Down the Hole

by Sally Six

  The bullhorn sounded again. General Williamson wanted to get the ball rolling.

  “I want everyone’s attention. People from this camp will at this time lay down all your weapons. We want to start with a fresh slate and need to know who the officers are from Corporals on up. Will the officers make their way over to the right of this tent? The rest move over to allow the officers to be separated from the rest of you. I need the pre- picked officers from my camp to begin preliminary interviews. We will sort out more later of what went on with General Smith’s command. This process will not be done quickly as you know, but we have worked out a method to figure out who were the worst offenders among your people. This will not be nice. At this time some of you will remain here and others will be brought to our base. I want cooperation or the penalty will be sure and swift.”

  General Williamson gave the signal and people began weaving their way through the crowd to get to the bottom of things. It would be a few hours before they got a chance to clean up and have some much needed rest, let alone food. The medic’s had been working on the wounded this whole time and had sent the injured back to the base hospital for further care whether they be they base or camp personal.

  A total of 89 of the enemy camp military personal were killed and 11 slaves in the battle. A few died after the battle and on the operating tables. They had 94 of the enemy wounded. The base had 11 killed and 54 wounded. All in all not bad at all. Those that had given their lives would be greatly missed. As the days and weeks unfolded, they separated the sheep from the wolves per say.

  General Smith along with many others were stood before firing squads and taken care of. Lt. Sale wasn’t that lucky. Before they even got him out of the valley camp, a few of the women slaves got together and beat the living crap out of the man. Needless to say, he didn’t survive. When General Williamson was notified of the incident, he just nodded his head, said good riddance to bad rubbage and went on about his business.

  The privates who had taken orders and never bothered to question them, the General did understand. They may have been afraid for their lives. They and other military personal were sentenced to work crews from one to three years depending on their crimes. They also were required to learn everything they would need to hunt, feed, clothe and survive in this new world.

  General Williamson also appointed people to go out into the area in an ever-widening circle to talk to the local people and to those that had also moved into the area. That way they could all help each other and train those that needed to know new things which were really the old way and to know what or who were in the area that had survived. Also taking out any more marauders that had taken up residence to close for comfort. More or less, sooner or later, they would have this area of Tennessee pretty well safe as they possibly could get it for this day and age.

  They had a few incidents here and there from a few of the soldiers who had gotten out of the valley camp, but that didn’t end up very many. A year later things had pretty well settled into a routine and General Williamson was even encouraging families to go settle some of the areas around the base or further out. They made sure to not invade any of the local’s properties and bought some acreage off a few of them.

  Elizabeth, Bill and their family were joined by another son the following year. They named him Forest. They didn’t live but three miles from the base on Graham Zellers Clan land. They continued to teach and assist as needed with regular people generally coming to their farm for instruction. Once a week they went up to the base to make sure all the prisoners were taught what they needed. Neither Elizabeth nor Bill ever found out how their respective families had fared but the legacy of what they had been taught went on to help the new generation live on.

  Chapter 31

  The Clans and the Tribe

  General Williamson started the families separating into seven different Clans. Ones that would cooperate with one another, intermarry and so would have loyalties to one another. They had the Rose, Graham, Zellers, MacDonald, Douglas, Bruce and the McCoy clans. The McCoy clan because it ended up headed by local Bubba McCoy. He and his family moved without any problem and with great excitement. Bubba’s great grandfather had come over from Scotland. He had known him the last ten years of the old gentleman’s life. He spent many a night listening to his great grandfather’s stories of the old country. Bubba ended up a great help in putting the clans in order with a few new ideas.

  They again had different tartans to differentiate the different clans so everyone knew at a glance who belonged to which clan. Clan gatherings were encouraged and swearing of allegiance to your Clan Chief. People who were of different ethnic origins were welcome to join to give their children and children’s children a feeling of belonging and heritage. They had something to believe in and to stand for.

  Each of these Clans would find a piece of land of 1000 acres to start building a main Clan house, worker housing, visitor housing, butcher and rendering cabin, cooking cabin and stables along with a few odd buildings for storage. Another thing that the General insisted on was large underground bunkers for the people in case of attacks so their old, very young and women who couldn’t fight for one reason or another had a place of protection.

  Each family would have ten acres to farm for personal use. Then there were the communal fields to help support the entire clan and trade with the other Clans. Everyone took two days of the week in rotation to work on the communal fields. The people voted on who the Clan Chief’s would be and then surprising Williamson voted him the head Chief of all the clans. General James Williamson became the first and last head clan chief. He was Headman General Williamson even though he tried desperately to not be called General anymore. No one would let him get away with it.

  The American Indians decided they would join together to make one tribe until they could find more people to join and then to do a split. Well that was along with the other military personal as said before who made themselves costumes and joined them in the valley raid. Then the people from the camp who joined later. So there were a few black, Caribbean, Portuguese, German and Italian Indians. They decided to call themselves the Blackfoot-Sioux World Tribe. They began to make teepees for summer and log cabins for winters. Their camp was twelve miles from the base and they began to teach the children that came along the old ways along with a few of the new.

  One thing they made sure of was that the next generation knew where they had come from, what the world had once been and how war and leaders who were supposed to be the representatives of the people had destroyed it. They came up to the base to pay their regards to General Williamson on a regular basis and to trade with the clans. Many found they enjoyed this life style much better than the fast paced hectic one of the past. The one thing that was missed was the modern medicines, but soon a few of the locals joined them that had knowledge of herbs and local fauna to help with illness and pain. The doctors that were part of the tribe and clans did their best to learn what would help as the modern medicines began to run out.

  People in this area and further out as they spread across the land were much healthier than they had been for decades. Whole milk, healthy foods and lots of exercise were the answer to many problems. The tribe and the clans lost a few now and then to accidents and natural causes, but that can never be helped. The doctors did their best to pick a new generation to learn doctoring and nursing. That’s one vocation they didn’t need to lose.

  Chapter 32

  Good Days

  In the west:

  The Graham farm in Washington three years later had expanded. Log cabins now dot the area around the old farmstead. You see the pines all around the cleared fields with mountain maples shading the cabins. Gardens are fenced to keep out the deer and elk and are close to the homes, chickens, geese, ducks and turkeys that roam the farm. The family has built two more barns, log of course. Not as large as the Graham’s old barn that was built in 1930 but adequate. The barns were built to be as functional as possible. The hay i
s cut and piled into the barns and under separate pole barn roofs. The hay is not the bales of the old days, but at least they were able to find a cutter and a rake to pull behind horses.

  Ann opened her eyes to a new day. She had dreamed of her other children during the night. It wasn’t one of the nightmares like she had during the first year of the collapse. This time she saw her oldest son with his family and her daughters that lived away from the area and they were happy. They were working hard and going about their lives as best they could. Teaching a new generation how to survive and not look back at the old days with hearts that were to wistful. One that was easier for the younger ones and the ones being born now. They would never know of the luxuries of the past. But all in all it was a good life.

  Maybe someday if someone started a Pony express again, they would get word, but for now it was best not to dwell on such things. A memory now and then would surface. Michael and she would talk about when the children were growing up and some of the things they had pulled on their siblings. Plus the things that the children thought they had gotten away with, with no one else’s knowledge. They laughed themselves silly when they told the grandchildren and the adopted grandchildren of how their oldest uncle Matt when he was eight years old had crawled down to the lower bunk and kneeled over his sister Beulah and roared like a monster. Then quickly climbed up to his own bed with her screaming. No one the wiser on what he had done. They found out about his role in it all years down the road when he finally admitted to what went on that night.

  She dressed and headed to get her shoes by the kitchen door. Michael was just coming back into the house and gave her a good morning kiss as he came in from the outhouse. She then went to take her turn. When she got back in, he was already shoving wood into the wood cook stove. It was September and the weather was cooling down quite a bit. The heat would help take the morning chill off the house. Their grandson, Brian, came bouncing into the house at 16 years old. He sure was turning into a burly young man and was strong as an ox from all the hard work. He had a cake pan full of cooked bacon which he sat inside the oven. Beulah came in behind him with the baby. Kindness who was now 6 months old. She was with Kurt holding two year old Kurt Jr. bringing up the rear.

  “Sorry Mom. I told Brian he should knock first before barging in.”

  Beulah gave Brian that I told you what you should have done look. All he did is grin at his mother.

  “Beulah you know if the door is unlocked it’s fine to come in. Always has been.” Ann told her as she put the griddle on the stove to heat for Sunday morning pancakes.

  “But Mom he still needs to be civilized at least to a certain extent.”

  Kurt by this time was also grinning. He knew Brian would be just fine. “Now dear heart, don’t worry about it. You have trained him well. He knows what to do if he ever gets around civilized people.”

  Now Beulah was smiling and gave Kurt a whack on his left arm. “Civilized people and what are we you big lug?”

  They were headed for the living room to put the babies down and continued teasing each other. Ann watched the by play and was so glad they had found Kurt and he them. Brian had taken to Kurt right away. It wasn’t six months after they had arrived that Kurt true to his word had proposed to Beulah. He had to take her all the way into Lewiston to find a Preacher to marry them all proper and legit as he put it.

  The rest of the family began to file in. Their son Tom and his wife the former Barb Yoder holding Faith their one year old, with Fred and Bitty behind them arguing about a calf that had been born in the spring and who she really belonged to, Fred or Bitty.

  Then Aaron and his wife Crystal and their year and a half old girl, Hope. Then Titus and his wife Pricilla. Pricilla had finally showed up at the farm over four months after the war started. They had adopted the Olson kids, Henry, Bea, Karen and their cousins Timothy and Gil who were growing up happy and strong with a family of their own again.

  Next through the door was Andrew and his wife Millie chasing their two year old twins. They had met one day in the woods while Andrew was out gathering up a stray cow.

  Ex-sheriff Les with his family Lou Ann, Brian and Tess Carter, were enjoying being part of this large family. Tess Carter and Brian Reynolds were dating. She thought it was funny her boyfriend and brother had the same names so she just called her boyfriend Brian, B.

  The house was beginning to get full when Penny and Lysbeth came in with big baskets of breakfast rolls and a large pan of gravy. Lysbeth was looking forward to her upcoming marriage to a local man, Tate Walker, at the end of the month. Tate had agreed to come here to live and they were building a cabin not far from Beulah and Kurt’s.

  Paul and Nancy Wilson were the last people in the door with food dishes in hand. Nancy was in the middle of telling her husband Paul. “See we’re the last ones to arrive again.” Of course his reply was always. “Better late than never.” It never failed that every Sunday they were late and came in saying the same thing. This seemed normal now and made the whole family smile when they heard the Wilson’s conversation.

  Everyone had brought their contribution to breakfast and it was very crowded in the house. They were in the middle of building a large central cabin as a cookhouse and cafeteria. It would be finished and ready to move in a wood stove and furnishings in another couple of weeks. The tables were being built on the picnic table style with benches. They would have room for more people to join the tables in the future.

  How the Wilson’s ended up joining the farm was a sad one. The Wilson’s had joined the Graham Family after they had been burned out two years ago. They tried to make a go by themselves with their son, Gus, but it wasn’t to be. They had fought off several attacks and wanted to take the Grahams’ up on their invitation to join them at their farm as it was further out in the boonies and off on a small dirt road. But Gus would have nothing to do with it. He died defending the farm that was to be his. He wouldn’t listen to his parents who told him when things calmed down they could come back.

  “Nope, no way. This is going to be my place and I am staying. No one can scare me off of it.” So they stayed on to help and because they didn’t want to leave him alone.

  Not a month later Gus lay dead by their barn. Someone had set the barn on fire and Gus was busy trying to get the animals out before they burned to death. As he pushed goats and sheep out the door someone put a hole in his forehead with a rifle bullet. Paul and Nancy had still been in the house firing at intruders that had been in the downstairs of the house. The next thing they knew there was smoke coming up the staircase and they ran to the bedroom to throw the rope ladder out the window.

  Nancy looked back at the bedroom before Paul threw two backpacks out the window. Her home, she couldn’t believe she was losing her home. She grabbed the family picture off the dresser and quickly took it out of its frame. Threw on her coat and stuffed the picture in the large side pocket. Paul was yelling at her to come. Somehow she had totally blocked out his voice. She came to reality and ran over to the window where Paul was waiting. He would go first and make sure she came down safely.

  As Paul stood waiting for Nancy to come to the window, he turned and glanced over at the barn to see the smoke rising from it. That was when he saw the body of his son laying half in and half out of the front door. His voice caught in his throat as he was about to scream his son’s name. No, it wouldn’t do any good to scream and let those murderers know where he and his wife were at this moment. He would just try to keep Nancy from seeing their son. She finally came over and he told her to turn around and climb out onto the top rung holding onto the windowsill. The house was fully involved in flames by the time they were down and running across the field. Nancy was trying to yell and ask where Gus was.

  Paul wouldn’t answer her. He just pretended he hadn’t heard her ask. They had slowed to a walk when they hit the tree line and began to hear yelling and shooting from the area of their farm.

  Nancy was getting her breath back as they wen
t down a hill and took a short cut to the road. The tears were streaming down her face when she looked over at Paul and saw the tears on his face. Then it hit her. Paul knew something about Gus. She said, “Gus is dead, isn’t he?”

  “Yes, Gus is dead dear. He was dead before we even got out of the house.”

  She sat down hard on the hillside and began to cry. He was her one and only baby and now he was dead. She had so hoped Gus would settle down and give them grandchildren in a few years. Now he and that dream were gone.

  “Nancy, come on honey. You have to get up. We have a ways to go and it will be dark soon.”

  Paul helped her up off the ground and they continued their walk towards the Graham farm.

  The Graham family saw the glow of the fire in the evening sky to the north. They didn’t know whose place it was going up in flames, but they hoped the family or whoever it was had gotten out. A few of them would head over that direction in the morning to see if they could help in anyway and see what had happened. They would need to know if trouble was on the way. Extra guards would be out tonight. They didn’t have to go in the morning as it turned out a few hours later Paul and Nancy were knocking on Michael and Ann’s door.

  They waited two days keeping guard on the farm and then went with the Wilson’s over to their farm. This time they all rode horseback with a wagon to help bring anything back that may have survived that the Wilson’s might be able to salvage for now. This time it didn’t take near as long and they could go somewhat across country. Paul didn’t want to wait too long in case some of the animals were still there and could be gathered up.

  Apparently, it had been a hit and run attack, senseless and destructive. Dead animals and poultry lay about the yard. The house and barn burnt to the ground. Luckily some of the sheep and goats had gone for pasture when they were let out so they weren’t all dead. Paul went to where he had seen his son’s body with Nancy at his side. They were crying but were under control. The Graham’s that went and the Carter’s lagging behind to give them space with their grief. An hour later Gus was buried and they continued on to see what was salvageable. They had to go on. It was the only way to be.