by Chris Blake
Logan taps Vin on the shoulder softly, and speaks into his ear telling him about the new survivors.
Vintago spins around and has a cold look on his face. Vin stands up and leaves his father in the care of his wife and family. He walks outside and finds Trevor showing these unknown people his entire compound.
“What the fuck is going on here?” Vintago exclaims. “Who authorized these people to come back here, and why are they being given a grand tour without my consent.”
“Well I guess Trevor made the call to bring them back here, and I didn’t want to bother you about it yet, but we didn’t know what to do with them.”
Logan begins, “Isn’t this part of the mission though? To build a colony of survivors? Well, this is how we achieve that mission, by bringing in survivors.”
Vintago looks at Logan, and part of him wants to punch him in the face, but the other part knows Logan can probably kill him with a toothpick, so he mellows out.
“You’re right Logan.” says Vin, clearly shaken up by the ordeal with his father.
“Do they have any valuable skills? We need to have a type of initiation checklist. I don’t want to be grabbing a bunch of idiot mouth breathers that are going to do nothing but undermine my work here.” Vintago rants.
“Let’s interview them, and learn what they have to offer.” Logan reasons.
“Not right now, get them situated in the office building with the soldiers, and we will sit down with them later, I need to get back to my dad.” says Vintago, and he walks away.
Logan finds Trevor and tells him the plan. They round up the Steeple family and herd them into the office building. They give them sleeping bags and tell them to pick their cubicles. The two kids take one cubicle. The two couples take a cube a piece and the father takes his own cubicle. Just like that, the office building is at full capacity.
Logan realizes this and starts thinking about where to house more people. They need the warehouse for storage and vehicles. The armory is out of the question, and the shed is full of damn explosives. Any additional survivors are going to have to camp out, or they are going to have to start building new housing alternatives. They can’t exactly keep expanding without space to accommodate people. This was one crucial downfall of the hatchery. It was small and had almost no room for expansion.
Logan tells the Steeple family to get settled in and leaves them to get cleaned up using the bathroom in the office building. He walks back to the crew quarters where most everyone is currently at. They are all hovering around Ben, filling the entire kitchen, wishing that he gets magically better. Ben is sprawled out on the kitchen table, and there is a substantial amount of blood everywhere.
“Why don’t we move him to his bed, and let him sleep.” Christine offers.
Vintago nods his head silently, and him and Greg gently lift his father and bring him to his bed so he can rest.
The ladies spend the better part of the next few hours cleaning the kitchen from all the blood. Then, they turn the MASH unit back into a MESS unit and start cooking dinner for upwards of twenty people they were now going to have to feed. Jessica looks in the pantries at her supplies and frowns.
“I’m not sure how long this food is going to last if I am going to have to be cooking for twenty people.” She says out loud.
“You let me worry about that Jessica, you just keep doing an awesome job in the kitchen.” Logan tells her.
She gives him a smile and nods her head.
Logan leaves the kitchen to check on Vintago and finds him sitting by the side of his father’s bed.
“You need to let him sleep Vin, watching him sleep is not helping him any, and it’s hurting you. Take a break and let's get ready for dinner.” Logan coaxes Vin.
Vintago begrudgingly gets up and leaves the room. He goes to the bathroom and cleans the caked on blood from his hands and arms. Staring at him in the mirror is a man that Vintago does not know, a man that has been hardened by death, by war and strife, and most of all, a man that has no fear or remorse. Only the shell of a man remains, and all that remains of that man, is hatred. Hatred for the things he has to do, hatred for the things that he has done to this point, and hatred for the world that has gotten him to this point. Staring back at Vintago is the man that he will become the man that one day will be feared by many.
Chapter Sixteen
Indoctrination
February, 2013
The following morning breaks on the compound and all is quiet. Nobody leaves their beds, reluctant to leave the warmth of them. Most of the group still sleeps quietly. Everyone, except for Benjamin Hawkins.
Ben woke up at first light and lay in his bed in intense pain. He tried to sit up to look at his stomach where the pain radiates from. This created too much pain, so he decides to stick to slightly poking and prodding around instead.
He lay in bed for over an hour trying to keep his eyes closed and resting, but then the pain became too much for him to bear. He calls out to Jessica on the bunk above him, and feels the bed stir as she moves around. A moment later, her long slender legs fall over the side of the bed, followed by a pair of pink panties covering her firm ass and she plops down to the ground. She at least has the decency to sleep with a t-shirt on. Ben does not exactly mind the gorgeous blonde running around half nude in the bedroom they share, but right now it just strikes him as uncomfortable.
For Jessica, it must be business as usual because she responds with, “Hey Ben, how are you doing buddy?”
“I feel like shit, Jess.” Ben replies coldly.
“I hear yah. You took a damn 7.62 round to the belly. That shit will mess you up alright. Don’t worry though, they got it out, and it didn’t hit anything worth dying over.” She says with a sick and twisted smile.
In too much pain to contribute to her sadistic games, he just tells her, “Can you get me some more painkillers, this is kicking my ass.”
Without another word, she skips across the room, little ass jiggling on the way out.
What a strange girl, Ben thinks.
A few minutes later she arrives with a small bottle of pills.
“They aren’t the good shit, but they should do.” Jess says and sets the bottle down on his chest and places a cup of water next to his bed. Then she climbs back up into her bed, and within minutes she is passed out again.
Ben struggles to sit up and grabs the pill bottle. Vicodin, that should take the edge off at least he figures. He pops the top off the pill bottle, grabs his water and downs two of the pills.
A little while later as the pills kick into action, they make him extremely tired and send him into a drug induced slumber.
While he is sleeping he has a strange vivid dream. They are back in the Outlander on the road in Payson, just before Vintago stops in front of the truck full of thugs. Vintago jumps out of the vehicle and Ben looks to his right as one of the men starts shooting. He tries to duck down under the dashboard, thinking that the door will stop the bullets and save him. He clears the door frame and scrunches into a ball, and then suddenly, white hot pain lashes into his stomach. Ben twists around to look at his stomach and finds a single hole in his shirt with blood oozing out. He tries to hold pressure on the wound, but in his crumbled up state it’s extremely difficult. It seems like forever goes by, with bullets flying, and striking the vehicle. The pain becomes extremely powerful, and eventually, he passes out.
Strangely, when he passes out in this dream world, he wakes up in the real world. His eyes adjust to the light and he finds Christine looking over him and taking his vitals. Sitting in a chair next to his bed is his son Vintago.
Upon seeing his father wake up, Vintago stirs from his chair, and he comes to stand by his bedside.
“Hey Dad, how are you doing?” Vin asks.
“I’ve been better.” Ben replies.
“Yeah, I bet.” Vin tells him.
The father and son talk for a little while going over what happened yesterday and also where they are going to go fro
m here. After a little while, Vintago decides that he needs to let his father rest, and also because he has work to do.
Vintago grabs a quick bite of breakfast since everyone else has eaten and goes outside. He runs into Logan and asks him to round up the four soldiers, the Steeple family, and meet him back at the crew quarters.
Vintago goes back inside and asks his group, and the Black family to gather around. A short time later everyone from the office building is inside with them, and the entire living room and kitchen are full of people.
Vin stands in front of the TV and raises his voice so everyone can hear.
“Listen up everybody. We have taken on quite a few new faces lately, and we need to get to know each other. I want everyone to state their name, any skills that might be worthwhile to our group, and a brief background about yourself.” Vintago tells the group.
He also tasks his wife to help by writing everything down and make a roster so that they can keep track of everyone’s information.
Vintago starts with himself and he tells everyone his skill sets first. Next, he tells them about how they had gotten to this point. After that, he passes to the next person. They go around and around until everyone has had their time, and Victoria has it all written down on paper.
After the roster is complete, Vintago tells them that this is how he wants each new member of the group to be initiated. They need to know what skills they have and a brief history of their events. This is both to make sure they are not full of shit, and to figure out what they can do to be helpful around the compound.
With that done, the next order of business is to assign job duties.
“Ok guys, with this recent scare of Charlie coming into the compound we are going to have to crack down on security. Along with that, there is a ton of work that needs to be done around here.” Vintago explains.
“We need to assign everyone to certain jobs to ensure that everything gets done, and we don’t run into any problems.” Vin continues.
He looks at the roster and contemplates things for a few minutes.
“OK, first things first, Logan, Robby, and the four soldiers are going to be with me. We are going to be the security force, reconnaissance force, and fighting force of our group.” Vintago begins, then looks back at the roster and adds, “Mitch would you like to be added into that group as well?”
Mitch nods his head and figures that is the best place to use his skills as prior law enforcement.
“OK that’s settled. Next, we need to figure out who is going to start putting up the fencing, floodlights, and clamping down our security.” Vin says.
“How about Greg, Jessica, Harry and Henry.” Vin asks.
With no objections, Vin continues, “Greg I want you to lead that team, and Jessica you help them figure out the best way to protect the vital buildings. We want to be able to walk freely between all the buildings, without having to worry about getting attacked.”
They both nod and Jess gives Vin thumbs up.
“Also as soon as my father is better, he and Christine will be our medical team.” Vin adds, without asking as they are the only ones with real medical training.
“Lastly, the rest of the women and children will be part our, let’s call it upkeep brigade.” Vin laughs.
“We need you guys to make sure that everyone is taken care of with good food, clean clothes, warm beds, and clean living quarters. With all of the new mouths to feed and people stomping around in our living spaces, that is going to be a full time job.” Vin says.
“Victoria and Cindy will be in charge of getting everything done, I have no idea what those jobs entail.” Vin chuckles.
“Any questions or concerns on these job assignments?” Vin asks.
Everyone looks around and ponders on it for a bit, but they all seem to be OK with things for the moment.
“That settles it. Let’s get to work guys, we have a lot to do.” Vin tells the group.
As everyone starts to file out of the building, Vin asks the Steeple family to follow him to the armory. Vintago opens the door on the armory, flicks on the lights, and invites them in.
They all look at it with a sense of wonder. In a small pile, in one corner of the room, are the weapons they came into the compound with and were subsequently taken from their possession until they could be briefed.
“That pile of guns over there is yours obviously, and you are welcome to take them or leave them. We do have a mandate, however, that everyone carries a firearm at all times. We need everyone to be prepared around here.” Vintago explains.
“You don’t have to give the kids any guns. That is entirely up to you, but all adults need to carry a gun.” Vin says.
“If you’re not too keen on carrying a gun, or aren’t sure how to safely operate one, please let me know, and we will provide training at the next range session we have. For now, just grab one of these.” Vin says and picks up a Beretta, loads a magazine into it, chambers a round and clicks the safety on.
“Just remember that as long as the safety is on, it is perfectly safe.” He says as he slides it into a holster and hands it to Gloria, assuming she is one of the gun shy people.
She takes it from his hand. Sets it down nicely on the pile, and grabs a Colt 1911, instead. She grabs a magazine, rams it into the grip, chambers a round, and holsters it, leaving the safety off.
“I’ll do fine with this.” she says.
She is the wife of a cop Vin figures.
Eventually, everyone has been armed, even the sixteen year old Emily. Vintago leaves them to start working as part of their new job details.
Vin walks over to find Logan and the boys, and they are all standing around bullshitting. He walks up to them, and they all stand and look at Vin.
“Let’s get going guys. We need to get out and run some patrols to see if there is any other Charlie looking around.
Vintago tells Trevor to split his guys into two groups and have them take out the quads, one driving and one riding on the back facing to the rear to have twice the coverage. They shuffle off and Trevor rides with Tony on the back. Nathan rides with Jose on the back and the two groups take off. Vintago did not give them instructions on where to patrol or what to look for, but he figures they are smart enough to figure it out.
Vin, Logan, Robby, and their new member Mitch, pile into the Chevy pickup truck. The Chevy has four wheel drive, which will come in handy for their recon mission. Vintago wants to take the trail that leads north of the hatchery and further up and out of the canyon. Vintago wants to know where it leads, and if it’s a backdoor for Charlie, or other unwelcome visitors to use.
The guys follow the trail back into the woods and before long, it turns into more of a goat path than a road. There is just enough room for the truck to squeeze through, so the guys keep following it. Eventually, they have to put the truck in four wheel drive to continue, but they push onward. After a little while longer, in what seems like forever, but realistically is only about a mile and a half, they see a road. It’s a dirt road, but it used to be graded and it can fit two cars side by side.
They drive up onto the road and follow the road out east. After about ten miles they see signs for Bear Canyon Lake. Vintago remembers fishing this lake when he was younger, and immediately knows what road they are on. This road spills back out onto the highway after about twenty miles. Vintago is both happy to find an escape route out of the compound, but worried that it may also be a backdoor into their compound.
He tells the guys this, and they agree that the road needs to be secured somehow.
With that, they turn the truck around and head back down the bumpy road to the trail leading back to the hatchery. They stop at the trail entrance and put the truck in four wheel drive. The four men bump and jostle their way along the trail and come out at the end, near the hatchery.
When they arrive, Trevor and his men are waiting for them. They look like they have some urgent news, so Vintago and his team jump out and walk over to them.
“What?” Vin exclaims.
Trevor tells the story of how the two groups went exploring around the road leading to the highway. The road splits off in two directions along the way, one heading east and one heading west. At the end of the east road is a summer camp that has all sorts of cabins, and a few other outlying buildings. The road west ends in a neighborhood full of houses and another small camp.
“That’s not the exciting part though,” Jose chimes in, “When we went further south and crossed the highway there is a big resort down there and a huge group of people holding up there.”
Jose explains to the group that this resort is full of cabins and when they rode into the parking lot, they were greeted with guns pointed at them. After talking to the people and explaining that they were the good guys, which the people were reluctant to believe, they calmed down a bit. The group told Jose and Nathan that there were forty eight people camped out in the resort. They had started like Vintago’s group, just a few survivors who were at the resort when the shit hit the fan, and they had stayed and collected more survivors along the way.
Vintago just looks at them in disbelief. He can’t believe that there was a group within miles of his compound, and he had never seen them.
Jose confirmed this when he tells the group that their neighbors have been keeping to themselves and largely being dependent upon the resources the resort had to offer.
After hearing the story about the people to their south, Vintago pulls Logan aside and asks what he thinks they should do.
“Well we certainly need to tread carefully, we aren’t strong enough to pick any fights. I think we should be diplomatic with them, maybe join forces.” Logan says with more wisdom than his forty two years.
“I think you’re right, but we absolutely can’t let them know what we are doing up here, and we need to get our defenses up ASAP.” Vin replies.
Logan nods his head in agreement, and they step back to the group of fighters.
