Unfortunately, Nathan knew they were working against the clock. They needed to act, and act decisively, before the Sheriff and his remaining deputies all perished trying to protect a gaggle of defenseless women and children.
When Jasmine got up to leave, carrying her tray in one hand and a sleeping Emma in the other, Nathan leaned forward and spoke so only she could hear.
“Stay. Let Natalie take doodlebug home.”
“But Nathan, I shouldn’t be…”
“Yes, you should. Stay. Please,” he stressed the last word, and Jasmine saw the expression in Nathan’s eyes. He wasn’t just asking to be polite.
“Sure, but won’t some of them be upset?”
“Fuck ‘em,” Nathan said, some of his bravado coming through as he offered her a mischievous grin. “You’re my partner, right? And you are going to be my wife. They might as well get used to seeing you in these meetings.”
As the last few diners filed out, Nathan and Jasmine left the table and wandered into the kitchen to help Isaac and Ruth finish washing the dishes. In spite of the EMP, the automatic dishwashers for the plates, glasses, and silverware continued to function, leaving only the pots and pans for manual cleaning.
“I can’t believe the washers survived,” Jasmine commented. Of course, the electrical equipment in the buried tunnel homes still functioned, but this one-story, metal-walled structure was seemingly exposed to the force of the electromagnetic pulse.
“Oh, honey,” Ruth said with a forced laugh. “I wouldn’t let the boys install a single electric plug before we had the design in place to turn the whole building into a giant Faraday cage. I wasn’t ready to start cooking for this many over an open fire pit, or on a wood-burning stove.”
“Place is a real energy hog, too,” Isaac chimed in, rinsing out the last of the dishes as he placed them in the tray for the washer. “Needed more juice here than we could figure out how to supply at first. Leave it up to Nathan to find us a solution.”
“Don’t say it that way,” Nathan protested as he sealed up the plastic bucket with the evening meal’s scraps. “You’d already figured out how to use the hydro-generators.”
“Where does that go?” Jasmine asked, pointing at the bucket Nathan was carrying to the back door.
“Hogs,” Nathan replied cheerfully. “We feed them, so they feed us. Circle of bacon. I mean, circle of life. We try to avoid unnecessary waste.”
“Yes, and yes, Nathan, we already had the little water bugs, but they barely produced enough to keep the lights on in the houses when running the well pumps,” Isaac declared, a twinkle in his eye as he added the last bit. “You were the one who tracked down the brilliant engineering student who designed Bertha and her offspring. They went all the way to Moscow to get her.”
“Moscow?” Jasmine said with a start, visions of leggy, blonde, Russian runway models dancing in her head, but then she jerked her eyes back to Isaac as Ruth tried to conceal her grin. “Trying to mess with the new girl, eh? Moscow, Idaho, home of the University of Idaho and the Fighting…what are they called?” She paused, looking at Nathan.
“The Vandals,” he replied with a satisfied smile.
“Appropriate, in this day and age, I guess,” Jasmine responded with a smile of her own, but this one was sad and knowing. She could only imagine the state of the campus by this point.
“And I think that’s our cue to get this meeting started,” Isaac noted, stroking his beard. “Before the young lady decides to take her revenge for our little misdirection.”
The council gathered at one of the larger tables in the mess hall, and Jasmine took a moment to look around at the expectant, or in the case of Anita, disagreeable faces as Nathan led her to a seat. To no one’s surprise, Anita spoke up before Nathan could even open his mouth.
“What is she doing here?” Anita all but snarled, her eyes cutting to the younger woman. “I thought this was supposed to be a council meeting. Unless she’s here to take the minutes, of course. Is your new girlfriend supposed to be the new secretary?”
“Floyd,” Nathan said conversationally. “Control your woman. Now.” Nathan continued, not skipping a beat, “You all might as well get used to seeing my fiancé here. She will attend council meetings when I’m unavailable, and she will have my proxy. But that’s not why I asked for this meeting.”
When the murmuring subsided, Nathan held up a hand, like a child in school asking to be recognized. Vince, fighting to hide a grin of his own, pointed to Nathan to speak.
“I’m sure all of you have heard about our visit to my home,” Nathan said, stressing the word ‘home’ as he spoke. “Sheriff Hargrove, at the invitation of my friends, has taken shelter there with seven deputies and their families. They’ve had a hard go of it, getting attacked several times by bands of looters and outlaws. No doubt, some of the same people we were trying to lock up before all this mess started.”
“Even all the way out there?” blurted out Greg, who quickly colored with embarrassment at his own outburst.
Nathan nodded before continuing. “The sheriff said the violence in town has grown out of control, and they’ve also been unable to do much to stem the tide out in the county. The town itself is under control of the Chinese, however tenuous, and there’s not much he can accomplish there. But the county is another matter.”
“What do you mean, Nathan? What can he do with so few deputies?” Vince’s question was a legitimate one, and Nathan had expected it.
“If the Sheriff could get just two or three of those deputies out on patrol, either on horseback or even on foot, and they had reliable communications, he could do a lot for that area. Seeing the enemy coming is half the battle, my daddy always said.”
“Well, I’m sorry, but we don’t have any radios to spare,” Floyd murmured, sighing apologetically. “We need everything we have here.”
“Oh, don’t worry about the radios,” Nathan replied with a dismissive wave. “I picked up some stuff along the way they can use. No, my proposal is to take some of that weight off Sheriff Hargrove, and invite some of his dependents to stay in Jeremey and Vickie’s house instead.”
“Uh, what?” Lanny asked, clearly startled by the proposal.
As Vince cleared his throat to speak, Anita took the opportunity to voice her displeasure.
“HELL, NO!” she bellowed, her tone and volume such that a Marine Corps drill instructor might have approved. “You are NOT bringing in some useless bunch of leeches who will consume food and resources meant for THIS group!”
Pausing for breath, she continued her rant with her outside voice at full volume. “We let you bring in your gang of knuckle-dragging Neanderthals because Vince said they would make good security, but having a bunch of strangers here would not only deplete our supplies, but also endanger our safety!”
Jasmine watched Nathan with nervous attention as Anita’s rant went on along the same vein for another minute. She knew Nathan detested the woman, but he seemed undeterred by her vicious flow of words. Looking at him more closely, she saw Nathan was wearing his wireless earbuds.
Finally, Nathan nodded to himself and stood, catching the others by surprise. All except Jasmine, who continued to study her man and saw when his thighs flexed, telegraphing the move.
“Now, if you’re about done spewing your filth, maybe the grown-ups can have a chance to talk while you go polish your claws or buff your boobs,” Nathan said with a condescending tone that made Jasmine stifle a laugh. “The people who actually matter will likely have some questions.”
Damn, that boy can do snotty when he wants to, Jasmine decided.
“Nathan,” Vince began, picking his words carefully as he spoke. “You know I want to do what’s right. I want to help those who are in danger out there. The stories you’ve shared, frankly scare the hell out of me.” Reaching out, he found his wife’s hand under the table and gave her a squeeze, which she returned.
“While I cannot fault your altruism, I can’t see how exposing this refu
ge to the danger of detection can have any long-term benefits. Wasn’t it Rusty who said we needed to lay low and not attract any attention? Despite our favorable position here, hidden in the mountains, I worry about word getting out. On top of the security concern, there’s the issue of feeding that many refugees without endangering our own members.”
“Vince, I agree with everything you’ve said,” Nathan replied serenely, which earned a few surprised gasps from the others. “We are too few to fight off a determined, well supported attack. That’s why we need to spend more time working out our contingencies. But if we can take in these people, it shouldn’t expose us to more danger of discovery. You see, we won’t be bringing in anybody who doesn’t agree to stay here, on site, for at least a year. They come here, it’s for the long haul, and no one, not even their family in town, will know this location.”
“Well, they can’t have any of our food,” Anita proclaimed loudly. “My family has invested too much…”
“Jeez, Anita, give it a rest,” Nathan interrupted. “Yes, you are entitled to the stores set aside by your father.” Then muttering under his breath, Nathan continued, “Lord knows, you haven’t actually contributed a broken nail or a calloused finger to help.”
“I heard that!” Anita shrieked, and Nathan had to laugh.
“Apparently, the only thing you’ve got that does any actual work is them ears and that mouth, Anita. Again, let the grown-ups talk. Also, you can forget about making any claim on the supplies left by Jeremey and Vickie. That was your plan, right? Once you’d burned through what your dad had stashed back for you, you planned to take the provisions set aside for the members not present? Like you wanted with the provisions from my home? Yes, I heard about that, too.”
“Nathan, let’s try to stick with the topic at hand,” Vince said, seeing Nathan getting ready for one of his patented tantrums.
“Yes, honey, focus,” Jasmine whispered, and rubbed his leg under the table. That simple act got Nathan thinking about rubbing, and a goofy grin suddenly sprouted across his tanned features. Then Jasmine pinched his thigh, and his mind came back to the proposal.
“Look, folks, I understand your reluctance,” Nathan finally said. “I’m right there with you on the need for discretion. Fact is, this is still a triage situation. We can’t go inviting in every lost soul, much as we might want to. I wish we could. I really think, if we could relieve some of the pressures on the sheriff, the results for our safety and security here would be worth the effort.”
“So, how many are you talking about, Nathan?” Lanny asked, and Nathan knew he had them thinking. “And do you have a breakdown of who you want to bring in?”
“No solid numbers at this time, but I’m estimating not more than twenty. That’s women and children only,” Nathan said. He’d gotten the numbers from the sheriff, but Nathan wasn’t sure if that included all their families or not.
“We can feed them for quite some time out of Jeremey and Vickie’s supplies, Nathan,” Isaac said. “But what happens if the two of them somehow make it back from Belize? I know you said it was unlikely, but well, you came back.”
“Then I’ll make up the difference, Isaac. Much as I’d love to see that happen, I’m sad to say, their chances aren’t good. Also, no matter what the conditions there are, our friends would be much better off staying in Belize.”
With that somber reminder of not just Jeremey and Vickie, but all their absent friends, Nathan got the discussion back on track. As expected, Anita fought every step of the way, but Nathan sensed agreement from the others. For the other members of the shareholder council, the idea of helping people in this time of crisis seemed to serve as a substitute for aiding their own loved ones trapped too far away.
In the end, Nathan didn’t get the vote he was pushing for, but he hadn’t really expected it this soon. Let them think it over for a few days, Nathan resolved, and they could hold the vote in three days at the regularly scheduled meeting. Nathan felt sure he had their attention now.
He didn’t mention his plan to bring more ammunition to the sheriff, to go along with the radios. As long as Sheriff Hargrove was willing to use it on anyone threatening the farm, Nathan was willing to draw the cases of ammunition out of his own stocks. The way Nathan looked at it, every thug taken out by Sheriff Hargrove and his men was one less crossing the mountain passes later.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Walking into the dining hall carrying Emma, “-so what is your point of aim?” Nathan finished asking a question. Most looked over when the group walked in to see Nathan, John, Tom, and Natalie in full tactical gear.
“Your point of aim would be six high and eight mils to the right,” Amanda called out as they headed to the table.
“Very good, firecracker,” Nathan said, putting Emma down.
“You need to let us answer some questions,” John popped off as he took a small backpack off.
“Get faster,” Amanda huffed.
Walking over to hang up his M4, “I’m going to start dipping, just so I can spit in your ear,” John threatened.
“Nathan used it all up,” Amanda chided.
Spinning around with fire in her eyes, “You started dipping again?!” Sherry shouted at Nathan.
“Yeah, I was a little distraught with being caught thousands of miles from home!” Nathan shouted back as Emma jabbered behind him. “Emma, I don’t care if there is cake left from last night, you aren’t getting any at lunch unless you eat all your breakfast.”
Putting Chip down, Jasmine gave an impressed nod. “And you say you don’t understand what she says.”
“I don’t,” Nathan snapped, walking over and hanging up his M4. “I have the sudden desire to eat cake, and I don’t like vanilla cake!”
With a wild look in his eyes, John stormed over to the table glaring at Amanda, Casey, and Natalie. “All of you need to stop that!” he shouted at them. “Just ask! Don’t be putting shit in our heads!”
Amanda and Casey looked at John like he was insane, but Natalie gave a small grin. “What the hell are you talking about?” Natalie asked.
“Oh, don’t play dumb, we know,” John said, spinning on his heel and heading for the food.
“All of you really need to stop,” Tom nodded, then took off after John.
“Okay,” Amanda said, turning to Nathan. “What was that about?”
“Like you don’t know,” Nathan snorted as he picked up Emma. “No cake!” he snapped at Emma, and she let out a torrent of babble.
Taking a deep breath, Amanda started rubbing her temples. “Oh, I’m getting a headache.”
“What?” Vince asked, walking over.
“Boys are giving me a headache,” Amanda stated, then glanced up to see who was talking. “Oh, don’t even think about extending my light duty, my headache is from boys,” she snarled at Vince.
“Amanda, I hate to tell you, but boys will be giving you headaches for years to come,” Vince grinned, then patted her head. “I’ll see you two in the morning.”
“What?” Libby blurted out.
“Vince comes over in the mornings for workouts, telling Amanda and Casey what they can and can’t do,” Sherry grinned.
“It’s not funny!” Amanda cried out. “He put us on light duty for a month. A Month!”
“Amanda, I can’t go on patrol either, since some of our group is here,” Jasmine said with a hostile tone.
Janice got up as Chip ran around the table to her. “You really want to go on patrol?” she asked in a shocked tone.
“Hell, yeah,” Jasmine snapped. “I’m responsible for mine and my family’s safety. I don’t trust anyone else on that, sorry. Stuck here, I can’t put what I’ve already learned to practice.”
“Shit, you see what they do to girls out there and you would demand to fight, just so you could kick some ass when it comes for you,” Amanda spat out, pushing back from the table. “Jasmine, go get the tray from Nathan. Emma’s trying to climb up on the counter for the cake.”
> Getting up quickly, “You’re taking care of Emma today,” Jasmine snapped, taking off.
“Hey, I’m on light duty, and nothing about Emma is ‘light’!” Amanda shouted, walking around the table and heading to the food line.
“Casey, you’ll help with Emma, won’t you?” Natalie asked, getting up. Emma was their sister, but still a pain to deal with.
“Sure,” Casey grinned, getting up.
Tyler jumped up and stormed over to his dad. “I’m older than all three of them and they’re going?!”
Taking a deep breath, Bill let it out slowly. “Son, I don’t care if they were growing a third arm out of their ass,” Bill replied. “Once your mom and I agree, and you learn how to move on patrol, then we’ll talk.”
With his face red, Tyler stomped off. “I agree with Amanda, boys give you a headache,” Bill sighed.
“I thought you were going to talk to Nathan about the kids going on patrol,” Janice said.
“I did, and he said it was a good idea the other kids didn’t go on patrol until they learned what to do,” Bill told her. “He told me I couldn’t say shit about his kids. Trust me, those weren’t his words, but that was the idea.”
“So, do we need to let Tyler go with you on patrol?” Janice asked.
Shaking his head slightly as he rubbed his temples, “Not until he learns how to move on patrol,” Bill answered, thinking back to the range. “What they know on the range doesn’t translate to real life. It helps, but he needs to know how to put what he’s learned into practice.”
“In case you’re wondering, if Amanda and Casey weren’t on light duty, they would be going, as would Jasmine,” Sherry told everyone. “I would be stuck babysitting Chip and Emma.”
War Zone: Homefront Page 11
