Ken sets up the radio as soon as he finds a building with an antenna. Some of us go with a couple of the group members to gather food and other supplies we will need, while some of us go looking for vehicles enough to get us all home. We are able to find two large vans that will hold approximately thirty of the people, and get them running before we have to quit because of darkness. It sure is cold here at night, even with Robin and Teddy snuggled up close I am freezing most of the night. We decide we do not have enough drivers to use vans to get everyone back, so we go looking for a decent bus or two. While we are looking for a bus, we find a group of five walking into the city looking for food and shelter. It is a mom, a dad, her younger sister, and their two children. When we explain what we are doing, they ask if they can come along. They can’t see how they have anything to lose.
We find the bus we are looking for, but it takes a little longer than we thought it would to get running, so we are now a little behind schedule. I mention this to Robin when we are getting ready to go to sleep, and she laughs at me. She tells me I am the only one in the entire family who is so hung up on time. I guess it is just a carryover from my past life. As a Navy SEAL time and schedules were very important. If you miss the extraction team, for whatever reason, it meant that you now have to find your own way back. In this case it is different though, because one day or the next doesn’t mean that much.
Actually in this case it does, because we get over a foot of snow overnight and now the bus is having trouble holding the road. The vans are not much better. We are about to quit for the day when we find a pickup truck with a plow on the front. It takes a couple of hours to get it in shape to run and we take off south again. Somehow or other we are going back on a different road than we came up on and nothing looks familiar. We have maps to help us find our way back so we are not worried. The plow moves enough snow going first to allow the vans and buses to get through with minimal trouble. When we finally stop for the night, we have ninety scared new family members. We find a motel for the night, so we can at least take hot showers and order room service. Yeah right, we do stay at a motel, but it has been abandoned since the war.
It is out of the cold though and there are plenty of rooms for everyone. When we get out to the vehicles in the morning, we have ten new friends sleeping in the bus. It’s a good thing we have the pickup, because we have just enough room for everyone to sit with two people in the cab of the pickup with the driver. At least today we drive out of the snow, so we can make better time. When we finish for the day, we figure we will get home probably early afternoon, the day after tomorrow. The day goes by quite boringly, when around mid afternoon we get about twenty motorcycles driving all around us, cutting in and out of the paths of the vehicles. They are shooting guns, but up into the air, so no one is getting hurt. The bikes are gone as quickly as they came upon us. It’s a good thing, because although all the men are driving at this time, the women can shoot every bit as good as we can. We really don’t want to kill anyone who doesn’t mean us any harm.
We don’t see the riders again today, but we post guards to make sure we don’t wake up to any major surprises. We have been discussing how we are going to find housing for all of the people we are bringing back. We were expecting sixty, and between the first bus and this group we have more than twice that number. Before we get home, I can’t remember what day this is, we are telling everyone about the farms we live on. When we get home there are several people from each group here to greet the newcomers. The new people are all in awe of what we have here. Everyone gets fed a good meal before we determine where everyone will live, at least for the time being. Everyone has been busy getting housing ready since we have been gone. They have brought ten trailer homes back to the groups and have them at least in place, even if they do not all have electricity to them yet. It looks like we will have to put up a few more windmills to take care of the increased demand. We have had to do that already, so it is not like we don’t know what to do.
Barb takes us aside and tells us we have a major problem on our hands with the group that didn’t want to allow any more people to join us. They have been openly hostile and rude to the new people that came back just before we got back. Apparently the leader of the group told Barb that if she didn’t like it, then she and the rest of the people that think like her can pack up and leave. We have too many people to find places to live at the moment for us to address this problem, but we will be speaking with those people first thing tomorrow.
When we finally get everyone settled in, and have dinner, it is after nine at night. We can finally relax a little and discuss the trip. Bob, Trevor, and Blake come to the door asking if they can speak with us for a minute. Naturally we tell them they are more than welcome anytime. Bob is doing the talking and isn’t quite sure how to ask what they want to know. I think I know what they want, so I tell them they are more than welcome to stay with us, as long as they are willing to do their share of the work. They are very relieved to say the least. They tell us they are just tired of running around the country all the time looking for something that we have, a home. By the time they go back to the barracks in the barn, which is full to capacity now by the way, we have decided that they will stay here with us, but will travel around looking for people to join our settlement.
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In the morning we no sooner finish breakfast, when we get a call on the radio from Barb. She says we need to come to her group as soon as possible, because there is definitely going to be trouble between some of the new people, and some of the not so new people. The ones who have been causing the trouble have not been here a full year yet. They are some of the group that came down when we went to Rochester last winter. Apparently it is only a handful of men and women, but it is the first trouble like this that we have had. On the way over to Barbs, we are discussing the issues and so far we have come up with throwing them out, trying to talk some sense into them, and exterminating them. Of course we will try talking some sense into them before we do either of the other options.
When we get to the farm there is definitely tension that is about to erupt into violence. Several men are carrying weapons and are threatening some of the new people, as well as established members of this group. We brought the members of the council that live in our group and the other members of the council from the other groups arrive only a few minutes after us. The first thing we do is ask the men with the guns to put them up where they belong and we will discuss their concerns as civilized people. We have never subscribed to the principle that the strongest are right and everyone has to do what they say. At first they are reluctant to put the guns down, but with the presence of all of us, they agree to talk. We are under no delusions, the only reason they laid down their weapons is because they are outnumbered. I don’t know how the others feel about these discussions, but I do not hold much hope for keeping our family intact.
It bothers me that we will most likely be losing some of our friends today, but in my opinion it is inevitable. History has shown that most people simply cannot live the way we do. The Bible refers to it as the natural man. I interpret it as the ego and the greed of most people. I have been hoping that perhaps the way our people had to live before coming here, would be incentive enough to make living the way we do inviting enough to stick with it. Unfortunately as Ma Horton would say:
“No matter how fresh the fruit is when you pick it, eventually you will find a rotten apple in the basket and that one bad apple can ruin several before you find it.”
Well it looks like we have found some rotten apples, now what we have to figure out is how many they are taking with them. Tim and I are no longer part of the council, but when we held the elections about two months ago it was decided, almost unanimously, that we should be included in all decisions, because just about everyone feels that we were responsible for us settling here. We are going to meet in the large meeting house that this group has. We have the entire council which is made up of representatives from each gr
oup. Seeing who the trouble makers are, I remember that these same guys complained at the council nominations that none of them were picked. It was explained to them at the time, that the nominations are made by the members of each family. If they were not nominated at this time, it is quite possible that their family members don’t know them well enough.
That time I was in the mood to be diplomatic, this time I’m not. Several members of the group that is causing trouble are still carrying guns when they start to file into the meeting house. The council came in first to hear what has been going on and to bring everyone up to speed on why we are here. I tell the first one through the door that he and anyone else packing a gun, will have to leave it outside. On second thought we tell them to leave the guns on the table at the back of the room. At first they say they are not carrying guns, but when I tell them the meeting is over they have ten minutes to pack and leave, they agree to leave their guns in the back. I whisper to Tim and to Gary, who is one of the new members of the committee, that we better be ready for an attack. The attitude of these guys tells me that they have something planned, and probably have some accomplices. They are just too sure of themselves and are way too cocky.
The meeting comes to order and the leader stands and tells us they are tired of taking orders and they feel that they should be able to form their own group, where they can do whatever they want to. Marcy, who is from Ryan and Carol’s group, asks them if they don’t work who is going to grow the food and keep the buildings in good shape. One of the others of their group says they will buy food from us, and maybe even pay us to keep their buildings in shape. The smirk on his face makes me believe that these guys actually think they can overpower us and take over. These guys are either total idiots, or they have a lot of friends coming to help them. Just as I am thinking this I recall the motorcycle guys that harassed us the other day. There were a bunch of them, there were about twenty that we could see, but there is no way to know how many were hiding or were elsewhere at the time.
I no sooner get this thought when we hear the dinner bell sounding and gunfire. It’s not dinnertime, so someone is sounding it to let everyone know that there is an emergency. The gunfire tells me that we under attack, plus the guys we are meeting with are trying desperately to get to their guns at the back of the room, but Billy, Ken, Chip, Rod, and Marty just stepped into the room and picked up the guns back there. Tim and I draw our 9mm’s and duck out the back door. I know what you’re thinking, we made them leave their guns in the back, but we had ours all the time. We’re the good guys. We are not planning to make any trouble, well except for the bad guys. We get outside just in time to see several motorcycles speeding away up the road, and several lying on their sides, with what appear to be the riders lying on the ground near them.
Billy and the others are prodding the guys from the meeting out into the street. They are surprised to say the least. They also no longer appear to be so cocky and self assured. Coming across the yard are Teddy, Jerry, and Steve with their rifles trained on the backs of several more of the guys who came from Rochester last year. We meet in about the center of the yard. The leader of the rebels, I guess we can call them, asks if we are going to kill them. I tell them of course we are and I get smacked by Dayna and Robin for saying it. We have discussed what we should do if a situation like this ever comes up. We all hoped it never would, but knowing human nature we were pretty sure it would eventually. I tell them that we tried to listen to their complaints, but they obviously had much more devious intentions than we first thought. Therefore we are left with no alternative than to ask them to leave our settlement. They can take anything that they brought with them, except guns or ammunition. We tell them they can use the motorcycles of the men who were killed in the failed attack.
None of them even go to their homes to retrieve personal belongings. They just grab a motorcycle and take off heading south. We bury the dead, and go on with what we need to do for the rest of the day. Bob, Trevor, and Blake come up to Tim and me after everything has settled down and tell us that we haven’t seen the last of those fifteen that left. We assure them that we are well aware of that, and will probably wind up killing them, or they will kill one of us before all is said and done. Hopefully they will learn their lesson and leave us alone.
At dinner I finally get to find out how Teddy, Jerry, and Steve managed to capture the guys that they did. Teddy says they just got lucky, but Jerry and Steve are more than willing to talk about it. They say that when we went into the meeting, Teddy told them to go to the other two barns and hide in the loft with their guns and wait to see if anybody shows up with guns, or if it looks like anyone is going to hurt the others. They both say they did as they were instructed. Teddy is the same age as they are, but they look up to him, and will always do as he asks. They waited for what seemed like a long time, when finally two of the men from Rochester came up into the lofts with guns. They overheard them talking about shooting anyone who puts up a fight, when the guys on motorcycles get here.
They both say they were scared, and were not quite sure what to do, when they heard the motorcycles coming and the men in the loft started to raise their guns, like they were getting ready to shoot. At that moment, they stepped out from behind the hay bales, where they were hiding, and told the men to drop the guns or they would shoot them. Apparently the men believed them, because they dropped their guns, and when the shooting was over they brought the men down to the street, where they met us. We are all impressed with the initiative of our young men. If there had been six more guns firing from the barn lofts, we definitely would have lost some people today. I look over at Teddy and he smiles and tells me he learned from the best. Bob says that Teddy is right about that, he tells him his dad is the best he has ever seen. Teddy smiles, and says he was referring to Gunny and Grampa Jon. I tell him that’s more like it; we can all laugh about it. Bob, Trevor, and Blake just look confused which makes us laugh even more.
In the morning we all get to meet Morgan and Mike. They get to compare notes with all of us from the other world. They are very much impressed with the progress we have made here. Mike and Morgan are manufacturing specialists. They were on contract with the Air Force, working with companies that manufacture things that the military uses. Since we don’t manufacture anything, we can’t see how they are going to be very helpful to the group, but they are welcome anyway. We have found that it is not always obvious what our family members can bring to the group as far as skills. So far everyone that is staying here is more than willing to do their fair share of the work, and often contribute in many ways that may not be seen by most.
The women are always helping each other, and if someone is not feeling well, there are always others to help her with her housework and children, or to do her job if she has one on the farm. The main interest right now is to make sure everyone has adequate housing for the winter. Bob, Trevor, and Blake are proving to be a huge help in this area. None of them have ever done this kind of work before, but they have traveled all around the area, and seem to have a photographic memory of where the trailer parks are, and even where there are large numbers of pre-fabricated homes. Our other option is to refurbish another farm, or even groups of farms, for the new people. Actually, several of the people who have been here from the beginning, like the idea of establishing another farm, as long as it is not too far away.
We have been searching the area for a couple likely spots and we are really excited about the farms we found today. They are only about two miles away, but they are set back off the main roads where we have never seen them before. They are kind of southwest of us, and would only be a little over a mile from Ryan and Carol’s group. We found them totally by accident, when our hunters were out in that area looking for game; they came upon the farm from the woods. There are five large homes, and four large barns, right at the farm site and we found three more homes about a quarter mile away that are obviously part of this group. All we have time to do today is check them out quickly
, because it gets dark fairly early this time of year. We are going back tomorrow morning first thing with Sara, Gary, Ken, Jenna, and James, heck too many of us are going over to tell you all the names. Let’s just say if we decide to fix these homes up, we will have a good enough crew to get a good start on it.
In the morning we pile into one of the vans, and two pickups full of supplies, so that we can tell if it will be worth doing. The supplies we have are enough parts to rebuild a windmill or two, and a couple of pumps to make sure that these places have good water. We also have a portable generator to check out the electricity in the homes. Bob and his team have already asked if we decide to settle this farm, if they can be part of the group coming over. I noticed that when they asked there were six people asking, not just three. It seems that the trip back from Minneapolis was very romantic for some of those who went. It only takes a couple of hours to determine that we are going to enlarge the groups to include this farm. Once the decision is made, a few of us decide to check out the roads we are on to see if there are any other possible farms.
The roads we are on are all just barely big enough to be called roads. We will have to cut some of the woods out that have all but overgrown the roads. A little over a mile to the south we find three more homes and a large barn. The road runs past here, but turns west at the end of the third house. The names on the mailboxes show that the same family lived in these homes when they were alive. The road goes in a square that is approximately a mile wide, and just about two miles long. We had to cut away some brush to be able to get through, but when we tell everyone about what we saw, they all want to go back with us and see it too. There are a total of sixteen homes on this farm, with plenty of woods for firewood and game. Just like the farms we have already settled, each home had a large garden behind it, and there is plenty of farmland that can be cleared and planted in the spring.
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