Roland: Reluctant Paladin

by N. C. Reed

  “Now, let’s go see what Ralph has come up with and take a look at the rest of your area. Might be we can make some suggestions for you.”

  CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT

  “They’re doing okay,” Vaughan informed Roland at lunch the next day. “I’d say he picked good people. And he was smart enough to send more people than there are rifles. According to them, they had a meeting last night and the rifles will be kept in the church instead of with the shooters. That way, no matter who makes it inside, the rifles will be there.”

  “That’s a good idea,” Roland nodded. “Anyone in the group you’d say no to?”

  “No, not really,” Vaughan shook his head. “It’s a pretty solid group.”

  “Good deal, then,” Roland replied. “Thanks.”

  “Hey, it’s what I do,” Vaughan grinned, departing.

  The group had stayed until nearly dark the day before, leaving with just enough time to get home before dusk. The time had been well spent, as friendships had been made, and a good start toward a healthy relationship between the two groups had been achieved.

  Ralph had stayed overnight, working on a plan to provide the little community with some extra security, including two cameras powered off solar batteries taken from road signs. He had also used some modeling clay and ball bearings to create a half dozen homemade Claymores that had been placed around the school as a last-ditch defense.

  It had been Ralph who had spotted the worst threat to the church, too.

  “What you gonna do they set the place on fire?” he had asked, looking at the structure. Turnbow had, by that time, seen firsthand how sharp Ralph was.

  “What would you do?” he asked.

  “Need a water tank on that roof,” Ralph pointed to the top of the church. “Take some PVC pipe and run it from the tank along the arch o’ the roof, holes drilled through each side at say. . .six inches at most. Happen they got to throwing fireballs at ya, just turn that water on, and let gravity feed the water into the pipes, and down onto the roof. Plus, when it’s hot it’ll cool off the building some.”

  The men of the community had worked through the late evening erecting a small platform behind the church on which a two-hundred-gallon tank had been placed to do just that. Before Ralph had left with the shooters the next morning on his way home everything was in place and working.

  While the construction was being done, Ralph had helped the store owner with setting up a set of PV panels. The man who owned the store had kept the panels in storage, having originally gotten them to resell. He didn’t know how they worked, but Ralph did. Scavenging car and boat batteries that were no longer in use, Ralph had managed to set up a system that gave them some power, allowing them to charge batteries for hand tools, radios, and to have minimal light in the evening.

  His reward for that had been a Leatherman brand ‘Super Tool’, the last one the owner had in stock. Ralph had been tempted to take it at once, but instead refused, saying it wasn’t right. The store owner had insisted.

  “You did the work, you deserve the pay,” the man told him, handing it over. Ralph seemed more proud of the tool because he’d earned it himself.

  “We got it all done,” the teenager had announced upon his arrival at the school with the group selected for firearms training. “Reckon I’m goin’ to bed,” he added, yawning.

  “You earned it, buddy,” Roland nodded. “Thanks.”

  “Just doin’ my job,” Ralph had grinned, heading for his room.

  -

  “Any luck?” Roland asked Angie as he walked into the radio room. She had been trying to raise Jenkins, or anyone else at the Nashville Armory, to see how the kids were doing and just generally see what was what.

  “Not so much,” she sighed. “I’ve tried everything we have, but. . .honestly? We just don’t really have enough power, I think. That’s got to be it, Roland. The air waves are pretty clear, nowadays, so it’s got to be the antennae and the wattage. If we had a tower, or a stronger radio, then I’m sure we could talk to them.”

  “Oh, well,” Roland shrugged. “It was worth a try, right? Anyway, you hearing anything on that HAM?”

  “Sporadic stuff, mostly,” Angie replied, looking at a pad on the table. “Mostly it’s crackpots talking about the wrath of someone or other, blaming all this on God, or else it’s a ‘hate the” and you fill in the blank. Every now and then you hear something interesting, though. There’s one report from. . .yeah, Pennsylvania, reporting some kind of new flu virus. According to the woman I heard, it’s a local epidemic already, and getting worse. Doesn’t respond to usual antibiotics, high mortality rate, that kind of thing.”

  “Anything we need to worry about?” Roland wanted to know.

  “There’s always worry about something like this,” the paramedic shrugged. “But this is the only report I’ve heard, and that’s a long way off. It’s definitely something to keep an eye on, and an ear to the ground over.”

  “Then we’ll do it,” Roland told. “Last thing we need is something like that running though here.”

  “Amen.”

  -

  “What’s the news?” BD asked as Manny walked up to him.

  “There’s about thirty people at the school,” Manny told him, looking at his notes. “Twenty-one confirmed as individuals, and the additional as people moving inside or around the building, but too far away to ID as someone they’d already seen. I told them to be very careful not to under estimate the number,” he added, looking up.

  “Very good,” BD nodded. “Anything else?”

  “Met with people from Greenwood,” Manny went on. “Some of them took a visit up there, apparently, no idea what for, of course. Other than that, their schedule hasn’t changed in a week. They all seem to have chores to do each day, and do them. Our guys can see one man on guard at the front at all times, and another on the roof. There’s enough of them that the guard isn’t the same every day, too.”

  “Women?” BD asked.

  “Several, and a bunch of’em are lookers,” the biker grinned. “And our guys saw two of our former prisoners there, too. That hot little blonde nurse, and the girl that Teddy and Brick, um, entertained, the night before all this started, or thereabouts.”

  “Interesting,” BD mused. “That confirms that we’re in the right place. All right, then. It’s time. Let’s start getting set up. If we don’t hear anything new, or see drastic changes in their operation before then, we’ll hit them a week from today, early. Right after sun-up.”

  “Yes, Boss.”

  -

  “We’re bein’ watched.”

  The words were soft, and Roland at first thought he’d imagined it. Tom Mackey was beside him as the two looked out the front doors.

  “I know,” Roland answered. “It’s recent, I think. I made a turn all around here not long ago, and found nothing. But that just means they weren’t there then. For all I know they could have set up watch starting that afternoon.”

  “Have you thought about what you’ll do?” Tom asked.

  “What can I do?” Roland shrugged. “If I go out there and eliminate them, then the others know we’re on to them.”

  “Then use’em,” Tom suggested softly. “Let’em see what you want’em to see. Use that to draw’em out.”

  “Invite an attack?” Roland asked.

  “You know they’re gonna hit you,” Tom reasoned. “Try to influence when they do it. Set’em up.”

  Roland thought about that. In a true military situation, he’d have already done just that. But here, with so many civilians, he had hesitated to do that. Maybe that was a mistake.

  Everyone here was a target, one way or another. That was just the way it was. There was no more risk in following Tom’s advice that there was in just waiting on the enemy to strike. There might even be less risk, if things were done right.

  The trick would be to convince the watchers they were weaker than they actually were, he decided. Nothing else would influence BD to hit them b
efore he wanted to. But if he saw a perceived weakness, even for a day...

  “I might have an idea,” Roland spoke aloud. “I might just know how to do what you said, Tom. It’s a risk, but...”

  “All life is a risk, Roland,” Tom said. “Who dares, wins.” Roland shot Tom a look at that remark, but the older man was still looking out the window.

  “Maybe it’s time we dared a little.”

  -

  “I want you to park the bus right here, where the door of the bus meets this side door,” Roland explained to Rich. “I want you close enough that when you open the door it almost touches the wall.”

  “Why?” Rich asked, confused.

  “There’s probably people watching us,” Roland told him. “I want them to get used to that bus sitting here.”

  “Okay,” Rich shrugged. He was still confused, but he trusted Roland to know his business.

  -

  “Traffic on the road, military by the look of it.”

  “Understood,” Roland replied at once. “Everyone in position.” Hopefully this was Jenkins coming to call, and it probably was. Even so, it was a good training exercise, and with enough realism thrown in to make it more than just a drill.

  It was day two into Roland’s plan, and he had been about to put it into action, but that would have to wait, now. Hopefully Jenkins, if it was him, was bringing good news.

  “Four vehicles, Roland,” James called from the roof. “Two trucks, MRAP, and Hummer. Hummer’s pulling a trailer. . .no, the trucks are pulling. . .it looks like tanks. Water tanks, I mean,” he added hastily.

  “Water Buffaloes,” Roland replied. “Used to haul drinking water to the front.” He stepped out onto the front walk, waiting. Other than James, on his post on the roof, no one else was visible.

  The vehicles pulled into the school, and Jenkins was the first one to dismount.

  Lieutenant Jenkins.

  “Well, well, well,” Roland grinned. “And here I thought you was an honest workin’ man.”

  “Up yours,” Jenkins growled, but then grinned and fist bumped Roland. “How’s it going?” he asked.

  “We’re probably under observation,” Roland told him. He explained, briefly, what had happened since Jenkins’ last visit.

  “Sounds like you’ve got trouble ahead,” Jenkins nodded. “I wish I could give you some men to help out, but we’re wrung out right now chasing down bandits. I did bring you some stuff, though,” he added, grinning.

  “Yeah?” Roland asked.

  “Trucks are food and other goodies,” Jenkins nodded. “We’ve accessed some other armories around the state, and we’ve gotten some more men but they’re being used hard right now. We do have extra supplies though, and we’ve been salvaging some stuff. I finally had enough men available at one time to make this trip down.”

  “How’re my kids?” Roland asked.

  “They’re safe, and cared for,” Jenkins promised. “And they all want to come ‘home’,” he added. Roland nodded.

  “Maybe soon,” he said. “I figure this will break, one way or another, in another week, tops. Which reminds me, we need a way to communicate -”

  “Got it with me,” Jenkins assured him.

  “What’s with the buffs?” Roland asked, nodding to the tanks.

  “Think you can spare us some clean water?” Jenkins asked. “We keep getting new people, and we’re not getting more water,” he said. “And with the kids...”

  “Sure,” Roland nodded his understanding. “Least we can do, for all you’ve done for us. Probably take a while to fill three of’em, though, with -”

  “Brought a generator and a pump,” Jenkins assured him. “Both of which we’re leaving. Getting water from you was one of the ways I talked the Captain into letting me make the trip. Things are really busy right now,” he added. “The thugs are starting to get organized, and in a big way. We’ve about doubled our manpower, but our commitments have increased just as much. And now, with this flu thing...”

  “I thought that was in Pennsylvania,” Roland frowned. “At least, we heard one woman from there on a HAM receiver talking about it.”

  “It’s not isolated,” Jenkins shook his head. “It’s spreading like wildfire up north. No cases reported here that we know of, but then, how would we know? With the comm situation like it is, there’s just no effective way to keep on top of things.”

  “We’ve recruited some couriers who travel by motorcycle, and by horse, just to keep up with the outlying areas around Nashville.”

  “What about fuel?” Roland asked.

  “Plenty for now,” Jenkins shrugged. “After the die off, there’s gas in almost every station, waiting to be salvaged. Some of it’s already gone, of course, taken by the bandits, or by people who are trying to survive just like us. There’s not much left in the way of authority or organization anymore. Lots of places much worse off than we are at the moment.” Roland knew that was true just from the reports they’d heard over the HAM.

  “Well,” Jenkins sighed. “Let’s get started unloading and I’ll have my boys set up the pump. Okay for us to bivouac here tonight?”

  “Course,” Roland nodded at once. “Let’s get going.”

  -

  “Captain eventually wants to spread out some and put outposts around. Maybe one fire team and two civilian law officers. This place is high on that list, too, if that’s okay?” he added.

  “That’d be fine,” Roland assured him. “I think we can spare the room. Even when the kids are back.”

  “Good to know,” Jenkins nodded. “Anyway, he wants to eventually have a network of posts like that all around. As and when we can, we’ll add to them. There’s a limit as to how far we can go on our own, but we aren’t the only people working. We’ve been in touch with outfits in Atlanta, Huntsville, Birmingham, and Knoxville, so far, who are all trying to do similar. We’ve been sharing Intel, and made a few equipment exchanges.”

  “But they’re facing the same reality we are. The plain fact is, people have gone feral a lot faster than anyone would have guessed. Absent authority, folks with low morals are gaining ground in a hurry, and there’s a lot more of them than there are of us.”

  “That’s always the way of it,” Roland nodded.

  “We’re still trying to get organized, while they’re running circles around us,” Jenkins sighed. “It’s not that we’re not trying, it’s just. . .every time we think we’re caught up, another fire breaks out somewhere. And every time, well, almost every time, we end up losing men and equipment before we get it put out.”

  “We’ve been lucky, here,” Roland nodded. “But that won’t last. Not if we’re attacked in force, anyway.”

  “Well, like I said, we can’t spare any manpower, much as I’d like to, but we did bring you some extra firepower. Two dozen M-4's, twenty thousand rounds, and two crates of mags. We also threw in some field gear, and another dozen M-9's. There’s also some civilian rifles, shotguns, and handguns, and several thousand rounds of assorted ammo for them.”

  “We can use some of that to help Turnbow’s people,” Roland nodded.

  “Work things out with him, did you?” Jenkins looked hopeful.

  “I believe so,” Roland replied. “He came here, asking for our help to look over his defenses. We helped him some, and gave them a few rifles we could spare. Trained his people to use them, too. They’re going to help us with canning for the winter.”

  “How ‘bout that,” Jenkins smiled. “Man, that’s great news. And just so happens, one of those trucks has a lot of canning supplies on it. Captain wants to help as many as he can make it through the winter. Also, come next year, we’ll be lookin’ to trade for some of that food.”

  “Don’t know how much there’ll be, with no fuel for equipment,” Roland warned. “Maybe if we can get some horse drawn stuff, I guess.”

  “Captain thought of that,” Jenkins looked smug. “Well, I did, and then he made a plan for it. There’s several thousand gallo
ns of diesel being held in Nashville specifically for planting and harvest. He hopes we can plant as much as we normally would but since there’s a lot fewer mouths to feed that it’ll go further.”

  “Hopefully by the time that runs out we’ll be set up well enough that everyone is growing their own. Meanwhile, a few egg heads in Nashville are working to figure out how to power at least some equipment with resources we have here. Locally.”

  “Build a still,” Roland snorted. At Jenkins look of confusion, he explained about Ralph’s still idea.

  “How old is this kid, again?” Jenkins asked.

  “Fifteen, goin’ on fifty,” Roland chuckled. “I don’t know what we’d do without him, to be honest.”

  “Sounds like a good kid to have around,” the soldier grunted his agreement. “Well, anyway. You can see we’re planning. Maybe at least some of it will bear fruit.”

  “I hope so,” Roland replied. “I’ve been so busy just trying to keep things running here, and be ready for an attack I expect literally at any minute. I admit I haven’t had time to think much about what’s down the road. I need to start doing that.”

  “Well, now’s a good time to start,” Jenkins told him. “I brought you a whole bunch of books. Herbal medicine, medicinal plants, edible plants, homesteading, food preservation, blacksmithing, you name it, we probably got it. Also brought knives, axes, multi-tools, hats, boots, clothes and gloves. There’s any and all sizes, mind you, and we didn’t sort stuff. Just don’t have the manpower. There’s also several reams of paper and pencils, pens, notebooks, and folders, all kinds of clerical stuff you need to get and stay organized.”

  “Wow,” Roland was stunned. “That’ll be a big help.”

  “Learn to be self-sufficient, Roland,” Jenkins advised. “Once the stuff in the stores and warehouses is gone, it’s gone. Won’t be back, most like.” Just then Ralph walked in.

  “I hear you got trouble cleanin’ water?” he asked. “Sorry, did I butt in?” he added, realizing the two men were talking.