he was curious, too. For the broadcasts Tyler liked to make though, they needed to put distance between Center Camp and their broadcasting location.

After the U.N. sent out the message about their new, open arms and all welcome camps, Tyler had been beside himself with wanting to put out a counter message. RR had never seen him so uptight and commented on it which didn’t help the man’s mood.

“Didn’t you hear what they said? Did it sound like an official military message? There was absolutely no hint of military in that man’s voice whatsoever. He was a civilian, maybe a former radio show host or something, who knows? The point is that they have started in with the propaganda. This is where they use media to make themselves look like the good guys and we look like psychotic “barbarians!””

RR listened to the tirade, mentally agreeing with most of it. When Tyler was finished, he was breathing hard with clenched fists and aggressive energy pouring out of him. The sight was too much and RR laughed.

“What’s so damn funny?” demanded Tyler.

“Well, look at yourself! You’re almost frothing at the mouth like a wild animal! You don’t want that coming across the waves, it would only help their cause. Maybe you should make a plan before you fly off the handle, OK?”

Tyler gave RR a dirty look before agreeing with him.

It was several hours past noon when the duo crested the tallest hill they could find in the area and set up the radio. While Tyler got everything set up, RR scouted around, looking for potential hiding spots, animal tracks, and looked for signs of smoke anywhere close. By the time he was convinced they were good, Tyler already had his headphones on and was flipping dials.

RR gathered up whatever small dry wood he could find and dug a shallow hole to build a fire in. He dug a second, smaller hole close to the first and then burrowed a tunnel between them with a stick to create a sort of rocket stove. It would give off heat without a lot of smoke. Though it took a good amount of wood, it was better to feed a fire with no smoke than have unexpected company. Especially the two legged kind.

RR patrolled around again after about an hour and then laid down against a log near the fire. His mind wandered with the sounds of birds and a light breeze in the trees lulling him to sleep. He was jerked awake at Tyler suddenly laughing.

“Woohooo! You won’t believe this! The Canadians blew up bridges between the camps and the supply locations. They used the rivers creeks with canoes, kayaks – whatever they could find that could be easily rowed – and traveled on them to set charges, get information between areas faster, and keep track of the U.N. movements. Genius!”

After the initial irritation at being woken up so abruptly passed, RR found himself grinning as Tyler went on, nodding at his assessment.

“That is genius! I can’t believe we didn’t think about it, too. I wonder if we should try some of that here, too? There aren’t many major bridges close by that I can think of but it might be worth the time and resources. Then again, if they are limited, so are we. What do you think?”

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