Midnight Skills

by William Allen

  “Don’t think so. Not too bad, anyway. Just, well, I guess my sense of humor is a little off.”

  Amy looked hard at Luke, trying to judge his mood before replying.

  “That can happen, sometimes,” she said simply, then changed the subject. “You going to change clothes before the memorial?”

  Even though they’d laid their dead to rest where they’d fallen, a requirement in the new world where refrigeration was spotty and embalming a lost art, Sam and David insisted they hold a ceremony for their dead in the cemetery at dusk.

  “Plan to. Going to go grab something to eat now. You done playing in the dirt?”

  “For now. Let’s get back over to the house and get washed up. Are you sure you’re okay, hon?”

  Looking around, Luke took in the sights of the ranch and his friends and family. Then, glancing up, he paused to examine the gray, overcast sky and the slate-blue clouds hanging.

  “All in all, I think I’m okay, but I’ll bet we get some rain tonight.”

  “Rain is good,” Amy replied philosophically and linked her arm in Luke’s.

  “I guess you’re right,” Luke agreed and let Amy lead him back to the house. The land needed the moisture, and for once, Luke wasn’t going to be stuck out in the weather.

  CHAPTER 26

  That night, after the memorial ceremony, Sam invited everyone from the trip to retrieve the mini-refineries to attend a meeting at the Big House. There, in time-honored tradition, the men gave their reports. Then, in the after-action review, Luke joined the rest of the surviving mission team, minus Scott, while Sam led them in discussing what went right and what went wrong in the trip to Kingwood. Some might call it petty, or a waste of time, but for the youngest member of the team, it offered valuable insights.

  Yes, scouting the route more thoroughly might not have stopped the ambush. The timing and location meant the kill box on the outskirts of Kountze should have been unoccupied, but the same might not have been said of the Homeland base at the truck stop. Sam, over Mike and David’s objections, owned that one.

  “So, what, you expect to read their minds?” David asked pointedly, not wanting his friend to take the responsibility.

  “No, but next time, we will scout more thoroughly,” Sam insisted, and the discussion moved on from there. Some positives were highlighted, however, and Sam managed to give praise where deserved. Sam pointed out the successful raid on the truck stop was nothing short of a miracle, given the short notice and the numbers and equipment possessed by the opposition.

  He walked them through the action at the truck stop, going over crucial details as he pointed to various men to explain their part in the action. Luke listened hard, frequently scribbling notes as the story enfolded. By carefully scouting the porous perimeter before the shooting started, the group managed to identify and exterminate the surviving Homeland thugs with a rapid application of ruthless violence that would have shocked even battle-tested soldiers before the lights went out.

  “Along with knowing the enemy, we seized the initiative back,” Sam explained. “Catching the bad guys off-guard, and off balance, was one of the keys to pulling off the mission.” He then looked around the room, catching the eyes of the men seated in the dining room.

  Luke realized this was not just a simple AAR. His father used the highs and lows of the mission as a teachable moment for these men. A refresher for the veterans, and an introductory lecture course on battlefield management for the neophytes. Their group needed trigger pullers, but it also needed men who could act independently or as leaders of men, to see them through the dark days ahead. Once again, Luke was impressed by the forward thinking of his father, even while he was depressed by the idea. Sam Messner was planning ahead, but it was because he knew their worst days might still be ahead of them.

  After the meeting broke up, Luke hung around in the dining room while his father gathered up his notes and prepared to return home. Pausing for a second, Sam looked around the familiar room and took in the framed family photographs and the old landscape paintings that adorned the walls. Luke heard the heartfelt sigh of his father and wondered what the man was thinking.

  Unlike Luke and his string of base housing accommodations, Sam had spent all of his childhood here, growing up in this house. Sam knew every board that squeaked on the stairs and which windows were easiest to jimmy when he’d snuck out as a teenager. This had been home for so long, but after Augustus was murdered, Sam could barely stand to spend the night under this roof. Not that the house felt haunted, but the familiarity stood as a grim reminder of everything he’d lost. His mother, father, and now his little brother, had all left him behind.

  Luke stood back and let his father struggle with whatever plagued his thoughts, and tried to think of the best way to start this conversation. Unfortunately, the topic he needed to broach was likely not something his father wanted to hear, and thus, Luke decided to cut straight to the chase.

  “Hey, Dad, you have a few minutes to talk?”

  Sensing his son’s hesitation, Sam replied with false cheer.

  “Sure, son. Walk with me and let’s talk about whatever’s on your mind. Let me grab my jacket.”

  Despite the invitation, Luke waited until they were well away from the house before he began to speak.

  “You know how we don’t let Gaddis or Miss Beth or some of the other critical needs people get too far away from home?”

  Sam turned to give Luke his full attention before responding.

  “Yeah, because they have certain skills we can’t readily replace. And Mike is supposed to be on that list, too. Couldn’t help it much this time, since his general knowledge of the oilfield industry was required.”

  “I think we need to add someone else to that list,” Luke explained.

  “Who is that?”

  “You, Dad.”

  “Ouch! What are you saying, I’m too old to cut the mustard? I did a pretty good job against those Homeland mercs this time,” Sam protested, his voice kept low though. He sensed this was a private party, and he didn’t want anyone to overhear this family conversation.

  “No, Dad, that’s why we can’t risk you,” Luke replied calmly. “You are better at this than I am, and better than most we have here. Maybe THE best, which is why we can’t let you go out on more stupid missions like that. Mike, well, he shouldn’t be going either. Neither should the guys we recruited from his machine shop and the ones who’ve shown up like David, but honestly, Mike was the only one who’d ever even seen one of the things in operation. Lee said as much, since he admitted the most he’d ever seen were those shipping cradles the rig hands used to move them.”

  “But I need to stay here because…” Sam pressed, and Luke gave his father a knowing look.

  “Please, Dad, you get it. Don’t play dumb. We need you here, to protect the family. All the families. This isn’t just a Messner operation, or even a Ridley operation anymore. We have collected people from all over into this little bit of cut timber, and the only way it works, is if you are here to run it. To oversee our inevitable expansion, and to defend what is ours.”

  “But I can do that better out there, instead of letting you risk…”

  “Dad, just stop and think. What would have happened to this place, this oasis, if you and Mike had gotten yourselves killed, fighting that useless band of Homeland assholes? Where would we be in six months, or a year?”

  Sam couldn’t meet his son’s eyes, even in the growing gloom of late evening, and he also couldn’t deny his words. He wasn’t willing to give in quite so fast, though.

  “Son, we all have obligations, and people who care about us. It wouldn’t be right for me to not pull my weight or do my fair share. How can I send you out on missions when I won’t go myself? How would your Amy feel about that?”

  Luke, feeling his blood rise, refused to back down from his father. Deep inside, he knew his father needed this confrontation, this show of force from his son, if he was ever going to accept the
necessary. Good, smart generals don’t lead from the front. For all intents and purposes, Luke knew that’s what his father was becoming. Call it Home Guard, or militia, or a warlord’s fiefdom, but he saw the future, and that future meant the settlement needed to continue growing if they were going to survive.

  “Dad, we risk everything every single day just getting out of bed. Is it more dangerous outside the fence? Maybe.” Swallowing heavily, Luke stepped out on the limb and started sawing as he spoke the next words. “But your father and your brother died right here on this ranch. They were struck down defending this family, and I expect we’ll lose more as time goes on. But in order for those sacrifices to mean something, we have to continue. You are our best chance to survive, Dad. You know it.”

  Luke finished his argument with nearly a plea in his voice. Sam didn’t like it, but his son was right. Damn it. He knew it, too.

  “So, you still think we should be expanding more back toward town? Toward Ripley, I mean? You know if we take over those old buildings, we’ll be painting a big old target on our backs. With the drones, that might mean literally.”

  Luke knew from his father’s question, changing the topic, that he’d won. Nothing might ever be said, but this was his father’s way of conceding the point. Luke could live with that. As they continued back over to the House Under the Hill, Luke replied to his father’s concerns with what answers he possessed.

  “We don’t need to occupy those buildings to preserve them, but we do need to shore up the back wall of the restaurant, if we expect to keep the weather out, and the minimart is in need of some roof repairs. I say, we fix up what we can, add the surviving buildings to our mounted patrols, and then after we get the spring planting done, we look at how to fully utilize the existing structures. In the meantime, we can also salvage everything out of all six buildings still standing in town, move all the furniture and household items to the mini-storage. Assuming Mr. Biscamp is still missing?”

  “Bert’s long gone,” Sam agreed. “He inherited that mini storage place from his dead wife’s family, and he doesn’t have any other kinfolks around the area that I know about. He probably lit out for his own family’s place, back around Dayton, I think, as soon as he figured out the lights weren’t coming back on anytime soon.”

  “Fine,” Luke said. “We need to mount a sweep of the town, pull everything immediately useful, and stash the rest at the mini-storage. Also, picking the town clean will reduce our rat population, both the four-legged and two-legged variety.”

  “Jeez, listen to you!” Sam exclaimed, his earlier humor regained. “Maybe we need to bow to the inevitable and name you king. I’ll be Phillip to your Alexander.”

  “Ha. Ha. Very funny,” Luke deadpanned. “All that actually comes from Amy, so I guess we need to size the crown down a bit. No, I have no desire to conquer the known world. I’ve read several books about that, actually. Fiction and non-fiction. Want to know one thing I noticed?”

  “What’s that?” Sam asked, and his tone let Luke know his father was really listening closely now.

  “Well, Alexander might have spread his empire throughout Asia Minor, but nothing really stuck after his death. Plus, his family didn’t fare so well in the aftermath. No, I’ll stick with just keeping my head down right here and building up our little corner of the world.”

  What was the expression? Man plans and God laughs.

  CHAPTER 27

  Luke knocked on the door of the travel trailer David used as the guard shack for the farm next to the Messner Ranch. David answered the door with his pistol drawn but holstered the weapon when he spotted Luke in the darkness under the oak tree.

  “Did Tammy see you?” David asked.

  Luke nodded, but answered when he realized the motion would be lost in the shadows. “Yes, she caught me out by the back gate. She’s pretty good, and as a bonus, she didn’t shoot me.”

  “Well, that’s always a plus. Come on in before I let all the bugs join us. How’s the head?”

  “Still full of rocks, if you listen to my momma. Headaches are about gone, and I don’t see that halo thing anymore. So, about on par according to Miss Beth.”

  David stepped back into the trailer and let Luke enter before shutting the door behind him. David locked the deadbolt and turned on a dim light. “What’s got you up and about so early?” David asked while he set the light on the table and pushed the notebook aside. He had been going over the latest production numbers from their garden and greenhouse, wishing for better yields.

  “I’ve got something for you,” Luke said, and he pulled out a folded piece of paper, unfolded it, and laid it on the table before David. David tapped on the single sheet of paper laid on the table before him and squinted at the confusing lines and symbols. He spun the paper ninety degrees, and the symbols still made Mandarin look understandable in comparison.

  “What the hell am I looking at, Luke? Is this a new hazing ritual, like sending me over to the motor pool to get a can of beep for the Hummer? I’ve had that happen to me before, and I skipped over to the PX and blew an hour shopping instead of falling for that crap.” David spun the paper again, and the symbols perplexed him further.

  “My dad thought you would be the logical choice for this project, Mr. Metcalf. I have cobbled together a few radios and passed them out, but they just don’t have the range. On top of that, we need more components to make more of them.”

  “This is a schematic for a radio?” David looked at the hand-drawn symbols and scratched at his chin. “You did this?”

  “Yeah, like I said, this is a simple design. We need better range, if we are going to push our security further out. All these trees soak up the signal pretty fast. Dad agrees we need more repeaters put up, so those little radios have something to connect to with more power. We could have used better comms when we made the run to Kingwood. I got to thinking, nobody would have known what happened to us if everything had gone sideways.”

  “You mean more sideways,” David mutters.

  “Yeah, and I’m sorry we lost your guys, David. But you saw what happened. I can’t think of what else we could have done.”

  The older man thought about that, and the after-action report they’d hashed out the night before. He knew Luke was right, but it still hurt losing men.

  “We got lucky, Luke.” David thought for a second. “Aren’t you worried about getting detected and having a bomb dropped on us?” David stood and bumped his head on the low cabinet over the tiny dinette. The whole travel trailer shook from the impact, and David slapped at the offending wood.

  “Why do you use this trailer instead of the farmhouse? You would have more room than this thing.” Luke felt the tremors as a pair of tiny feet hit the floor in the rear compartment of the overhauled toy trailer. Regina shuffled down the short hall using her hand to guide her way in the gloom. She yawned and stretched.

  “You hit your head again, didn’t you?”

  David’s adopted daughter stood in oversized red plaid pajamas and thick socks. The coming winter made the trailer cool at night, so they all slept under multiple quilts and blankets they had scavenged from abandoned homes and antique stores during their exodus to Ripley.

  David rubbed at the new knot on the crown of his head. “I need to start wearing a hard hat in here. I’m sorry I woke you.” He hung his head in shame.

  “Nature was calling anyway.” Regina looked at the clipboard leaning next to the stovetop and checked the guard roster. She keyed the handheld radio and spoke into the microphone. “Tammy, I’m going to use the outhouse. I’ll call again when I’m back inside.” She waited for a response before exiting the trailer. David shut off the single light on the table until Regina had shut the door behind her.

  Luke pointed to the radio. “That’s only good for the immediate area. We could be so much more effective and responsive if the area around Ripley had something that’s easy to use, with someone constantly monitoring the net.”

  “That’s good
in theory, but how are the users going to power those radios when the batteries run out?” Davis paced the small kitchen area. “We don’t have enough fuel to run the generators, except to run the well pump. That’ll change, once Mike gets the refinery running, but that’s not the main problem. This little light,” he pointed at the single light source in the trailer, “has a battery that’s recharged by the crank, and I can tell it’s not going to last another month with as often as we use it. That’s the problem, because stuff will wear out.”

  “And that’s where you come in, Mr. Metcalf. We can’t depend on unlimited parts resupply when something breaks down. We depleted all of the modules and circuitry in storage to get a handful of Bradleys up and running back in Arkansas. This can’t continue indefinitely.” Luke pointed at the light on the table. “Eventually, we have to start making our own tech to replace what’s going to break or wear out. You may not be an expert in radios, but you are probably the only person I know who can pull the right people together to get this off the ground.” Luke placed the black gym bag he had brought with him on the table and pulled out a stack of hardbound books. “This will get you started. I have tools and equipment back at the house, but you should start with understanding the theory.”

  David sat at the dinette and opened the first book on the stack and thumbed through the pages. “Do you understand all of this?” He glanced up at Luke.

  “I’ve had my Technician license since I was ten, but I really didn’t get into the advanced stuff. I mostly used the handheld radios and scanned the UHF and VHF repeaters for signal traffic, but when the police and fire departments went to digital gear with encryption, I lost interest. Most of the time, I listened in on old farts talking about random stuff.”

  “So, there are other people around here who have amateur radio gear?” David brightened at the idea of getting off the hook, but his hopes were dashed when Luke frowned and shook his head.