Survivors

by Rich Goldhaber

“Nothing, I said, we’re just going to Orlando to pick some stuff up. We won’t bother you; we’re just passing through.”

  A shot rang out from the front of Stan’s truck. The fat guy dropped to the road, and his three friends drew their weapons searching for the source of the gunfire. Before I could draw my weapon, a dozen shots rang out, and the four men were dead as soon as they hit the ground. Bruce appeared from the front of Stan’s car. “Those were the guys who raped Debbie.”

  I didn’t really know what to say. I guess this new world was going to be a lot like the Old West: instant justice, no trial, no jury, just instant retribution. I thought about Bruce’s actions. I understood why he had shot the guy. Was a death sentence appropriate for a brutal act of rape? The bottom line was I wasn’t sure. Our community was clearly going to have to deal with incidents such as this in the future.

  The bodies of the rapists were dragged to the side of the road, and Stan moved the cars blocking our path. Everyone was silent as we continued on with our mission.

  After passing through Bartow, I got on the CB radio. “We’re not going to risk coming back this way. I don’t want another confrontation with any more of these guys.”

  Jessie’s truck left us a few miles north of Bartow heading for Lakeland. The rest of us took Route 17 north to Route 92 and then shifted onto Route 441. A few miles later the other two moving vans split off heading for the photovoltaic cell plant just north of Kissimmee. Our six refrigerated trucks continued north until we reached Route 527A. We were close to the Orlando airport now, and we finally arrived at the Publix Replenishment Center located on Landstreet Road just off West Osceda Parkway. Josh directed Stan’s truck to the back of the plant and the loading docks. We parked all the trucks far away from the main road. There was no point in attracting attention.

  We had worked out the breaking and entry part yesterday, and we unloaded a heavy duty pallet truck. Josh drove the forklift to the front of the entrance with two others following on foot. A few minutes later we could hear the shattering of glass as the pallet truck destroyed the front entrance to the plant. Five minutes later Josh and the others were manually lifting the doors to the loading dock.

  Josh had a smile on his face. “The freezer and refrigerator rooms all have power, and they’re fully stocked.”

  The experienced truck drivers in our team backed up all six trucks into the loading docks, and soon six forklifts were entering the various cold storage areas, Beth and Josh had worked out the priorities, and Josh was moving from room to room giving orders to the forklift drivers. It took three hours of non-stop effort to fill our six trucks. I walked around taking pictures of the remaining food still on pallets. Two of our workers found the underground gasoline storage tank, and an electronic control system indicated the tank was still half full.

  We could make additional trips to this center, but we would have to figure out how to refill the gasoline tanks to keep the electricity operational. We drove out of the plant a little after three o’clock. We decided to take an alternate route back to Naples, and the trip home was uneventful.

  Jessie’s truck was sitting in the North Lake Village parking lot, but the two trucks visiting Opti-Solar’s supplier had not yet arrived. I wasn’t worried, just a little concerned. I found Jessie talking to Margaret. She turned to me. “Debbie is with Mary right now. She’s checking her out. She’s still in shock. Bruce wants to move in with Debbie, and Margaret registered them both. We were successful in Lakeland. The Verizon server’s in the truck, and we found a couple thousand cell phones, and all of Verizon’s standard operating procedures. We’ll set up the server tomorrow.”

  I reviewed our visit to the Publix plant, and as I was finishing up, I heard two moving vans pull into the parking lot. Jessie and I met the photovoltaic cell team, and they were all smiles. George said, “We found everything we need to make the solar cells: raw materials, manufacturing equipment, and all of their operating procedures. We’ll be in good shape.”

  I patted George and Bill on their backs, and then with Jessie standing next to me said, “We need to find Manny and talk about what happened today.”

  Jessie said, “I’ll meet you all in Jim’s apartment. I’m getting Patty. We need legal advice.” I summarized what had happened out on the road for Manny and Patty. They both listened carefully. Manny was the first to respond. “I’m glad you killed the bastards. They deserved to die.”

  Patty interrupted, “There wasn’t due process Manny. You guys were vigilantes; acting as jury, judge, and executioner. So what do you want from me?”

  “I want to know what to do,” I asked. Patty thought for a few moments. “Here’s what you do. Bruce was not officially a member of our community at the time he killed the guy. He hadn’t registered with Margaret yet. From now on, we have no jurisdiction over anyone until they officially sign in with Margaret.

  “Now for the easy part. You told me our people didn’t fire at these guys until they had drawn weapons. Under Florida law, we had the right to use deadly force because we believed our lives were in imminent danger. So you’re all off the hook.”

  With this final comment, Patty stood up and stormed out of my apartment. She reappeared ten seconds later and apologized. “I’m sorry; I wasn’t there. If I was, I probably would have killed the assholes myself, but here’s the thing, we cannot have anarchy. We must live by a set of rules, reasonable rules we all can live by. That way we will once again become a civilized society.”

  One by one the weapons used during the day arrived in my apartment. Many of the men who had pulled the triggers on their guns appeared to be hesitant, almost ashamed, but not one person talked about it. I think they all understood they might have failed a certain basic test of humanity.

  I visited Debbie in Mary’s apartment. Mary met me at the door. “She just took the Plan B Emergency Contraceptive pill. She’s okay physically, but emotionally it’s going to take a long time.”

  Debbie was awake and staring at the bedroom wall. Bruce was sitting in a chair near the bed. I sat down on the edge of Debbie’s bed and touched her hand. It was limp, and I held it in both my hands. She finally looked at me. I smiled and said, “Welcome to our community Debbie; you’ll be safe here; I promise you’ll be safe here.”

  She smiled at me. She started to say something and then started to cry.” I patted her on the hand and stood up. Bruce followed me out of the room. “What’s going to happen to me?” he asked.

  “Bruce, at the time of the attack, you were not officially a resident of this community, and therefore legally not within our jurisdiction. Now that you have signed in with Margaret, you are legally a resident. My advice is to never do anything like that again or we will have to prosecute you. Do you understand?”

  Bruce nodded, “Yes, I understand.” I looked at my watch and put my arm around him. “Come on, let’s have dinner.”

  Chapter 22

  During breakfast Janet walked through the area and rang a large bell. She shouted, “School starts in five minutes. All children of school age meet out in front of Building H in five minutes.”

  Five minutes later about twenty children were gathered in front of the building, and then Janet led them all to one of the other buildings for the beginning of school. This brief act of normalcy was a true sign that we were once again becoming a real community.

  My euphoric state was short-lived as Jessie sat down next to me. “I’ve been thinking about what happened yesterday.”

  “So have I,” I said. I’m embarrassed about what we did.” “I’m not,” she said, “the assholes deserved to die. But that’s not what I was thinking about. If there’re four of those guys, then there’re hundreds of them, and they’re going to come here eventually. There’re going to take what they want and rape all the women, and I’m guessing many of us will die in the process of trying to defend our community.”

  I thought about Jessie’s prediction of the future. From what had happened yesterday, I knew she was probably ri
ght. The question was what to do about it. “So,” I asked, “what should we do?”

  “We need to protect the people at the dairy farm and at Immokalee, and we need to defend this community. We need to train our people to use the weapons we have, and I think we have one other important thing to do. We need to visit the people living in Miami and Tampa and discuss this problem with them. We need to band together to prevent these people from destroying our communities.”

  “Let’s discuss this at the meeting this morning. I’d like to hear what the others have to say.”

  Margaret walked into the dining area with a stack of papers. “Extra, extra, read all about it. Campus heroes grab the beef.”

  She handed me my copy with a smile. Then she left the dining area looking for more residents. I looked at the one-page rag sheet. The banner headline read Where’s the Beef. I read the article. There were many quotes from anonymous sources, and the description of the gunfight was a bit slanted in favor of the victors, but the rest of the article correctly described the events of the day. The second article was a copy of Patty’s doctrine and a brief explanation of the necessity for the position paper. I brought my copy of the Campus Gazette to our meeting and decided to tape it to the wall of my apartment as a constant reminder regarding the power of the Fourth Estate.

  We wrestled with the security problem for several hours. All of us agreed the community was at risk, and all of us agreed a reasonable approach was to teach our residents how to defend themselves. The difference of opinion was really about the wisdom of making contact with other large communities. George cautioned that Tampa or Miami might be filled with bad guys just like the ones we ran into on the road.

  Bill finally brought up a key fact. “You know there’s a big military base outside Tampa, MacDill Air Force Base. Let’s assume they have a couple dozen survivors. Some of them must be soldiers. We know nothing about defending our community. They could help us. Maybe we can trade them military training for food and electricity. I think those soldiers understand discipline, and there will be a lower probability of them becoming bad guys. I think we need to go there first.”

  It made sense. “Okay,” I said, “I guess I’ll talk to Blaine about planning a trip to MacDill. What’s everyone going to do today?”

  We went around the table. Manny started. “I’m going back to Immokalee with some volunteers. We raided all the hardware stores yesterday and took all their seeds. Today we’re going to start planting the vegetables most of the residents said they like. Some of Bill’s team is coming over to set up a solar array and get us some power so we can operate the irrigation systems.”

  Jessie was next. “I’m helping Isaac start up the server and get the phones operational. We’ve got enough cellphones for everyone.”

  “Where are you going to put the server?” I asked. “Over in the engineering campus. George’s people gave us power in the Science Building so we can get the operating room up and running. We’ll put the server in a nearby lab. Then in the afternoon, Mary, Chaplain Paul, Phyllis, one of the Fort Myers Beach people, and I are going to set up the operating room. The four of us are going to be the emergency medical team.”

  Bill was going to drive up to the dairy farm to review the progress on the solar field, and George was going to review our solar field. He said, “I think we may be getting pretty close to full capacity.”

  Bill added, “Greg is reviewing all of the manufacturing procedures for the photovoltaic cells. The first step is to use an electric arc furnace to melt and purify quartz crystals. It’s basically a material science problem. We’re setting up the manufacturing site in a chemistry lab in the same building as the server and operating room. I hope to have an estimate on when we can expect new solar cells in a few days, but I’m sure it’s going to take us at least a couple of months of hard work.”

  Jessie asked, “What about you Jim?” “First, I’m going to drive home and get some fresh clothes. I’ve been wearing the same things for too many days. Then, I’m going to walk around the campus. I want to check up on the kids on their first day of school.

  “And on the security issue, let’s wait until Blaine and I get back from MacDill.”

  Chapter 23

  My backyard was peaceful, and the grass had grown beyond the point where it could be cut. I sat down on the same bench I was sitting at on the day Jessie found me. I spoke to my wife and daughter. “I miss both of you so much. I think of you every day. The world has changed so much in the last few weeks. All of the survivors in the area have made a new home at Gulf Coast University. We’ve had to start from scratch. Every day there’s a crisis, but we’re all working to get things up and running. Honey, you’d really like some of the people. It’s too bad you’ll never get to know them.”

  I spent an hour just sitting there. I was thinking of all the wonderful memories: the day Gloria and I got married, the day Sarah was born, her first day of school, and a recent Thanksgiving celebration where I had seen all my relatives for the last time. I was certain they were all dead now. I thought about President Roosevelt’s famous saying to deal with anything, and this too shall pass. Somehow I knew it was going to take a long time for this all to pass. I packed up as much as I could cram into six suitcases. I could always come back for more, and then I headed back to the campus.

  A woman I had met in Immokalee was teaching the youngest children in an apartment in Building J. She was reading them a story. Jack and Bobby were in the first row and the kids all seemed to be enjoying the woman’s different voices as she read about the little engine that could. Janet was in another apartment working with the middle aged kids. They were going over math, and she was explaining how to do long division. Jasmine and Hunter were sitting in the first row. The oldest kids were in the next apartment and a man, who must have been in the Cape Coral group, I think his name was Thomas, was talking about Darwin’s Theory of Evolution. From Margaret’s spreadsheet, I think I remembered Thomas was a biologist.

  I stood in the back of the apartment just observing. Our future would be vested in these kids. How would they fare? Would they be able to rise to the occasion and take our community to a new level? I guess we’d have to wait a few years to find out. I liked the concept of guest lectures from our resident experts. I was certain each teacher would instill a love for their area of expertise.

  I walked over to the Science Building and found Isaac and Jessie working in an engineering lab. They had a computer hooked up to the Verizon server and were reviewing standard operating procedures in an attempt to activate one of the cellphones. They noticed my arrival, smiled, and then got back to work.

  Jessie used a USB connector to hook a cellphone up to the computer. The computer screen asked for the serial number of the phone. Jessie read off the numbers, and Isaac typed it in. Then the screen asked for the owner’s name and address. Jessie typed in her name and new address and then hit enter. The server asked for billing information, and Jessie typed in her address again. Jessie said cross your fingers as she pressed the enter key.

  The computer talked to the server and the server answered with a screen showing the activation was complete. Isaac then turned on his Verizon cellphone and tried to call Jessie. Her phone rang. She answered it and said, “Mister Watson come here; I want to see you.” These were the words Alexander Graham Bell used during the first phone call ever made. Isaac and I laughed at her joke, and then Jessie gave him a high-five.

  Jessie stood up. Let’s get some lunch; we’ve earned it. Isaac, after lunch, could you get the resident list from Margaret and start activating all the phones. I’ll get someone to help out. Let’s pass out the cellphones tonight at dinner.”

  “Isaac said, “I’ll do that, and thanks for helping out Jessie. I couldn’t have done it without you.”

  The three of us walked over to the large tent now considered the communal dining area and approached the buffet table at the front. Beth, who was overseeing the servings whispered, “We’ve got a surprise for
dinner.”

  “What’s that?” I asked. “If I told you, it wouldn’t be a surprise would it.” The last words were slurred. She leaned against the table for support and then collapsed onto the ground. She was conscious, but she was having trouble speaking. Mary, who was having lunch with Debbie, ran over and asked us what happened. I said, “She was talking to us; then she slurred her words and lost her balance. She fell to the ground before I could catch her. Mary bent down next to Beth and said, “Beth, can you hear me?”

  Beth opened her eyes. She looked disoriented and didn’t understand what Mary had asked. “What do you mean?” she said.

  Mary turned to us. “She’s had a stroke. We need to give her Streptokinase, a clot-dissolving drug, immediately. Bring her to the operating room as quick as you can.”

  Mary ran to her car and drove off to the Science Building. There was no stretcher, so four of us did the best we could carrying Beth to the nearest U-Haul truck. We lay her carefully in the back of the truck. Jessie held Beth’s head in her lap and three others piled into the front seat. Luckily everyone was leaving the keys to the U-Haul trucks in the vehicles so anyone who wanted to borrow them could.

  I raced to the Science Building and hoped we weren’t too late to save this wonderful woman’s life. By the time we carried Beth into the operating room, Mary had found a vial of the drug and was preparing an I.V. We placed Beth on the operating table, and Mary immediately started an I.V. catheter. She added the drug into the I.V. line and started the drip.

  Mary turned to Jessie, “Jessie, try to figure out how to get the blood analyzing equipment up and running. I want to run a Complete Blood Count and a Total Blood Chemistry; the blood chemistry is higher priority. Also run a coagulation test; we’re going to need a prothrombin clotting time.

  Paul the chaplain showed up and immediately asked how he could help. Mary said, “Paul, look up Streptokinase in the drug reference book and calculate the correct dose for Mary. Assume she’s about 150 pounds. It’s the thick blue book on the bookshelf.”