by Zack Finley
While I didn’t really want to kill Brian and Jake, I was ambivalent toward the rest of the men. We also didn’t know much about the women. Only the kids were the real innocent victims, here.
Roger asked my dad to join us to discuss this very subject.
It was dark and still raining. I left Ben to organize the overnight watch plans. I just told him to make sure I did my fair share. We shut down the noisy generator and the dreary day did little to replenish the batteries. We would turn on very few lights tonight.
Roger dragged me into a conference room, to rest while we waited for my dad to arrive. My dad was running late, wanting to get input from Dr. Jerrod before leaving. He was waiting until Mike was in the recovery room to talk with her.
“This place would make a pretty good place for people to live,” Roger said, leaning back in his chair. “We could move the stoves from the middle school for heat and cooking. It has plenty of beds, and if we put a tank on the roof, it would have some running water. It already has a large garden, solar, and could be hardened to make it difficult to overrun.”
“What’s wrong with staying in the valley?” I asked, unsure where Roger was going with this.
“I doubt any of our people will want to move,” Roger said. “But this is a better site than the middle school for long term survival. Right now, people are hunkered down in groups of two or three families. The goods stored here represent a lot of the things our community will need in the coming years. We’ll know better once we finish our inventory. We are going to take the weapons, but I’d rather leave most of the stuff in the hands of good people working to rebuild.”
I wasn’t sure what my thoughts on this were. “I’d rather empty this place out than see another group of thugs here,” I said.
“Me too,” Roger said. “I just think it is too good a venue to leave empty. This place is too close to our valley. If we can encourage people to gather here, it would be harder for thugs to pick them off one family at a time. I’m willing to consider a mutual defense pact. They also might have skills we need or be willing to help us during harvest time for part of our crops. I prefer having strong, friendly neighbors than nobody.”
There was a lot to think about sitting in the dark, waiting for my dad to arrive. I eased back in my chair and rested my eyes.
I shot straight up in my chair and was reaching for my pistol when I realized we were fine. It was just my dad coming into the conference room. Steve was with him, carrying a rechargeable solar lantern from his collection.
My dad brought paper and pencil with him.
“Mike is fine, doc says he can go back to normal duties once the stitches are out,” my dad said. “She says we need to watch him for infection, but we still have all the good antibiotics, so she isn’t anticipating any trouble.”
I nodded, unable to find my voice without breaking. I was surprised how hard it hit me. I hadn’t really been worried about Mike, but it seemed I was more concerned than I let myself know.
My dad continued, not acknowledging the lump in my throat, “I know you are disappointed we didn’t get Allen, but your teams did very well. We have a shitload of new supplies and have neutralized a threat to the valley.”
Roger cleared his throat, causing my dad to look at him.
“About those supplies,” Roger said, only to have my dad interrupt.
“What scheme are you working on?” dad said.
“This would make a really great place for an allied camp,” Roger said.
“I see the place, I don’t see any allies,” my dad said. I could tell this was an old topic for these best friends.
“I’m good with skimming the supplies, taking things we could really use, but these were gathered to help the whole community, not just us,” Roger said.
“Yeah, did Allen and his crew act like he felt any sense of duty toward the community?” my dad scoffed. “They acted like raiders, not benefactors.”
“Very true,” Roger conceded, “But, we still have good people left in the area. It is going to get a lot worse for them before it gets better.”
“I’m too damn tired to have this discussion now, let’s talk about what to do about the bunch of murdering thieves and rapists we do have,” my dad said. “Of the eight men you captured, Dr. Jerrod says that three of them were abusing other men’s wives. That includes the first guy we captured, who is a real sadist.” It was a good thing my dad listened to his gut and kept the man locked up.
“Brian and Jake seem to be the best of the lot,” my dad continued. “Allen didn’t trust them and had them on a pretty tight leash. The other three just kept their heads down, Dr. Jerrod told us to lock one of the women in a holding cell. The other women were afraid of her. She helped her husband abuse other women.”
“Dr. Jerrod gave me a list of the women who do not want to see their husbands again. That includes two rapists and several you have already removed permanently. One of the deputies, who didn’t join the rape scene, is into spousal and child abuse.” I saw him circle a name on the paper. Four men’s names and one woman’s name were now circled.
My dad continued, “Allen kept kids after killing their parents. The other women stepped up and took care of them, but they couldn’t save the little girls. We’ll find homes for the orphans in the valley, these women will have a tough enough time just keeping their own kids fed.”
“Okay, do we all agree that these four men and one woman have committed capital crimes which if unpunished could pose a threat to the community of Huntsville and a possible future threat to the valley?” Roger asked.
We all said yes. This was what justice looked like after the crash.
“What do we do about the rest of them,” I asked.
“I think we need to discuss it with the men and women who will be left and get input from a few more of our citizens,” dad said. “Unlike the other, we don’t have to decide this tonight.”
Roger said, “I’ll take care of the executions at sunup. No need to have a big crowd.”
“Are you sure, bud?” my dad asked.
“Yeah, sooner it’s taken care of, sooner we can move on,” Roger said.
I picked up my pack and left to where my guys were bunking so they could find me for my guard shift. I suspected my dad, Roger, and Steve would be chatting for a while longer, but I needed some sleep.
I didn’t wake up until the whole crew began to stir. I sat bolt upright realizing no one woke me for guard duty.
I started to raise a fuss when Buzzer told me to settle down. “Boss, we took a vote and decided you needed a long nap. Fuck, it wasn’t for your benefit, it was to improve unit cohesion. Nobody’s happy that scumbag got away, but we don’t control everything. Allen won’t die of old age, either we’ll get him or somebody else will.”
“I just wanted him to pay,” I said.
“We fucked him up, took away his palace and set him loose in the rain with just what he had on his back,” Buzzer answered. “While he deserves a septic gut shot followed a few weeks later by a permanent dirt nap, we took his support base and left him on the run. That kind of scum will hang around, he won’t be able to help himself. We’ll get him sooner, or later.”
As I geared up, I knew Buzzer was right. We’d get Allen, and would warn others about him, so they weren’t fooled. Bounty hunters were back.
“Thanks, Buzzer, I needed the pep talk,” I said, giving him a fist to the upper arm. It was no longer raining, and there was a cauldron of hot oatmeal for breakfast. Roger executed the condemned at first light. Someone torched the bodies using plenty of diesel and gasoline to get the fire going. I was glad the wind was blowing the smoke away from us.
Surprisingly I slept well. I missed my girls but knew I’d be back to see them in a few hours. The decisions on the executions felt right. I still didn’t know what we should do about the rest of them, but I believed in my dad and Roger.
I went into the booking area of the jail where the remaining men were being held. I was gla
d to see their hands were free and they were eating the same breakfast. The four men looked stunned.
Blake called out, “Are we next?”
“Did you rape women or children?” I countered. “Did you beat children? Did you rob food from a bunch of seniors and drag them out of their homes with only the clothes on their backs, leaving them out in the cold to die?”
I turned my back to them, disgusted. I knew it wasn’t entirely fair, but I felt uncharitable toward them all at that moment. I couldn’t forget Allen shooting the boy, nor the way his sister looked when we found her.
I called a team meeting while we waited for the congregation to arrive from the valley. We took advantage of the natural light and met in the lobby leading to the sheriff’s offices. I wanted to get my team’s input on what we should do with this opportunity. I planned to send half of Force Beta back to protect the valley, while the rest of us were here.
“Boss,” Buzzer said after I laid out the dilemma before us, “We knew the middle school was a bad location for an FOB. This is a much better site. I’m heartsick over how this scum fucked over those seniors. I know there is a lot of trust issues in the valley. With a core of trusted people here, they could offer shelter to other good folks and engage with the rest of the town. We could harden this place and make it mighty hard for someone to overrun it. Brian and Jake aren’t bad, they just got in with some bad folks.”
I knew the die off in the cities and around the world was just getting started, we were still in the early days of winter. The jail had nearly 200 beds, and it was definitely hardened. With all the rooms the entire pre-crash population of Huntsville could live here comfortably. Steve’s crew already located the well that the inmates used to irrigate their massive garden. It wasn’t solar powered, but it soon would be. With water, power, wooden stoves, and security, this might be a viable location.
My mind was already thinking about a septic system. The locker rooms had showers, and there was even a small clinic. The high school and technology center were nearby, and there was plenty of room to grow food. We needed to remove the trees we exploited to get close to the justice center. In some ways, this place could become more comfortable than the valley. I made a mental note to haul a few of those conference room chairs back to the valley.
While it was all those things, it was also more vulnerable. It would divide our efforts and might reduce the viability of our valley operation. It could also be the spark this area needed to rekindle civilization. High risk, potentially high rewards. I didn’t expect, nor even want, a return to the past. What I hoped was that we could start the long slog back to antibiotics, food security, machinery, and even hot showers. I wanted a future for my daughters. We hadn’t really been broken back to the middle ages. We knew what was possible and that would make a difference in many ways. No space travel in my generation, but by the time Melissa or Jennifer were my age, I could hope.
My guys were enthused about turning this place into an FOB, even if it was just to deny it to any group not allied with us. Nine of them piled into one of our trucks and headed back to the valley.
The senior valley leadership came to check out the justice center. We assembled in the sheriff’s lobby. My mom and dad, Roger and his wife Carmine, Roger’s daughter Audrey and her husband Jim, my brother Steve and Mandy, several of my dad’s Vietnam buddies, Rachel Neufeld, and Dr. Jerrod found seats. I was a bit surprised that my uncle Bob was missing. The last time this group got together was just before the shit hit the fan. The mood was deadly serious.
My dad started the discussion, “I would rather make this decision next fall after the crops are in. But God hasn’t asked my opinion before, and I doubt he’s going to start now. We have an opportunity to expand the valley footprint into this part of town. I hoped the local residents would band together organically. We tried to help that along, but Sheriff Lewis cracked, and a group of bad seeds attacked their own citizens.”
“We’ve dealt with the worst actors,” Roger added. “The ex-deputies remaining seem to be decent men. Two of them worked with us closely to clear this place out. We are unwilling to bring any of them into the valley at this point. They already have one strike against them, and no one is ready to trust them with our children’s lives. We have families in the valley ready to adopt the orphans. We do not have a consensus about the rest of the women and children.”
Bruce, one of the grizzled vets, asked, “I assume there is some reason the men are still alive?”
“I think they can be rehabilitated,” my dad answered. “They showed good original instincts, they came to work and tried to protect their community. I blame Sheriff Lewis for letting Allen get a foothold. Lewis knew better. I suspect we’ll find his bones somewhere in the spring.”
Bruce replied, “What does that have to do with the valley? Drop these people off somewhere far enough away from here that they can’t bother us.”
“That is certainly an option,” my mom replied. “It has some appeal. Should they survive, they will definitely harbor ill will towards us. I prefer to find allies rather than create enemies. I’m also not yet prepared to kill a group of people just because I don’t trust them enough to bring them into the valley.”
“We can do that for you, Claire,” Bruce said.
“No need Bruce, if we decide to do that, I’ll do my part,” my mom said. “Nonetheless I think setting this building up as an outpost has a lot of merits. The group we’ve captured can stay or leave, their choice. If they stay, I think it will help the valley and surrounding community a lot.”
“Mandy and I are willing to move here,” Steve offered. “I won’t put my kids at risk, but Mandy and I will give it a shot. This is the community hoard, we should share it with our community. If we slip in some things from the valley to help, let people think it came from the community hoard. It will help us help our neighbors and let us keep most of our valley secrets.”
“I’m not ready for democracy,” Bruce said. “People need to contribute to the whole, or they need to leave. I don’t want untrusted people to have automatic rifles so they can gun our people down. That means people we trust will be forced to guard two locations instead of one. If we do this, we need to find out who we can trust right away. Our people have it tough enough without worrying whether someone we share a bedroom with will kill us in our sleep.”
Mandy offered, “We need a set of rules that make it clear what is expected and what will get you kicked out. They know we killed a lot of people yesterday and we executed four men and a woman. That isn’t going to make them trust us either.”
“Staying in this place must be considered a privilege. Some people will be too selfish to be allowed to stay. Anyone with serious antisocial tendencies should be executed, so they don’t cause trouble somewhere else. I support devoting valley resources to make this place viable, as long as one of us has the final say in who stays,” Carmine said.
Carmine caused everyone to stop and consider her words. She was a strong, vibrant woman, but seldom offered opinions at staff meetings.
“Thank you, Carmine, for summing things up so nicely,” my dad said. “Is that the group consensus?”
That initiated a flurry of ideas on ways to implement the plan. We knew a few people used to living in Huntsville would welcome starting over in this new site, now dubbed the center.
Several of our Vietnam vets volunteered to move, although they intended to leave their wives in the valley until they were confident their loved ones would be safe. I agreed to maintain a Force Beta presence in the center until we saw how things developed.
Steve and Mandy would spearhead the center project. My mom would have the final say for any valley resources devoted to i.
I thought this was a good compromise. I knew Steve chafed from being only a wheel in the valley’s cog. He and Mandy were accustomed to running their own show.
With so many valley people and resources employed at the center, we’d have to change our tactics and strategies to
keep our people safe.
The Oneida situation was ready to boil over and where were the hordes of refugees from the cities? We needed to find out what was happening in the region around us. I feared our ignorance would lead to our downfall.
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Author’s note:
Dear reader, thank you for reading Breckinridge Valley. If you enjoyed it, please review or rate the novel on Amazon. Independent authors depend on reader reviews to help others check out our books. With thousands of titles published each month, it is hard to know which books are worth taking a chance on. Your reviews help.
This book breaks from my earlier books, in part because the topic interested me. While we hope there will never be an event which triggers TEOLAWNI, I can’t stop speculating about comes after the SHTF. I tried to imagine where one could live and have a chance to survive, raise a family and begin to rebuild. I needed a place with a climate that would allow a family to grow their own food. It had to be far enough from large cities and interstates to make survival possible. Much of our country is too dry, too hot, too cold, or too urban. That led me to northeastern Tennessee. I lived in Fort Campbell in my youth, so I was vaguely familiar with the area.
