True to his word, he allowed us to go where we wanted, with few limits. Other than splitting off Mallory, Sylvia and Mike to cut hair and be social, and leaving Ethan back with the vehicles in a rotation, we kept our group together to avoid being split up further and taken apart, and they allowed it. They didn’t confiscate our weapons either, or ask us to observe any strange rules. We were guests, truly.
I can describe a ski resort if you like. They had two full resort lodges at Calendar Mountain. Massive kitchens, restaurants, bars with stages for performances, huge freezers and walk-in fridges. Ski equipment, and clothing stores with local kitchsy shit made in China, as well as high end Columbia and North Face gear. They have so much winter clothing in storage, it’s amazing. They sent us home with ten full winter outfits for kids. Three snowsuits as well, which brought me back to dark days, and made my ass pucker. Michelle is still sorting the clothes out for distribution. They also have three medical clinics, each fully stocked for almost any emergency. Ski resorts were able to handle major medical incidents, and this was a big resort. Tina has refurbed and built up one clinic into a surgical suite, and they’ve relocated x-ray gear same as we did. Tina talked about wanting to move an MRI unit to the resort soon. They’re fully autonomous when it comes to care.
They have about three thousand residents, according to Mizaki. In the condos inside the NVC protective inner cordon he said they have about fifteen hundred souls. The remainder are in the town nearby, under their extended protection. These people pay Calendar Mountain and the NVC a protection fee in the form of labor, or donated goods. That fee gets them exchanged food (think; they bring in canned beans, and swap that for canned artichokes, or whatever), a share of the collective crops, it gets them medical service from Major Doctor Tina Acworth and her team, as well as access to shared resources like tools, civilian vehicles, and perhaps most importantly, a steady supply of some bio-diesel.
Even though I didn’t get access to their fuel production facility (Annie will be sad about that for weeks), I got a huge chunk of learning done to me about it.
Prior to the shit storm of zombies that circled the drain of our planet for nearly two years, Calendar Mountain resort switched over to bio diesel. It allowed them to recycle their food waste products to a degree, and gave them a reason to use some of their non-ski land. It saved them millions over the years I bet. That ability alone is why the men and women of the now-NVC took the mountain as their own. Had I been aware of the fuel facility myself, I might’ve fought them for it.
I will not pretend to be a chemist, or someone who understands the transmogrification of animal fats and vegetables into vehicle go-juice, but I did learn about the process. In layman’s terms, they have a massive amount of soybeans growing. Those soybeans are mixed (scientifically, I’m assured) with animal fat products (chicken fat, in their case) and after adding industrial chemicals like alcohols and stuff in a mad scientist process (I imagine lightning, and bolts in necks are involved), they get bio-diesel. The return isn’t massive, but it’s enough to make a real difference. Annie knew most of this, and she played dumb while there. Good for her.
I guess any diesel engine can switch to 20% bio diesel with no modifications. Higher percentages than that require different fuel filters and hosing as the bio diesel can break certain rubbers and plastics down. In the case of the NVC, Mizaki said all of the ski resort’s diesel vehicles were altered for 100% bio, and all of their non-tank diesel rigs were too. The APCs and most of the civilian vehicles they were using were operating on the 20% mixture. Home heating oil is diesel, and apparently that can run on the 20% too, as can most generators. Some of their generators can run on 100% bio too, which explains why they have so much power at all times of the day.
Enough power in fact, that the entirety of the resort has electricity, aside from out buildings they don’t use, as well as most of the buildings in the town during certain hours of the day or night.
I know 20% doesn’t sound like a big extension of resources, but it’s HUGE. Big picture it also allows them to refurbish and rejuvenate older fuel as well, so they’re extending the life of shit that’s not burning well to boot. It’s hard to put a number on that, but I can say for certain that it helps them control their AO like a boss, and it allows them to offer unparalleled comfort. They have as much hot and/or fresh water as they want, and it gives them the ability to travel in force, at will.
Did I mention they have a stable with a score of horses, plus eighty head of cattle, sixty sheep, multiple local chicken egg farms with something like five hundred chickens, and two dozen goats for milk and meat?
To say they’re ahead of us in almost every way…
Mizaki eventually sat us decision makers down after a four hour trek around their facility. We ate in an employee break room that had been turned into an officer’s mess. A nicer table had been brought in, as well as nice chairs. Cigars were on the table, as were bottles of good booze. Mizaki told us to help ourselves, and several of us did. Kevin walked out of there with a pocket full of cigars, and I know he stole more shit. Kevin likes to steal shit.
It’s part of his unending charm.
“We’ve been talking to some regional forces,” Mizaki explained. “Other groups just like us in New York, Maryland, and elsewhere. Our radios are getting official or semi-official traffic from as far away as the Midwest. We’re winning, Mr. Ring. We’re doing so much better.”
“Is there a national plan you’re privy to? Rebuild? Regroup?”
“Nothing yet. It’s too fractured. Groups split on party lines, or previous loyalties. It’s working itself out, but it’s slow. We’re angling to be a part of the bigger, new United States. A decision making entity on the world stage. We’d love to have you be a part of our family.”
“Thank you for the offer. What would the next step be?” Celeste answered him. I was pissed she spoke instead of me, but she has every right to. I need to learn to be okay with not always being in charge.
“Well, as a gesture of good faith we brought you all here, and gave you more or less full access. I think a basic expectation would be to tour your facility and see what assets we would be acquiring.”
“I don’t like the word ‘acquiring’ General,” Kevin said back to him. “They wouldn’t be your assets to use at will. You could call on us to help with our stuff, but it’s our stuff. It’ll never fully be yours. Neither will our people.”
“Of course, of course,” Mizaki said. “I think you understand my meaning. We’d love to move forward on this. Really. I’d love to bury the hatchet on our misalignment, and adopt the people we’ve been hearing about into our family. Look, I’ll be honest; we’ve been dreading running into your group for some time now. Refugees from the south that’ve run afoul of you still have bad dreams about gunfights they had with your shooters. Your reputation is a frightening one, and that’s not taking the spiritual nonsense into account.”
“We get that a lot,” I said. “It’s the tattoos. We also hear that this place is one step away from a Siberian gulag, General. Appearances can be deceiving from afar, and rumors don’t help with peacemaking. I’m glad we came, and I did like what I saw. My people need to confer in private about how to move forward, but this was a tremendous step. Give us a week to think it over?”
“Tell you what, take until after the holidays. I don’t feel the need for us to rush this in the least. I’m sure you’re all getting ready for the winter and the celebrations as we are. We’ve already established pleasant diplomatic relations, and as the saying goes, Rome wasn’t built in a day. Let’s plan on meeting at your ‘Factory’ again on, say, January 3rd of the New Year?”
We all looked at each other and agreed that was a good idea. After eating a pretty lavish meal of lamb and fresh vegetables on Mizaki’s dime, we cleared out with no escort and headed back to the Factory. We stayed there for an hour to make sure we weren’t being followed by ground or helicopter and then we hoofed it back here while everyone else sc
attered back to their respective homes.
On the ride back Mal and Sylvia said that they learned a lot from the people who got their hair cuts. True to Mizaki’s word, the people there are a bit afraid of us. Some of their soldiers are recruits that’ve joined since the end of the world, and they’re not Army regulars. Some of them have run afoul of us during our patrols, or they were within earshot when we were pounding someone to snot, and they know we’re not to be fucked with. We’re a small nest, but we’re still hornets, I suppose.
Most folks spoke well to Mallory and Sylvia of their life at Calendar Mountain, but that might mean the only people they allowed to see Mallory were plants. Who knows? North Korea is best Korea, after all.
Sylvia did say that most of the people there did ask at some point about the big three. Michelle, Kevin, and me. She said most had heard of us by name, and that most wanted to meet one or all of us if the opportunity arose. Dreams seem to be how they’d heard of us. That or they’d met people who independently had dreamed of one or more of us. Dead relatives and friends on the other side talking us up.
Weird.
So we’re going to take a few days to mull this over, then do another big meeting about it for Christmas and Hanukkah to save on trips and gas, and we’ll go back to them on the 3rd with an answer as to whether or not we want them to visit us. Maybe we slow roll it out and have them tour one place at a time?
I dunno. I’m tired and excited and scared.
Talk to you in a few, Mr. Journal.
-Adrian
December 13th
All is well here at Bastion, Mr. Journal. We’re getting ready for the Christmas and Hanukkah celebrations. I say Hanukkah, but it might be Hanukah, and it might be Chanukah too. I don’t get it. Eight crazy days and nights later…
It doesn’t help that I think we have like, two Jews on campus. Maybe we have more, but I have no idea. I don’t ask people what their religion of choice is. I judge them based on how they treat me, and the ones I love. People are still down to celebrate the holiday though, and that makes me happy.
Slight disturbance in the force though today, putting everyone on pause.
BLAKE AND KIM HAD THEIR SECOND BABY!!!!
Now Adrian Gilbert has a little sister to grow up with. So exciting! They named the little girl after Kim’s missing older sister; Josephine Rose Miller. Bald as a cue ball, and fat as a marshmallow.
The kid kind of has old man face though. Not a cute baby like Abby and Hal’s baby; Gavin. That kid has good looks to go along with his stellar name. Jo-Ro as I’ve decided to call her, will need to age a bit before I label her as ‘cute.’ You will not hear me say these words aloud, ever.
Anyway, I’m working on making Michelle a Christmas present. I’m learning how to make scrimshaw on the side. I’m trying to carve her a bookmark from a piece of antler that I’ve had since way back when. The straight part I have carved down into a flat blade shape to slide in between the pages, and next up is some fine scroll work and engraving. It’s already pretty by my standards.
I think she’ll like it. She likes homemade stuff.
Back to work Mr. Journal. All quiet on the Western front.
-Adrian
December 17th
Maria’s people connected with us today via radio and cancelled our December 20th meeting. Apparently they’re dealing with the holidays, and a vicious stomach ailment that’s having its way with them. People sure do get sick a lot now.
We offered help, and they said thanks, but they’d be okay. We’re waiting on them to schedule another meeting, at their leisure.
Funny, when word got around that the meet had been postponed (thank you, Abby’s newsletter), the new guy David and his wife Jennifer tracked me down and expressed great worry. They said many good things about Maria’s people, and I suddenly realized I never pried David for info on Maria’s troupe. His entire family been inside their place, met most of their people too, and I could’ve gotten some prime intelligence had I just asked them. Turns out, I didn’t talk to them about it, and no one asked them either.
I guess that means I trust Maria and her group? Maybe I’m just a shit strategist.
Anyway, I told David if Maria’s group wanted help, they could ask for what we offered them (medical assistance, if you’re curious) and we’d be there for them as soon as we could. We also had to be careful not to spread disease and illness. Medical resources are limited, nowadays.
Winter is upon us. Snow is thick on the ground, and the cold hath arrived, fuck it in the anus. It sucks to be outside for longer than a half hour, and we have a lot of jobs that require a lot more time outside than that. Stoves are kept burning, generators purr as often as we can run them, and the kids are shoveling like the indentured servants they are.
If you skip thinking too hard about it, life’s pretty damn good.
-Adrian
December 27th
Merry two days after Christmas, Mr. Journal.
Michelle loved her bookmark. I worked so hard on it. Scrollwork, etching, staining to create depth… It’s perfect. She loves sun motifs, and I based my designs on that. I’m so proud of it.
I’m so happy she loved it. I also made her breakfast and coffee in bed (sour cream pancakes, motherfukkah, and let’s not forget that I’ve been sandbagging that pound of coffee for a year) and I even stitched together a new cat toy for Otis. He’s currently eating it apart, leaping and meowing like a mad cat upstairs. It’s hilarious.
Michelle found and made me a full iPod with all the music I love on it. She went through my music collection here on the laptop and then tracked down CDs all across campus of other stuff, and loaded it all up. Must’ve taken forever. I’ve got hours and hours of new stuff to listen to. Things I never would’ve listened to before, I’ll now try while I’m working. I’m so excited. I have no idea where she found the time to do it all. She’s so frigging sneaky for such an upstanding person.
She also had our tracker teams that forage in the wilds of the world, find me a new pair of winter boots in my size, which is no mean feat. I take a size thirteen and a half, and somehow, somewhere, they found a pair of Timberlands that fit me. My size even. I’ve been wearing a size fourteen boot the past month and I’ve got crazy blisters on my toes as a result. It’s been like throwing the boot away and walking around with the shoe box strapped on.
No longer!
And in news that makes Adrian uncomfortable, Michelle and I received at least thirty gifts from people across campus. A ton of homemade food (pumpkin pie, blueberry pie, pecan pie, fresh cider, and cider vinegar, casseroles, cookies, maple syrup, canned relish, pickles, you name it) and some clothes came our way. Really sweet. We woke up to a pile of presents just outside Hall E.
Oh, and the cards. Fifty homemade cards. Some in crayon from kids, others well written by adults. Others poorly written by adults. Bud and Donna from Texas wrote us a sweet thank you letter, reminding us that because of what we did, they were able to keep loving one another. Amanda gave us a card apologizing for how she’d been since her sister passed, and thanking me for taking care of her sister not only when she was alive, but after, too.
The list goes on and on. Fifty cards. I shit you not. I hate the attention, but you sleep in the bed you make, cracker bits and all.
Well, I came here originally to say that we meet tomorrow at the Factory to discuss what our plan is for the NVC.
So that’s that. I’ll check in after. By the way baby Gavin is great, and baby Jo-Ro is too. Little cuter today.
-Adrian
December 29th
Cutting it a little close eh? We’ve got the meeting with the NVC in just… five days and we only sat down yesterday to hash out how we want it to go.
I’d say the meeting was spirited and lively, but that implies there was cordial and friendly things said. The meeting was hostile. Downright angry at times, and not very conducive to diplomatic relations amongst our own people, let alone strangers. I hate to say this, but ou
r alliance of locations fractured yesterday, without doubt. I don’t think it broke, but we need some supports to survive this. I don’t know where those supports are going to come from.
Cutting to the chase of it, our locations are of their own mind on what to do. We want our people to have an opinion, so long as it’s the one I have. (I’d laugh at my own joke, but seriously, I wanted everyone to do what I hoped.)
Form furthest to closest geographically, here’s the rundown;
Spring Meadow is still undecided about joining up, and is like, 50% against letting the NVC tour their gated community. They’ve got it good there, and their alliance with us has been a bountiful one since the jump. Inviting a new player into our mix strikes Anders and Agnes as a bad idea. The potential resources to be gained don’t outweigh the risks, as they see it. The caveat, is they are willing to go with the majority so they aren’t left out. Notably Adam from Texas thinks it’s a bad idea, period. Team AAA is on the fence, leaning south, away from the NVC.
Right about then in the meeting the wheels came off. Hector revealed that he made a trip north to visit the NVC with Celeste more than a week ago without telling anyone about it. When the NVC made a city patrol near the Factory they stopped by, and Roberto Vega and he made a plan for them to visit. A very animated (and I should say, attacked) Hector defended his choice to go. He wasn’t brought north when we went before, didn’t think his opinion had been listened to adequately, and felt that his ass was on the line. (The factory is the closest to the NVC of our locations, and theoretically the first to be attacked in al confrontation.) He has formed a solid friendship with this Vega dude over their few meetings, and he’s already made his choice.
Adrian's Undead Diary (Book 10): The Last Resort [Adrian's March, Part 2] Page 4
