by Steven Pajak
As I spoke about the Finnegan’s, Kat was kind enough to set out samples of the jars and canned goods that Brian had brought back with him. The samples were greeted with vigor and some of our residents left their seats to come forward and get a better look, to handle the goods.
After a while, I invited Maureen to come forward and talk about the Finnegan Farm and the various crops they grow and livestock they raise. Maureen’s words were devoured by eager ears. Some folks asked questions about the crops and the canning goods and Maureen took all of their questions in stride. Although she spoke with a noticeable Irish accent she was easily understood. I actually found her voice and accent sexy.
Maureen explained in simple terms the equipment they used to manage the crops. She answered questions about the hens they raised and about the produce they grew. Al Sanchez’s youngest son, Robert, came forward and asked if he could taste one of the jams that were displayed on the table.
“Absolutely, handsome,” Maureen replied. She crouched down to the boy’s level and looked him in the eye. “You pick whichever one you want, love.”
Robert selected a raspberry jam. Maureen opened it up for him and watched with joy as he dipped in a finger and sucked up the delicious jam. “Share with your brother and sister,” Maureen said and ruffled Robert’s hair.
When she stood, Maureen asked the rest of the group to please come up and taste whatever they wanted. “These samples are for you. Please come up and let us know how you like them. Come on, there’s plenty.”
They came forward then and Maureen stood among them helping them with jars and telling them which to sample. The smile that lit up her face was precious and I couldn’t help but smile myself; her smile was contagious. And not just the community came forward, but council members also left their chairs and had their taste of the best the Finnegan Farms had to offer.
After a few minutes, Liam and Jenna also joined Maureen and the three of them chatted with members of the community, sharing their goods, and happily answering the multitude of questions. They three of them seemed to very much be enjoying themselves, and I was happy to see them received with such warmth by our community. Well, the food was well received, which was important, but everyone seemed to also enjoy the company of the Finnegan’s.
About forty minutes had passed since the meeting started and about twenty minutes since Maureen offered samples to the folks. Much of the buzz began to finally die down as everyone took their tastes and slowly started to return to their seats. As Maureen, Liam and Jenna were finishing up and closing up some of the jars that hadn’t already been emptied, a hand went up in the rear of the room.
With a quarter jar of corn and bean salad in her hand, Maureen said, “Yes, dear, you have a question?”
Kenneth stood up from his seat and smoothed out his jeans. “Yes, ma’am. First I’d like to thank you and your family so much for sharing the delicious treats. I have to say I’m responsible for many of those empty jars up there.”
Maureen smiled at Kenneth. “It was our pleasure. And it was a pleasure for us to see you all enjoy.”
“We certainly did,” Kenneth said. “My question, ma’am, is how far away is your farm from Randall Oaks?”
Maureen thought about it for a moment and then finally turned to her kin. “Liam, about how far is Da’s farm from here?”
“Oh, it’s about seventeen miles, give or take,” Liam said in his thick accent. He was definitely Ian’s brother.
“Thank you, brother,” Maureen said. She turned back and addressed Kenneth, “Seventeen miles, says Liam.”
“Thank you,” Kenneth said again.
The smile that had originally spread across his face when he’d first stood up slowly diminished and I knew I wasn’t the only one to take note. Brian hunched forward in his seat and I could see his shoulders tensed. Other community members also noticed. They turned toward Kenneth now with serious looks on their faces.
“Seventeen miles is quite a distance to travel,” Kenneth continued. “That seems such a long way—a dangerous way—for a trade route.”
“Aye, it can be,” Maureen said. Her smile was gone, too. She finished tightening up the jar she held in her hands and set it down on the table.
“Would you be bringing trade to us, or would be going to you?” Kenneth asked.
Before Maureen could answer, Carrie Osgood stood up from her chair and asked, “I’m also concerned about the distance, but more than that, what do we have to trade? I mean, we don’t have much, hardly anything and you have everything it seems.”
A pall of silence fell across the room for a moment and then almost as one, all eyes turned to Maureen. To her credit, Maureen did not balk at the question; instead, she looked directly into Carrie’s defiant gaze and said, “Well, dear, we do have quite a lot, but we do not have everything.”
Maureen’s confidence seemed to increase as she spoke and she took a few steps in Carrie’s direction and addressed the young woman again, “You sell yourselves short when you say you haven’t anything. Talk like that seems desperate, seems like you have nothing left to fight for.”
Carrie seemed to wither suddenly under Maureen’s direct gaze, or perhaps from her words. She sat back into her seat and dropped her defiant stare.
Maureen turned away from Carrie and her attention was drawn toward the entrance to the room as the door opened. Ravi entered first, followed closely by Ian and then Lara. The trio came in slowly and found seats up front, reuniting Ian with his family.
Maureen paused for just a moment as she watched her brother take his and then again she faced the community and said, “In fact, you have something very important, something my family does not have. It’s not goods that we are interested in. “
Now a murmur rose up as folks looked to one another, now curious as to what Maureen’s comment meant. I started to see confusion on some faces and suspicion on others. Before their imaginations could get the better of them, I realized we needed to do away with the mystery and just shoot straight, give them the information and let them make their decision.
Brian stood then and said, “Thank you, Maureen.” He moved around from the table and walked until he stood next to the red haired woman. She looked at him for a moment and then nodded. She gave his arm a squeeze before finally leaving his side and taking a seat next to Ian. She embraced him, said something into his ear. Ian smiled and said something in return that returned the smile to his sister’s face.
“It was November thirteenth when I first found Finnegan Farms. It was cold. It rained that day, pretty damn hard, if I remember,” Brian said. He sat at the edge of the table just in front and to my right. “It was my third week on the road and I’d just left my last shelter several miles back when the sky opened up and dumped freezing rain down on me. I wasn’t about to head two miles back to the last shelter so I kept moving ahead.
“Soon I came up on a structure in the distance and I headed for it. As I passed through the field I noticed the neat rows of dirt and I knew this field had been worked recently. I was leery, of course, because these days people can be just as bad, if not worse than the crazies.
“Anyway, I made it to the structure. It was locked, but I busted my way in and to my surprise, there were hens and two pigs in the barn. I startled them a bit, but they settled down after a while. When no one came, I settled in to. I knew these animals would not have survived without anyone to tend them, but I was tired and cold and I figured I’d be on the road again before anyone noticed I’d raided the barn.
“I actually got a good night’s sleep for once. The problem was that when I woke up I had a shotgun barrel in my face and there was some angry Irishman asking me if I could understand what he was saying. I actually couldn’t understand what he was saying because of his accent…”
At this point, Ian stood up and raised his hand in to the group. “Hello everyone, my name is Ian Finnegan. I was the angry Irishman, in case you’re wondering.” He turned to Brian and said jokingly, “An
d I didn’t blow your head off, brother, so give it a rest will ya?”
Brian laughed. He stood up from the table and put his hands in his pockets. “No, Ian didn’t blow my head off. Instead, he invited me in and offered me the most amazing potato soup I’ve ever tasted. I expected to be sent on my way after then but ended up staying for three weeks.”
Pacing in front of the table now, Brian said, “I learned a lot about farming and agriculture in that time. The Finnegans took me in without question. They gave me a place to sleep and food to eat. They didn’t have to.”
He stopped pacing suddenly and faced the group again. “They took me in and treated me like family and all they expected in return is that I pitch in and help protect the farm.”
Now he looked at Kenneth and said, “Seventeen miles is a long way away for trade, but that’s not what we’re asking.” He looked at Carrie. “We don’t have supplies or food to trade, that’s right. But that’s not what we’re talking about here. What we’re talking about is joining together and creating a larger community. The Finnegans can provide us food and shelter, just like they did for me, and in return, we will work the land with them and protect them.”
The room was quiet as Brian’s words sunk in and then all at once voices rose as folks clamored over one another trying to be heard. Husbands and wives, roommates and lovers, all talking at once, conferring.
“You mean we’re leaving Randall Oaks?” a voice spoke up from the back.
“I’m not leaving,” someone else chimed in.
The voices came quickly now and I couldn’t keep track of who was speaking.
“There’s nothing here for me, why not go?”
“Those things are out there, we’ll all die.”
“We’ll die here without food.”
“I’m not going to be someone’s slave.”
“Don’t be an idiot! They’re trying to help us.”
“Who is going to protect us?”
“What about our belongings? Where will we live, in barns?”
Finally I stood up, realizing it was now time for me to take over and do the job these folks expected of me. I pounded my fist on the table, scaring the crap out of some of the council members and startling the community members into silence, as I had intended.
“All right, everybody calm down now and let me say something. Just everyone listen for a minute, okay?”
Now that I had their attention, I came out from around the table and sat at the edge just as Brian had done a few minutes before. As I spoke to them, I looked at each of them.
“I want everyone to hear what I’m saying and think about it very carefully. Do not jump to a conclusion one way or the other. This is a decision that could mean life or death and should be made carefully, with great consideration.”
“Do you really want us to leave?” Carrie asked. I could see there were already tears welling up in her eyes. She was letting her emotions drive her, and that was dangerous territory.
“Carrie, this is not about what I want. This is a decision that I’m going to ask each of you to make for yourselves; each and every one of you, for yourself and your families. I can’t…I’m not making this decision for anyone. I’m going to lay this all out on the table so everyone understands exactly what is at stake and we’re not making any decisions right here.
Standing now, too agitated to sit, I paced the room as I spoke. “It should not be news to anyone here that we’re running low on supplies. Now, we haven’t made a big deal of this because we didn’t want to scare anyone, but it actually is a pretty big deal. Sam? Come up here a second, please.”
Sam stood and looked at me with wide eyes. I hadn’t meant to put her on the spot but I thought folks would take the news from her and know it was serious. I waved her forward and she came finally and stood next to me.
“Sam has been keeping us all fed for the last three months and she knows every last item that we have in supply. I asked her to do an inventory before this meeting. Sam, on your best estimate, how much longer do you think you can continue to feed us on our current ration schedule?”
With a slightly trembling hand, Sam dipped into the back pocket of her jeans and pulled out a piece of paper and unfolded it. When she looked out at the group and spoke, it was obvious she’d memorized the information.
“Right now we’re serving two meals each day – lunch and dinner – and we’re serving at half rations.” She paused a moment and looked at me. I nodded to reassure her. She looked back out at the group and said, “If I keep doing what we’re doing now…we’ll have enough food for another month, maybe a little longer, but not much.”
The room erupted again with exclamations of shock. I spoke loudly, “Settle down, now! Settle down! Let me talk, please. Thank you. Look, we’re not telling you this to scare you but this is the reality of our situation. Our food is running out. Today, Lara, Kat and I found Mr. Elmore dead in his own home, frozen. Probably died from hyperthermia because he ran out of damn firewood. When a group went out to get wood, they fell under attack from the crazies and barely escaped with their lives.
“We all knew life was going to be hard when this all started. We worked hard for the life we have today. We fought and we lost family and friends, but we overcame and we adapted. We did what was necessary to survive, to help our community survive. And that’s what we have to do again.
“We’ve tapped our resources here. We have no allies to our east or south. Providence controls everything in those directions—“
“We beat them before,” Carrie said defiantly.
“We lost half of our community and barely survived. They retreated, they left us alone, for now, but I wouldn’t say we beat them. Besides, we have nothing for them anymore and they have no reason to invade. And they’re not going to open their trade routes to us just because we say please.
“Let’s face it, folks, we’re now prisoners behind our own walls. We keep everything out, but everything else is keeping us in. We cannot sustain ourselves any longer here. That is a fact. That is our reality.”
Turning toward the council members and gesturing over them with the wave of my arm, I said, “We all met and we all heard the offer. We all discussed the alternatives.” Now back facing the community I continued, “We talked about scenarios, we talked about why we should stay and why we can’t stay and in the end, we all agreed that there is nothing left at Randall Oaks for us. But we also agreed that this was not a decision that we would made for the community.
“The Finnegans have a very large farm that can easily support their family and all of us for many years to come. They have shelter to keep us warm in the winter and dry when it rains. They’re going to teach us how to farm, how to grow things that can help sustain us. And in return, we’re going to protect them, protect the farm, and protect ourselves from starvation and any other enemy that tries to harm us.
“Right now, we’re alone in this world. Our neighbors to our east tried to kill us. The creatures that changed the world are all around us just waiting for us to venture out. We’re surrounded by people, living and dead that don’t want us to survive. And in our hour of need, the Finnegans are reaching out to us, offering us friendship and a new start.
“This collaboration will not only secure our survival beyond the next few months, but it’s also a step toward man joining together, standing together as humans against the things out there and taking back our humanity.”
Looking at my audience I could see that my words were having their intended effect. Although I had said each man, each woman, would have to make their own decision, my carefully chosen words, in fact, made it difficult for them to choose to stay. In my heart, I knew it was the best decision for all of us, the only way to increase the odds of survival for as many as possible.
“Now I realize not all of us are going to be able to make the journey, at least not now,” I continued. My eyes slid to Paul and then to Ravi who nodded as if to encourage me to go on. When I looked at Ray he exten
ded his middle finger at me; if this wasn’t a serious topic I would have laughed.
“Some folks aren’t fit to travel in this weather, those that are sick or have very small children. Those that can’t travel will have to stay behind.”
That struck a wrong cord with the community and I was glad to see that they had not lost their compassion for their friends, their family who had been through so much the last three months.
“Before everyone gets agitated, please hear me out. There are a few people who will be staying behind, by choice. They know it will be difficult to travel in their condition and realize it would be best to hunker down here for the winter.”
“Who is staying behind?” Justin asked. “I mean, it seems like we just heard about this, so who has already made a decision?”
“As you know, the council discussed this in the morning. Ravi raised some concerns about several folks who she felt would be unable to travel. Ravi…is adamant about staying behind to provide any care necessary over the winter.”
More sounds of shock and concern filtered through the community. Some members of the council were surprised by this decision, as well. I could see that Brian was not happy with the decision; I’m sure he promised the Finnegans that we’d bring folks with a medical background.
“Ravi feels that Paul’s condition requires he stay. She also thinks that Robert and Kara should stay since they have an infant. She suggests Ray—“
“I’m not staying!” Ray interjected.
“Okay, so not Ray. Those who stay behind will have plenty of supplies to get them through the winter. The away team will take just enough supplies to last the journey and we’ll leave all the rest of the food and supplies here. Those who remain can stay in the CP since it has light and heat. And in the spring, or when the weather clears enough, we’ll come back with wagons and move the rest of our friends to the Finnegans’ farm. They’ll rejoin us and we’ll be whole again.”
