Fortress Farm - The Pullback

by G.R. Carter

  Chapter Seven

  Old Main College

  The Day after the Great Reset

  Retired Senator Julia Ruff pulled her old diesel pickup truck into the faculty parking lot of Old Main College. Noticing the clumps of people standing outside awaiting her arrival, she knew a long day lay ahead. The drive in this morning told her something was wrong – no stoplights, no street lights, and as near as she could tell, no lights coming from any houses she passed along the way. When she awoke and her power was out at home, she just assumed the electric cooperative her farm was hooked into was having another rolling outage. Making her way into town told her it wasn’t just the rural power lines down.

  Over the last few years, electrical service in the heartland became worse every month, along with every other service. Population and resources continued to flow towards the mega-cities due to the Pullback legislation. That omnibus was what led to her resignation from the Senate; she knew what the result would ultimately be. She admitted begrudgingly that the major cities were thriving right now. The interior of the country was being emptied, replaced by a continuous string of population centers along both coasts. The only exceptions were a few of the new Regional Capitals such as Chicago, Minneapolis and Dallas.

  A few smaller cities like St. Louis still held on, though only through sometimes questionable means. Connections to the Federal centers of power were the key to resources; there were certain segments of society better at tapping into those connections, legal or not.

  Even the large public universities weren’t safe if not located in a major urban center. There were no more individual “directional schools”; everything was combined into one public university system per state. Name changes followed multiple campus closures, and there were fewer students actually on campus students every year. Virtual learning centers combined with a plummeting birth rate to reduce the need for large centers of learning in rural areas.

  Exceptions survived as small private colleges, although even Old Main once held a different name at its founding as a public university. Large endowments, along with the resources of an ex–Senator, allowed the small-town hub to hang on even through the hard times. Julia pulled every string she could for her alma mater. Through the last of her favors earned in DC, she positioned Old Main to become a research hub for both the condensed food being used to feed the masses of the mega–cities, and also a remote computing center for the new space program using the Lunar Base for detection and study of the Solar Storms continuing to plague the planet. No foreign spies ever thought to look out here in the central Illinois cornfields for high technology. At least, that's how she sold it to the Department of Education.

  Few in the general public knew of the experimental space program, mostly for security reasons. With money supply no longer a limiting factor, America was aiming to reestablish its dominance in the world. The plan figured that having access to the rare earth minerals on the moon, as well as the ability to study the Solar Storms outside the Earth’s atmosphere, would give DC the clear irreversible edge in the quickly-consolidating world economy. The leaders in DC didn’t care so much about the American people living well; they just wanted to make sure that DC continued as the clear capital of world affairs. Subtle changes like dropping “Washington” from the Federal District of Columbia name suggested world integration was the ultimate goal.

  Julia didn’t like any of it, but she learned during her time in DC that even good people fought dirty sometimes. For that reason, she made deals with some very shady groups, allowing snakes like Timothy Maxwell to join her staff. Maxwell’s endowment brought millions of dollars into Old Main College funds and allowed her to feed misinformation to Maxwell's handlers. Julia knew hidden forces meant to follow her every move for the rest of her life, and she was sure that Maxwell was at Old Main largely as an informant. She said too much and made too many enemies during her time near the circles of absolute power.

  Wheels within wheels to be pondered, but that all would have to be on the back burner today. Today the difficulties of leading a group of 3000 young students, plus nearly 500 faculty and staff, took precedent. Something happened to the electricity again, and apparently even the thousands spent on backup generators weren’t helping today. Even the radio stations were silent on her way to school this morning.

  Yep, this is going to be a bad day.

  Julia sat in her truck for a few moments, feeling the stares of anticipation from the faculty and students she saw wandering through the parking lot. They needed answers to questions she didn’t even know existed moments before. Many of the tenured faculty didn’t exactly like her because of her politics. But they did appreciate her honesty, and no one questioned her devotion to Old Main. Since she arrived, they came to believe she would figure out a solution every time.

  That daily paradox was what faced Julia and her executive every day. Students and faculty both screamed for freedom of expression, freedom to live whatever lifestyle they chose, and freedom to choose whatever path of study they felt their heart desired. But that was matched by an almost childlike insistence on being told what to do in times of crises. Once Julia understood people just wanted someone to make a decision that they could complain about after the fact, she felt much more at ease. Once again, she could just turn to her instinct and her faith to guide her, and sleep better for it. She repeated the mantra she told her advisors when they were in crisis mode: It’s never the end of the world until it’s the end of the world, and then it doesn’t really matter anyway.

  The simple wicker cross hanging from her rear view mirror reminded her of that faith. The cross was lovingly crafted by her eldest daughter years ago at vacation Bible school; now that fully grown daughter stood in the quad with a group of students surrounding her, watching as her mom walked towards the front entrance of the administration building. A slight smile exchanged between the two brought a warm glow of pride and affection even amid the atmosphere of fear.

  Rebekah Ruff was a senior Resident Assistant, finishing her undergrad degree here at Old Main College. She committed as a junior in high school, even before Julia took the job as President of the College. Most knew that Rebekah, or Bek as she was known, already received a full-ride academic scholarship to her hometown school by the time her mother committed to lead it. Bek was a kid who wanted to make her own way so she took the job of Resident Assistant to earn free room and board in addition to her scholarships.

  The students surrounding Bek were floor captains from the residence building she led. Each floor captain lived with the students assigned to each of the 5 floors, with each of them reporting directly to Bek. They were shivering in the chill of the morning air, stomping back and forth and blowing into uncovered hands. Julia’s immediate “mom” reaction to urge them to put on gloves and a hat would have fallen on deaf ears, but someday they’d learn.

  The next eyes she caught were Gary Clark, her director of building maintenance. The concern on his face warned Julia to brace for information overload.

  “Okay, Gary, let me have it. What are we facing here?” Julia began.

  “Total failure, Madame President,” Gary said solemnly. He took his job very seriously, and his tone and no-nonsense speech forced others to do the same. His insistence on formality made Julia’s “pickup truck and blue jeans” attitude a little uncomfortable, but without a doubt she was glad for his competence.

  “What are our options, and what do you suggest?” Julia asked sincerely.

  Gary looked around, as though something might come to him at the last moment before he had to answer. The hesitation delayed a response that normally came quick for him. When their eyes met again, she could tell he still possessed no answer to offer.

  “That’s just it, President Ruff,” Gary replied, “There’s nothing I can do. I can’t even call Central Power to get an idea of what’s wrong, or get a timeline for service to be restored. Phones don’t work, lights
don’t work. None of the backup generators that we installed are working either, because the computers that run them won’t boot up. We had the batteries charged 100% just like the plan calls for, but it’s as if something is overriding the ON switch.

  “The only thing that is working is the boiler in our Physical Plant, but the heat is distributed to the buildings via underground tunnels by fans, and guess what’s not working?” Gary asked.

  “The fans are driven by electric motors.” Julia added.

  “Precisely. No fans, no air circulation. Thus, no heat.” Gary looked like he might break into tears any minute, “For the first time in my professional life, I can honestly say I don’t know what to do next.”

  Sometimes ultra–serious people got lost in a crisis. Perhaps some questions could get his mind working again. But oh my goodness, if he doesn’t have any solutions, what kind of problem could we possibly be facing here?

  “Well, Gary, sounds like we’ve got a big challenge on our hands. You’ve got the entire executive team’s attention, and commitment to do whatever we can to help. Let’s see if we can get some simple things accomplished first. Is there anywhere we can get some heat going for folks? A common area that might be simpler to heat instead of the whole campus?”

  Gary thought for a moment, and then an idea hit him. “The Student Union would be the best choice. It’s still got a separate heating system in the conference area, so that we could have meetings there even when classes were out of session. We didn’t want to fire up the entire campus heat exchange just for one building, so that’s a separate system that is tied into the city natural gas lines. I’m assuming there’s still some pressure in the gas lines, even without the power being on. I’m sure I can light it manually.”

  “I don’t need to tell you to be careful, but it makes the mom in me feel better to say so,” Julia smiled at him. “Please go start the process; we’ll all meet you in the Union in about an hour.”

  Julia turned to wave the other groups of confused faculty and students closer to her.

  “Okay, everyone, please listen,” Julia pitched her voice to be heard above the crowd. Voice projection was a trick she learned in public speaking, perfecting the technique while debating with groups famous for shouting down dissenting voices.

  “Thank you for being good leaders and being out here in the cold to look for solutions,” she said. The line was met by nervous chuckles. “Clearly we have a bit of a challenge today, and one that we’re not sure will be solved soon.”

  Giggles turned to groans as Julia continued, “I would like for us to get a couple of simple things accomplished as quickly as possible. Gary and his amazing Facilities team believe that we can get some heat going in the Student Union. So all Resident Assistants and Floor Captains, please gather your students. Get a head count, and then start moving everyone over to the Food Court. There are floor-to-ceiling windows there, so we should have plenty of natural light. Our goal will to meet in one hour, ok? At that point, I promise I will tell you everything I know about our situation. I don’t know exactly how to tell when an hour is, but please go now.”

  Julia waited for all students to drift away and begin the student roundup.

  Her face lost some of the optimism she was able to convey to the students. She took a more somber tone with the faculty and executive staff still surrounding her.

  “We might be in for a tough couple of days here, everyone. Please remember that the safety and well–being of these students is our number one priority. I deeply appreciate the fact that you are all here right now, and I know many of you are considering heading back home to check in on your families. I am thinking the same thing, but I’m sure this is just a temporary problem. Stick with me, and as soon as we’ve got a good plan in place I’ll get you rotated out and back home to check in. Needless to say, classes are canceled today, and we’ll probably cancel them for tomorrow if there’s no power in the next couple of hours,” Julia continued.

  “What about the students living off-campus?” Paula Ross asked. Paula was in charge of alumni relations, and was a great asset for the College in keeping juniors and seniors in off-campus apartments engaged in campus activities. Paula referred to the process as setting the hook for future donors.

  “I’m not sure, Paula, but that’s a great question. I’m just taking this one step at a time. Let’s get all the students we can gathered in the Union. Send a couple of runners out to the main apartment complexes if you think they can get there and back in an hour.

  “And then let’s get the library up and running,” Julia nodded to Frederick Oppenheimer, the Head of Archives. “With no electronics, we’ll need something to occupy young minds that won’t include mistakes we might all have to pay for later. See if the Library staff can get some book talks organized.”

  She paused as Oppenheimer turned to head over to the Library. “Fred, pick books out of the Unauthorized Titles List. That ought to hold some interest. Don’t worry, I don’t think anyone is going to report us to the Free Speech Council today,” she concluded with a smile in Timothy Maxwell’s direction.

  With Maxwell’s glare, one last thought came into Julia’s mind. “Okay, everyone, please make a quick walk-through of all the campus buildings, gathering everyone for the meeting. Remember, some of these doors are electric security swipe, so use the emergency releases and prop the doors open while you search. I’ll see you in an hour.”