“I realize that,” pointed out Kaine. “Ah, Neil… you did make it in.”
The others looked up as the university president walked into the room. Unlike most of the others, Neil was clean and looked smart, just as he did every day.
“Why do you look like nothing is wrong?” asked Kaine, confused. “I have been surviving by burning old furniture with a small group of students that feel completely lost and you look like your clothes just came out of the dryer.”
Neil shifted on his feet, and looked down at the ground. I have those connections to get us through this… he’s only interested in putting his head in the bloody sand, Kaine frowned as he thought this. And that was uncalled for. We need all the resources we can get and he’s exactly that.
“I live just down the road from here. My daughter noticed that the streets looked untouched, so I figured I should come and check in.”
Kaine paused slightly. He had never paid attention to where the others lived and instead had focussed on his work but that habit had just bit him on the arse. Had he paid the attention, his plans for this situation could have included Neil in his usual role but now? Kaine thought to himself, Now I’ll have to re-tune everything. Oh well, no point in crying over spilt milk now. I suppose I’ll have to live with it.
“Do you have any idea what’s going on?” asked one of the professors.
Neil shook his head as he sat down at the head of the table, moving Kaine’s cup to the side as he put his own down in its customary place. Kaine ground his teeth but then picked up his cup and moved to another open seat.
“I was about to point out that I have a rather substantial inkling of what probably happened,” began Kaine.
Neil waved it off and Kaine lifted his eyebrows in surprise. “I’ll call the city and find out what exactly happened. We’ll be back to normal in no time,” said Neil, and he finally looked over at Kaine. “What else could it be?”
“I seriously think you should listen to what I have to say,” said Kaine. “And what I have to suggest—”
“Dammit, Robert, what else could it be?” asked Neil, and there were a few nervous titters around the table. “I know you have connections in Kingston and Ottawa, but that ‘project’ of yours is simply theoretical.”
“Look, we’ve argued this point before, but this time it’s not just a theory!” exclaimed Kaine, and then he sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose. “I have rather substantial backing to this now.”
Neil blew out a breath. Kaine’s eyes narrowed. “Of what? Our world just ended?” asked Neil. “Come off it. I love reading your reports and the theses that come from your students but we’ve had this come up in previous years too. The snow just falls, and then it takes the city a few days to catch up. No big deal.”
“And the power?” asked Kaine.
“It’s gone out before,” answered another professor. “Happens when the snow and ice get a bit heavy on a line. Give hydro a few hours and the power will be back on. Our back-ups are more than sufficient to hold us over in the meantime.”
Kaine looked around the room, but refrained from shaking his head. You all have no idea and sitting with your heads in the sand will only cost us… he sighed.
“Very well, I will proceed with a bit of caution,” conceded Kaine. “I can wait…”
Neil and the others left the room and Kaine resisted the urge to put his fist through the drywall. Breaking his hand would do nothing right now.
One of the students that had been helping him poked his head in the door, and Kaine motioned for him to enter the rest of the way.
“It doesn’t sound like it went well,” he said.
“It didn’t,” answered Kaine, looking at the young man. “They don’t think this will last long enough to worry. Our dean is blowing through his resources like they will last forever.”
“What’s our next step?” asked the young man.
Kaine sucked in his lips over his teeth as he thought. He tilted his head to the side as he leaned on his cane as the other students, the ones that had taken shelter with him, began to trickle into the meeting room.
“Drain the pool in the athletics centre,” answered Kaine. “The water is tainted with chlorine and is undrinkable anyway.”
“What good will that do?” asked one of the young women.
“Patience, my dear. The next thing I will need you to do is clean that room thoroughly. When you have done that we can move to phase two,” he answered, and he smiled slightly. As they began to leave, he called after them, “Just be sure to not let a single other soul know what it is you are doing.”
* * * * *
A few days later, the teams came back without any new faces, only more supplies and dark news of more people frozen to death. Her rangers had either found them huddled around candles or some other source of heat. More foolishly, others had taken to burning bits of debris which resulted in deaths not from freezing, but from suffocation. Others they found outside, along the road—half buried in the snow—as they tried to find somewhere safer or warmer. It didn’t matter which direction the searchers went anymore because now they had reached as far as they could possibly reach without positive results.
Sheridan rubbed a hand tiredly across her face while Suni brought her in some tea. “I take it that the news is bad?” asked Suni.
Suni was the daughter of one of the survivors. Her mother, Pavi, had insisted on the younger woman assisting Sheridan as her ‘handmaiden’. Something that makes me altogether uncomfortable… thought Sheridan, even though she had accepted on her mother’s insistence that she would need some sort of support.
“Unfortunately, yes,” answered Sheridan, sipping the tea. “We have ranged out everywhere and now no one else is being found alive. The reports are... not good.”
“But we still survive?”
Sheridan nodded and looked up at the young girl. “How old are you?"
“Twenty-one,” she answered, surprised by the question.
Sheridan nodded and suddenly realised that no longer were they looking after adults—there were young children and seniors, as well as household pets now living in the barn.
“I think I may have been… neglectful… of a certain need of any civilization,” realized Sheridan. “I haven’t given thought to its soul. I’ve taken care of its spirit and body, but forgot that one thing to keep it all in balance.”
“Yes, you have,” answered Suni, with a short bark of laughter. “You didn’t directly address it but you didn’t exactly forbid it. You’ve left it to be private—and really, in my opinion, that’s how it should be.”
She lifted her brow and looked at Suni. “Really?” she asked honestly surprised by the young woman’s answer. “How do you know this?”
“My mother and I still have our faith, and I am sure it is the same with everyone else. I know I have heard singing in one of the barns.” Suni thought for a moment. “In fact it was in the one closest to the house.”
“Speaking of you and your mother…” began Sheridan, and Suni lifted a brow. “Are you happy with this?”
“I’m perfectly happy being alive considering the alternative.”
“I meant you being my ‘handmaiden’,” answered Sheridan, feeling her nose twitch at even saying the word aloud.
Suni snorted. “My Mom is old fashioned and comes from a family who was proud of their ‘service’ to the British when they had control of India.”
“And you are not,” stated Sheridan.
“No, but I recognize the fact that you’re just as uncomfortable with this as I am,” she answered, grinning slightly. “And, I’m sure the ‘handmaiden’ thing will be temporary until you find something else for me to do that we both can agree on.”
Sheridan nodded and left it at that, and they both looked up when Marissa came in with Shiloh close behind.
“We’re out of hot chocolate,” she stated. “And your coffee and tea supplies are also running low.”
“That’s a relatively m
inor thing that we were all expecting,” pointed out Marissa. “It will be uncomfortable for some, but Derek and Lorraine both know how to find Labrador tea in the bush, so we have bush tea if all else fails.” She paused, looking over at Sheridan. “We have a bigger problem.”
“Medical supplies,” Sheridan answered. “I know about that particular problem. Helen already talked to me about the supplies in our clinic. Given our burgeoning population, I think we’ll have issues soon, especially considering the labour going into that snow wall on top of the escarpment.”
Marissa nodded. For a long moment there was an uncomfortable silence in the room as the true impact of what was happening around them started to sink in. “We need to head to someplace and scavenge,” she suggested. “There’s an emergency services depot at the end of the road near where our road meets back up with the back highway between the four lanes and Whitefish.”
“We’re going to have to head there,” decided Sheridan, turning to Shiloh. “I want Derek to go, with a small group of his choosing, on horseback to that depot and get everything they can carry and bring it back here.”
“With the weather, even on horseback, it's going to take them at least two-day round trip,” answered Shiloh, concerned about where this was going. “And there's no guarantee that place hasn’t already been looted.”
“It’s a chance we have to take,” stated Marissa. “If we wait any longer it will get looted. We need to do this and do this now.”
“Agreed,” said Shiloh. “But I want to go with Derek. I know the roads from riding them every day. He won’t.”
“I don’t like it,” muttered Marissa, but her mutter was still loud enough for the rest of them to hear.
“And I don’t like having to send Derek at all, but she’s got a point,” pointed out Sheridan, who then turned to Suni. “Could you send someone to get Derek? He’s likely up on the escarpment with Rick.”
“Yes, madam,” answered Suni as she darted out the bedroom doors and down the stairs.
“She’s quite the handmaiden,” said Shiloh.
“Assigned to me,” answered Sheridan. “It’s taking a bit to get used to but the personal assistance is welcome. I have more on my plate than I was expecting with all this. And for the record—” She turned to face Shiloh. “—I don’t like you going as much as Marissa doesn’t. But I understand that you need to. You just make sure you come back.”
Shiloh rolled her eyes but said, “Of course I’m coming back.”
“I mean that,” retorted Sheridan.
“I know you do,” Shiloh said, her tone less sarcastic. “Look, if I want to come back then I need to make sure I’m ready to go. I need to pack a few things into a bag and pick out the horses.”
“All right,” said Sheridan. “Get gone.”
She watched her cousin leave and sighed heavily. Walking down the main steps, she let herself sink to sit on the bottom few as she waited for Derek to return to the Manor.
Derek followed a teenage boy, one of the farmers up the road, into the house, kicking off the dirt and snow from his boots.
“What do you need?” Derek asked as he met her.
“I need you and Shiloh and a team to go on horseback to the emergency services depot at the end of the road. You choose the team. Scavenge what you can in medical supplies, food, and anything else you can carry back here,” she answered. “I’d normally not ask you to do this, but we’re in that kind of situation.”
“Okay, that means I need Marissa too," he said plainly. "Us three and a two horses as pack can be there and back in two days. One day there—given the snow—and a day to search. We head back on the third day.”
“Good, leave at first light tomorrow.”
“Is the situation that bad?” he asked, concerned.
“I won’t lie—yes it is,” she answered plainly.
“Ma’am, if I could be so bold,” came Helen’s voice from behind her and she turned. “I can ride too, and I think I could help. I’m a retired RN so I know what we’re looking for.”
Sheridan looked at Derek and he nodded. “Then that’s settled. Prepare what you think you’ll need to take with you and get some rest,” she said. “You’ll need it.”
Helen immediately turned and walked back into the makeshift clinic at the front of the house.
Derek was almost past Sheridan when he stopped, and then turned on the step he stood on to come back down the stairs. Sitting beside her, he leaned into her shoulder. “Okay, what is it?” he asked.
“What do you mean?”
“Something is clearly on your mind,” he said, and then he frowned. “Is it Terrence? I know you have to miss him but you haven’t had any time to really mourn for him.”
I might have known he’d pick up on this, thought Sheridan as she sighed. “Too right.”
“Sheri, can I give you a piece of advice?” he asked.
Sheridan looked at him out of the corner of her eyes. “Since when did you even need to ask?”
He shrugged. “Dunno.”
She rolled her eyes and brought one hand up to pinch her nose and he grinned mischievously. “I can definitely tell you’re one of my uncle’s friends.”
“What’s the matter… is the Queen of Walden missing her pumpkin spice latte so much that she can’t even?” teased Derek, letting his voice rise an octave. “Like so much… just can’t even.”
She groaned. “Mixing me up with Shiloh again.”
“Can’t blame me for that,” he pointed out. “Your names are not the only thing that’s so painfully similar that you’re like clones. You look alike, you sound alike, you dress alike… have similar interests and parents who both thought, ‘Let’s name our daughters with almost the same name, but not quite…’ Seriously, I’m glad I wasn’t your teacher in school.”
“It was more fun when we both worked at the same call centre in the mall downtown,” said Sheridan, giggling slightly. “I quit and they deleted Shiloh’s employee profile instead of mine. We confused their HR that badly.”
He laughed suddenly and it echoed around the front foyer. When he finally regained control, he put a hand on her shoulder as he leaned against the railing. “Oh my God, you had me going there.”
“I was dead serious,” she said.
Derek stopped laughing as that sank in. “Oh. Why didn’t I hear about that?”
Sheridan could only shrug, and then she looked outside. “How is the wall coming?”
“Slowly,” he answered. “Our first day was just gathering enough snow to pack into the bricks and snowballs to build the wall. We cleared the road doing it, though.”
“I can see that,” she groused, rolling her eyes.
“Well, that still wasn’t enough snow. Not for a wall that would do anything. So, Rick—that engineer—suggested we concentrate on the weakest point of our defense.”
“The gate?” surmised Sheridan.
Derek nodded in answer. “Yep.”
“And how is that going?”
“Still slowly. Did you know it takes at least six or seven carts full of snow to make a section of wall strong enough to stay standing on its own, withstand any ‘problems’?” he began and paused. “But it’s only three feet long.”
Sheridan stared at him, the horror plain on her face. “That will never prevent any real attempt at sweeping down into the valley. Even if—after sitting overnight—the snow does naturally solidify itself into a hardened mass of ice by sheer weight alone,” she said, leaning back on the stairs. “Anyone wanting to sweep into the valley could just go around it right now.”
“You see our problem, then,” said Derek.
“Yeah, I see it,” she answered.
By the time that wall is done it will only melt during the Spring, she thought. We can’t do this by hand and back breaking labour by itself. Not in the time we need, anyway.
“That’s why we decided to concentrate on what supports the gate and taper the rest of it into the tree line,” answered Derek, as
he shrugged. “Use the natural surroundings as a natural wall.”
“And as it snows, keep the roads and walking paths clear through reusing the snow into the wall,” realized Sheridan. “Smart.”
“By next winter we’ll build the wood walls, and over the years pick at making things into a stone one,” he finished, and then he grinned. “If this is only temporary, the wall can be a tourist attraction for that medieval re-enactment club you’re always trying to pull me into.”
She rolled her eyes again. “Only if you build me a full inner Bailey with the moat.”
“Uh, that could take me a few years…”
CHAPTER TWELVE
Derek looked around the table at everyone and then out the massive glass window to the field outside.
“Has there been any news at all from the rest of the world?” asked Tyrell.
Rick shook his head. “Nothing on any of the emergency channels and one of the nurses had one of those satellite phones and the only thing he’s getting is the stand by.”
“That’s not good,” said another person. “That means the rest of the world is as in the dark as we are.”
Derek nodded, “Rick, you suggested the ice wall. What do you think we need to do to get this finished?”
A short bark of laughter was his first response from the engineer. “More shovels. We’ll need to find more snow and then even take the snow off the grounds to do this. We cleared the roads where we plan to defend, and that was be a good start and should give us a good supply,” answered Rick. “Not to mention off the ground where we'll build the wall.”
“For defences’ sake, I wouldn’t suggest taking it from out of the bush outside of the intended wall. Inside, yes, so we can patrol it and build it, but impassable snow outside will create difficulty to those who would approach it—slow them down a bit,” suggested Tyrell. “Also, I wouldn’t clear the road too much outside of it. Just a thin walkable track.”
“So, we’re in agreement on how we're building this?” asked Derek. There were nods around the table. “Okay, split off into the agreed teams and tap the shoulders of those you will need and of anyone else who volunteers to act as labour. Let’s get our defences up now.”
After Oil Page 11
