2nd Earth 2: Emplacement

by Edward Vought

  They also put battery powered lights, as well as candles, and lanterns that use propane cylinders in the tunnels. The project went so well that the other groups are going to start linking their homes, and we are going to continue with ours. We also all agree that it would be great to have a tunnel from each group into the woods just in case. December is going by quickly and in just three days it will be Christmas. Many of us want to make another trip over to the Marine base to pick up more clothing and guns as well as other supplies. We have taken everyone into the towns close to us so they can look through the stores and even the houses to find Christmas presents for each other. Some of them remember Christmas, but have not celebrated it for as long as they can remember. Everyone is excited about it this year, like we all were last year.

  The trip over to the base is uneventful, as is the loading of the trucks we brought along to bring our treasures back. James and Jenna came along just to make sure they aren’t imagining this whole adventure. They both say that they hope it is not a dream, because they are enjoying life more now than they ever did before. Robin is watching little Tim so Dayna could come with me on this trip. It’s a good thing she did because she sees two things that none of us see. The first one is dozens of cases of chocolate candy in tin containers in the Base Exchange. The second she sees as we are getting ready to leave. I am making sure the trucks are loaded to the brim when Dayna comes over and tells me not to look to the right, but there is a young girl watching us from behind one of the barracks buildings.

  I can see the young lady by looking into the mirror on one of the trucks and she sure looks scared. I tell Dayna I will go through the warehouse we are at and come up behind the girl. Before she can say anything I head through the warehouse and work my way behind the place where the young lady is watching us. When I sneak a peek around the corner, I see Dayna walking back toward the truck, with the young lady and two others about the same age. When I get back to the truck Dayna introduces me to the young people. Jenna, who is every bit as bad as Sara when it comes to picking on me, tells me that I did a great job stalking those dangerous teenage girls. She starts to say she will sleep better tonight knowing I am on the job, but she is laughing too much.

  We get acquainted on the ride home. The three young ladies are living with their mother, after their father passed away a while ago. Their mother got sick about ten days ago and hasn’t been able to even go anywhere since then. They heard someone at the base, which is us and they came to see if we looked friendly, or if we were the type to steal the girls away. Naturally we stop and pick up the mother, who sounds like she has bronchitis or possibly pneumonia, but I don’t have a stethoscope with me and it’s hard to tell anyway without a chest x-ray. We make her as comfortable as we can for the ride home. They say that wherever we are going it has to be better than where they are living.

  We get home after dark and Doc Betty comes over to check out the lady that is ill. We have several books on natural medicines and Betty knows more than anyone I ever met about using natural herbs to heal people. She brews up a tea, using something that smells bad enough to be great for whoever takes it. We have enough teenaged young ladies to welcome the newcomers. They are about as happy as I have ever seen anyone after eating a hot meal and meeting Jenny, Samantha, Rachel, Emily, and Ellie. I’m sure I left out some, but I can’t keep up with everyone around here. Betty is living with Billy and Ramona now, and they have an extra room, so they take Angie, the mom, and the three girls, Meghan, Mickie and Nickie, over there with them. That way Betty can keep an eye on her.

  Today is Christmas Eve and everyone is excited, even if they have never celebrated Christmas before. It is even cold enough today to snow. Jenna is in rare form this morning, she, Dayna, and Robin started picking on me early. All I did was tell them that I think it is going to snow this evening so the children can have a white Christmas. Jenna told me we could find out easy enough. All we have to do is go on the weather channel on the TV, or check the weather web site on the computer. I made the mistake of telling her my mind is like a computer, and she has been harassing me ever since. That’s okay, nothing could bother me today, I think I am as excited as the children are. The day passes quickly with the preparations we are making for tomorrows celebration. Each of the groups are going to get together in their individual meeting houses and read the story of the birth of Christ from the Bible. Then everyone will get presents and of course we will eat a nice breakfast.

  We are planning to show a couple of movies that we have, that are appropriate for this time of year. As the day winds down we are all in our homes relaxing. Kathy and Karen have been quiet all day and even the twins have managed not to get into any mischief. I haven’t seen the boys much today and Lisa and Christy have not been around much either. I ask the moms if they have any idea what I may have done to get all the children upset. Robin and Melissa tell me they are afraid the girls overheard a conversation that we had the other night and misunderstand what we were talking about. I know which conversation they are talking about and I can see how they may be confused. I figure it’s time we explain what we were talking about, so no one gets the wrong idea.

  I call the children, who seem to be in their rooms at the moment. Our children come, but the others don’t, so we are sure they misunderstood what was said. I ask them to go and get the rest of the family so I can tell them all at once. That brightens their mood up a little. They run and come back with our new family members. Usually it’s a mad scramble to see who is going to sit on my lap, but tonight Tammy and Tina ask me politely if they can. Now I know something is wrong. When all the children are present, as well as Becky their mom, I start to tell them I would like to explain what they think they heard the other evening. Kathy starts telling me that they will be better and not argue so much anymore. Karen says she will not yell at Teddy, Jerry, and Steve anymore if they can stay with us. Tina and Tammy tell me they will share Zeus with everybody if they can stay.

  I tell them I wasn’t aware that Becky wanted to move. Is this something that has come up recently? Teddy says that they overheard us saying that they would have to move soon. He starts to continue but, I raise my hand signaling him that I would like to say something.

  “I know what you all think you heard, but what that conversation was about is the new homes we are bringing in. We adults were just explaining to Becky that if she would like to move into one of the new homes, when it is ready for that, we will be more than willing to help her. We don’t anticipate the first house being ready to live in until spring and the ones after that will be when they are. So even if Becky wants to move, which by the way she doesn’t, as long as we don’t mind them living here, it will be at least next summer before that will happen. I guess we should take a vote to see if we want to make Becky, Lisa, Christy, Jerry, and Steve a permanent part of our family. All those in favor say aye.”

  Even Zeus barks in the affirmative, so it is as official as it can get. It takes all of about ten minutes before the bickering starts again. Nobody’s really angry, and nobody really means it, so we figure we can let the children be children for a while longer anyway. Little Timmy agrees with me by smiling. Even Robin saying he must have gas doesn’t bother me tonight.

  8

  Christmas morning comes just like it did when I was a young boy. The children are all waiting on the stairs when we come out of our rooms in the morning. Then they all rush down and check out the presents under the tree. There are presents in the meeting house for everyone, but we all got each other, and the children a bunch of small stuff to make it more exciting for them. We are having a common breakfast, so the women and the older children leave to help get everything ready. The women cooked what they were asked to at home, and are bringing it to the meeting house. Dayna, Becky, and I have the job of getting the younger children ready, and bringing them over when the bell sounds.

  The breakfast and the reading of the birth of Christ are a complete success. Everyone gets a couple of presents, whi
ch for the adults are mostly clothes. Everyone loves the uniforms we got at the base so we got all of them we could carry and gave them to everyone as presents. The chocolate in the tin boxes is a huge hit, we found enough for everyone in all the groups to have a couple, and still have several cases left. We also found some hard candy in sealed tins like the chocolate, and that is very popular as well.

  Unfortunately even on Christmas, we who live on farms have chores that must be done. Eggs need collecting and chickens fed. Cows need fed and milked, and the milk needs to be pasteurized, and stored properly in the freezers. Last, but definitely not least, the horses need fed. They spend most of their time in the pastures like the cows, but since it’s Christmas we want to give them some oats that we found in town. Fortunately no one shirks their duty, and many hands make the work lighter. We are relaxing after the common meal we all shared for an early supper or late lunch, when Teddy comes in and tells me that he, Steve, and Jerry were outside setting up some targets for when they get to shoot the rifles we gave them for Christmas. We told them they can only shoot the guns when they are with us, or when they are hunting with the older young men. Back to Teddy coming in, he is out of breath from running and so are Steve and Jerry. They tell me that they saw some men sneaking around the woods. It looked like they were watching the people who are outside.

  I grab my gun, and have Robin call Tim and the others, and tell them what Teddy told us. I ask where they saw the men and head out the door. I am afraid it is the men we ran into when we found Betty and the others. I don’t go directly where they saw them, but I circle around trying to get behind them. I get to the woods behind the barn without being seen, at least no one shot at me yet. I can hear voices whispering, but I can’t make out what they are saying. I work my way around until I can come up behind three of them. If this is the same group, there are three more, and these guys do look familiar. I hear an owl hoot, and look to my right to see Tim working his way around to where I am. Apparently he saw me before I saw him.

  The three we can see don’t seem to be carrying guns, or any other weapons that we can see. We decide to ask them what they are doing here. We step out of from behind the trees, and they spin around surprised to see us. They see our guns and tell us they don’t want any trouble, they just saw our settlement, and wondered how many people live here. They explain that they have never seen lights, and the houses are in much better shape than any they have ever seen. They say what drew them here, is the smell of food that is like nothing they have ever tasted. I recognize the one doing the talking as the leader of the group in that city. I ask him where the rest of their friends are. We hear a voice behind us saying that they are about twenty feet away. The one talking tells us we have nothing to worry about. They were just looking and wishing they had somewhere like this to live.

  They all come up and join their friends. They say they parked their bikes down the road, and walked back to see how big this settlement is. By now, the rest of our guys find us, and ask if there is any trouble. Tim and I tell them that for once, we didn’t have to go looking for new friends, they came to us. George and Kyle are two of the men that came to see if they would be needed. The new men recognize them and tell them how sorry they are that George got hurt that time. They say they were looking for people to join up with, but now realize they went about it the wrong way. They say that after meeting us, and the way we kept our guns on them, they realized that maybe they were scaring everyone else the way we scared them.

  George and Kyle both tell them there are no hard feelings, but if they are lying they will definitely regret it. We invite them into the meeting house, and call the council together to decide whether or not we let them prove that they are serious. While they are being asked questions, they get to taste the ham, sweet potatoes, and home baked pie that they must have smelled as they were riding past. I don’t blame them; I think it smells great too. We have a decision before they are through with dinner. We decide to give them a chance to show us that they are serious about wanting to be part of our family. They will stay in the dormitory, which has been losing occupants fairly regularly to matrimony. We make sure the new people realize that sex is frowned upon unless the people are married, and forcing someone to have sex with you will get you sent packing. So far we have had no incidents like that, and we would like to keep it that way.

  It is very nice to have a situation like the one today end peaceably, and with no bloodshed. The men who joined us today seem like nice enough people, but only time will tell. Tonight we are sitting here enjoying the twins, who are reading us a story for a change. They do okay, but the book they chose is not quite at their level of reading, although the story is very interesting. Betty stops over to tell us that Angie is doing much better, her cough seems to have broken, and she is able to eat more solid food now. She tells us that she hopes she was mistaken about the men we took in today. She even says that when she thinks about it, there may well have been a big misunderstanding. At least here, they will have a chance to either prove they belong, or prove that they don’t belong. I know we are all hoping that they are serious.

  The day after Christmas is Sunday, so we rest from our labors, or at least we only do the same ones we did yesterday. Our six new family members are up bright and early to help with the chores. They have to be shown how to do everything, but so did we all. We gave them all new fatigue jackets, and fatigue pants and shirts to wear when they are working. They seem to be as excited as kids with their new clothes, and the tins of chocolate they received confused them for a moment, but once they tasted it, they decided that they could learn to like that a lot. The days go by and we turn the calendar to start another new year. The work is going well with the help of our new friends. This is the first time they have done anything like the work we do, but they are definitely willing and prove to be hard workers. I had an opportunity to cut firewood with two of them this week, and they both said that all they want out of life is what they see us having here. They both said that they knew their lives were empty, and had no meaning until they just happened to be riding by on Christmas. Now they know they can do something more constructive than ride from place to place.

  The weather is cold but the work on the basement and the tunnels is going forward. The basement in this first house is deeper than most, because Billy would like to live here when it is completed. Since he is over seven feet tall, we wanted the basement to be deep enough that he doesn’t have to walk all hunched over, all the time. We chose the house that we are putting in here, with him in mind as well. The ceilings are higher than most and we have the option of making the doorways high enough for him to walk through without having to stoop. It’s just some of the things, which most of us who are average height, take for granted, but that make his life more difficult. We have managed to get three more of the homes to where they will probably be placed. We have been discussing whether or not we need a basement under every home, or if we can just add a large shed type building. We can also put the tunnel system under those homes by putting a trap door leading down into the tunnel.

  I know we sound a bit paranoid, but if you have been some of the places we have been, and seen man’s inhumanity toward other men, then you may see security the way we do. Not one member of our groups doubts that we will need the ability to escape without detection some time. We have also read in the history of this area, that hurricanes have come this far inland before and most likely will again. There are even reports of tornadoes hitting this area, and our tunnels will be excellent storm shelters, as well as a way to get back and forth in severe weather. We have found plenty of the large pipes that I have been referring to as conduit, so we might just as well use it. Our biggest problem is that Jenna and James are our only masons at this time, and they can only be in one place at a time. We are taking care of that though, because we have several men that want to learn to do what they are doing, and are working very hard right alongside them.

  Josh, who was kind of the leader of
the group that joined us on Christmas, and Isaac, who is another of that group, are working like mad men learning all they can. They are already able to work on one area while James and Jenna work on another. We expect that we will be able to break into two or three crews soon, and really get to work on the projects at the other groups as well. We have decided to look for more of the pre-fabricated homes, and if we can find more, we would like to start at the other groups and work toward each other, forming like a big square of homes with a roughly 20 square miles of land in the middle. It will take quite a while to accomplish our goals, but what else have we got to do, besides make sure we have enough food to eat and see if we can find any others who need a place to live.

  The days go by, and every day we see that we are getting closer to our objectives and growing closer as a family. We are now through January, and the basement and foundation is almost ready to have the house put into place. I am still not sure how we are going to accomplish that, but the others assure me they know what they are doing. I hope so, with my luck I will probably be standing in the worse possible place if something does go wrong. I have been spending most of my time at the mill, where we are cutting lumber to be used for building and other projects. We have been going out into the woods and finding the hardwood trees that are already down that are still solid. That’s like maple, walnut, oak, locust, and ash. We have found that some woods cut better than others, and some dull the blade up pretty badly when you cut them. We are getting a pretty good supply of lumber cut and stacked to season before using it.

  Teddy, Jerry, and Steve have become very good hunters. They have another friend about their age who is learning also. His name is Trey. He is from Ryan’s group, but seems to spend more time at our house now than he does at home. We have had some weddings that really didn’t surprise anyone. The dormitory for the single guys is losing many of its occupants, but we have more young men that will be old enough to stay there soon. There always seems to be a time in a young man’s life when he just wants to be on his own, even if it is only a hundred yards from his parents. Tomorrow is the day we are going to put Billy’s house on the foundation, and get it ready to live in. It will take more than one day to get it ready, but at least we will be able to work indoors to finish it.