by Steven Smith
"Go ahead, stone," came Mike's reply.
"Their leader is going to come out in a bit to bring them in for breakfast. His name is Mason. They are friendlies. Then you can come back in, but leave two scouts on lookout."
"Okay, stone. See you in a bit."
Breakfast was a major affair with the Vikings coming in. The deep throated rumble of twenty-one heavy bikes reverberated throughout Stonemont, announcing their arrival and drawing everyone to the commons to see what was going on.
The Vikings had been wary at first, hesitant to enter into the enclosure of Stonemont except for the trust they had in their leader and their concern for Austin. They had been welcomed by Jim, Kelly, Bonnie and the Garners, and were surprised when Jim told them they could either rack their weapons on the patio or keep them, whichever they preferred.
The long tables were set up and the Vikings joined the Stonemont residents in loading their plates with oatmeal, pancakes and ham. At first, the groups stayed separate, but they soon began to intermingle as curiosity grew among each group about the other, and, by the end of breakfast, the two groups were almost indistinguishable as they asked and answered questions about their lives and experiences over the last months. Jim and Mason had joined the group in order to help facilitate the mingling, then joined the Stonemont core on the patio for breakfast where the conversation soon returned to subject they had touched on the previous night.
"Mason and I were talking again about how things have changed and what we may have ahead of us," said Jim. "We all have a good idea of why things went to hell, and I think we pretty much agree on the reasons. Whether we agree on the solution is something I don't know, but I think it's important to discuss and find out."
Jim looked around and found that everyone was looking at him intently. He had known that this subject needed to be discussed, and had recently felt a pressing need to bring it up. Perhaps the others had too.
"Like so many my age, I was raised in a family that held strictly to one political party. I went along with it because I thought that my family must know best, of course not realizing that those with opposing views held them for much the same reason. When I started to pay attention and had more responsibilities, my politics became more conservative. Then when I really started paying attention I became much more libertarian."
Several around the table nodded their heads.
"We may be starting from a clean slate," Jim continued. "Or there may be a remnant of government, whether it be local, state or federal, that remains, and that may try to reestablish authority. We need to consider how we want to live and what each of us wishes to do in each of those situations, and to what extent those of us here either agree or disagree."
The table was silent until Bill cleared his throat. "I'll resist the temptation to stand, but I feel I must point out that, in the eventuality that no functional government exists, our discussion and subsequent actions carry with them the possible import of nothing less than the Mayflower Compact, which set the first foundation stone for what became the United States of America. If some vestige of government remains, our exercise may necessarily approach the character of the Declaration of Independence. That is a sobering thought, and I believe we should take each step with the measured tread its importance demands, as well as the petition to Providence, which our forefathers declared to be central to both their deliberations and their actions."
"I think that might have deserved you standing," said Christian, whose smile did not hide the sober appreciation in his eyes.
Bill gave a small smile. "Then I would like to suggest a few starting points for us to ponder in preparation for our discussions. The first is the legitimacy of government - any government. The second is the proper function of government. And the third is the proper structure to contain a government within that proper function."
The table again fell silent until Jim spoke. "Agreed. This is going to take a lot of thought, discussion and time. There are two other people I want to invite to join us, Pasquale Paoli and Sheriff Freelove. We'll contact them both, and set a tentative meeting date here at Stonemont in about two weeks."
17
The planned two weeks became a month in order to allow Sheriff Freelove to contact and invite another sheriff and an officer with the Kansas Highway Patrol with whom he remained in contact, but that month was a busy one.
Mason had taken the Vikings back to Booker's Crossing, as the Booker's place and Boomers had become collectively known, after he was sure Austin was stable and recovering, leaving Austin and Bonnie at Stonemont for another week. Bonnie became a constant helper and companion of Kelly and Ann, while Austin stayed as close as he could to Christian and Mike, picking up what he could as he watched them train the scouts and continue working on security measures. When Austin was healed enough to travel, Jim, Mike and four scouts took them back to Booker's Crossing, then went on to Osage County to invite Sheriff Freelove to the meeting. From there, they returned to see Pasquale.
Redemption was doing well, if its people were a bit leaner from the hard work and more natural diet. They had lost two members, one to an accident while cutting a tree and another to apparent natural causes, but several families from Family Church had joined them, as had more families from the surrounding neighborhoods, and all seemed to be fitting in well. The acres Ralph had tilled were starting to produce and it looked like they could expect a good harvest.
Pasquale was his usual self, cheerful and overflowing with energy, and agreed to attend the meeting as well as to conduct an archery class at Stonemont. When Jim asked him about the Hansons, Pasquale told him the Family Church members had kept them and their security detail on half rations and for twice as long as they had held the members, then led them out of town. None of them had been seen since. The one thing that concerned Pasquale was that the sprawling former Family Church now stood empty. Located on a hill only a quarter mile from Redemption, he felt it could be a threat if it were taken over by the wrong people.
At Stonemont, they had continued to run road salvage operations, securing more trucks filled with everything from food to household items to furniture, plus another tanker of diesel fuel. Jim had instructed that every load should be brought in, as there was no way to know what future needs might be and anything they couldn't use could possibly be traded as more groups of survivors were contacted.
Daily runs were made to several Home Depots, Lowes and smaller hardware stores, from which they brought back construction materials, tools, hardware, fencing, seeds, fertilizer and anything else they felt would be useful.
Construction was started on a main "long house" in the middle of the commons, a large root cellar and a chicken house. The long house would serve to house residents during the upcoming winter, until individual houses could be built for those who wanted them, at which time it would be converted to a central hall. The root cellar was constructed by digging into a hill, building the cellar with filled and reinforced concrete blocks and covering the post and beam roof with several feet of earth, and would allow the potatoes, turnips, beets, onions, carrots and other produce to be stored through the winter. The chicken house would hold up to two hundred laying hens.
The front gate entrance was redesigned to require two right angle turns to access the driveway from the road, and was built shoulder high with reinforced concrete and stone. Heavy iron gates were set into the concrete at both the outer and inner openings, and a steel reinforced bridge spanned the newly dug trench that ran outside the iron fence across the front of the property. The trench was twelve feet wide and six feet deep, and was designed as a vehicle obstruction as well as an anti-personnel barrier. Construction waste would be thrown into the bottom of the trench and soaked with oil, with wire fencing and welded angle-iron added later to create a combined flammable, tangle-foot and caltrop obstruction. The bridge itself was stationary, but would channel any attack from the front of the property to the reinforced zig-zag gate structure.
Two trailers had bee
n taken to a spot just north of the abandoned house, one placed on each side of the road. Each was filled with dirt, then dirt was bulldozed under them in order to create a solid barrier. Steel gates were installed, spanning the road, and steel barrels were set into foot deep holes, secured with rebar driven through the bottoms and several feet into the ground and filled with concrete. They were placed along the road in positions to prohibit straight line vehicular entry, but to allow traffic, including the tractor trailers, to enter and exit in a serpentine course. The house was fitted out as an intake facility for anyone coming to Stonemont and as an office and squad room for those working at what was now being called the contact gate.
Christian and some of the sentry group had constructed tactical barriers around the entire property perimeter, creating approach channels that could more easily be defended than the entire fence line, and two ten-thousand-gallon water tanks they had found had been installed on a hill to the west of the house, providing good water pressure to the compound for daily needs and possible fire suppression.
Ann had supervised the building of a third ram pump to aid in filling and sustaining the large water tanks, and was building a hydroelectric generator that would be placed at a small waterfall in the creek to help keep the compound's batteries charged. She had also designed and overseen the building of pedal powered washing machines and clothes dryers that would be placed in an area of the long house designed as a laundry area. A refugee family had offered to operate the laundry for the community for one credit per load.
Mike had completed the initial phase of the first scout training class, with ten of the original thirteen trainees successfully completing it, and a secondary phase was about to start in the afternoons while a new class started training in the mornings. Tracy had completed the first phase at the top of the class, and would be helping Mike with the entry class in the mornings while going through the secondary phase in the afternoons.
Kelly had organized a school for the children and designed a curriculum that centered on the traditional classes of reading, writing, arithmetic and history. She had also put together a small library and asked Mike to bring in an assortment of educational books from the scouting and salvage trips. Additionally, she had opened a store operating out of the barn with items brought in from salvage runs. With so much work to be done around Stonemont, most of the residents were working more than the time needed to fulfill their food and housing needs so they were able to buy items to improve their comfort and quality of life, and many could now be seen wearing new clothes in the evenings.
Jim, often accompanied by Bill or Ralph, had spent much of the month contacting area farms and properties, and meeting those who lived in the area, introducing himself and explaining to them what was going on at Stonemont. Some were friendly and some were stand-offish, but he was surprised at how ill prepared many of them were. Though living on land, most had sustained themselves with jobs in the city and few had gardens or livestock operations sufficient to support themselves. Nor did they have sufficient stores for long term survival, having depended on grocery stores almost as much as those in the city. As a result, many were approaching the end of their ability to survive. This had shocked him, as he had assumed, and had always heard, that rural people were more self-sufficient than urban and suburban dwellers. Maybe they were when you got farther from the city, but here on the outskirts they didn't seem much different than those in the more congested areas.
Due to the pressing needs of people he met, he had been able to trade food and other supplies for several dozen cows, including some dairy cows, an Angus bull and some horses with tack. Though he hated benefitting from the troubles of others, he was honest with himself in recognizing that they could have invested their time and money into preparing just as he had, and honest with them in both trading and his advice to them for the future.
His offer was always the same; Stonemont would be there to help them to whatever extent they wished to become part of the growing Stonemont community.
18
The comparative roughness of the contact gate had not prepared the visitors for the thriving life at Stonemont. As each entered through the main gate complex and made their way to the main house, they looked with surprise and appreciation at the many elements of the compound that worked together to make a secure and vibrant community.
The longhouse was nearing completion, with family tents having been moved from their original central position to individual locations around the area, affording more privacy for each. Residents moved busily around the compound and the acres of crops spread expansively down to the large pond in the near distance.
By noon, everyone had arrived for what was planned to be a two-day conference, and had been settled in large tents set up around the main house. A fire had been built in the large pit, and the aroma of the pig being turned on the spit drifted over the entire compound.
Pasquale had been the first to arrive, bringing with him his wife and another couple from Redemption who had assumed leadership roles. Mason, Bonnie and a fully healed Austin Booker had arrived mid-morning, accompanied by two other Vikings, including the college professor Mason had mentioned. Interestingly, the Bookers came in their camper instead of on bikes, and all were wearing regular work shirts instead of their cutoffs.
The last to show up was Sheriff Freelove, who got there shortly after noon, bringing Glenn with him as well as Sheriff Rod McGregor of Coffey County and a Lieutenant Dehmer of the Kansas Highway Patrol. A surprise addition was a squad of Kansas National Guard headed up by a Captain Collins.
Jim and Kelly had met each group as they arrived, welcoming them to Stonemont, directing them to their tents and inviting them to the patio when they were settled in. By mid-afternoon, all the guests had joined the Stonemont core on the patio where Jim introduced everyone, then led them to the longhouse where a long table had been set up for the conference.
Once everyone was seated, Jim began.
"First off, I'd like to welcome everyone to Stonemont." He looked around the group. "It's nice to see those we've met before, and good to meet new friends."
He noticed that all seemed relaxed except Captain Collins, who appeared rigid and unsmiling.
"As I said to those I talked with, I thought it would be a good idea for us to get together to compare notes about our recent experiences, and share thoughts about how we intend to approach the future. We can get more into the details tomorrow, but it might be helpful to touch on some major points this afternoon so we'll have a general idea of the overall situation and what we need to spend more time on. Since I'm the one who invited you, I should probably start."
Everyone nodded their agreement.
"We're comparatively remote," he continued, "at least for being so close to the metropolitan area. As some of you know, we were fairly well prepared for something like this, so it didn't hit us as hard as it could have. Still, we have been out on scouting patrols in the immediate area, and we've found that most of the people we've contacted will not be able to sustain themselves on their own much longer.
“We have bartered supplies with them for things we can use, but they will soon be in a situation where they have nothing further to trade, and we will be unable to simply give them further supplies without re-starting the cycle of dependence to which our country had previously declined, thereby putting the future of our own community in jeopardy."
"What do you intend to do then?" asked Captain Collins.
Jim paused. The question, being asked so soon into his introduction, and in such a curt manner, surprised him. As one who believed strongly in courtesy and protocol, he was put off by Collins' attitude and watched the captain closely as he answered. "We'll offer to take them into our community if they are willing to follow our rules."
"And what are those rules, Mr. Wyatt?" asked the captain.
Jim continued to look at the captain. The two questions had carried a tone of inquisition rather than simple curiosity, a disrespect that wo
uld be remembered. "To treat other people properly, captain," he said evenly. "And to work if they are able."
The captain made no response, but kept looking at Jim.
Jim turned to Paoli. "Pasquale, how are things going at Redemption?"
"We're doing okay so far, though I think we've all lost a few pounds,” Paoli answered with a smile. “The food and supplies trailer you sent us gives us some breathing room while we try to develop long term self-sufficiency. The crops from the seeds you gave us are looking good and we've already started harvesting some. We've collected as many canning jars as we can and one of our members is teaching others how to do it. Plus, I'm taking about a deer a week, so that helps.
"We've had quite a few people come by to get help,” he continued. “Some move on after a few days but some wanted to stay, and we have taken in about thirty additional people since you were there last. A lot of the houses in the neighborhoods around us are empty now. I don't know where the people have gone, and we are now hearing of people dying almost every day from sickness, starvation or something else."
"Have you had any problems with thieves?" asked Jim.
Pasquale nodded. "Just in the last few weeks we've noticed some picking being done at night on the far side of the field. We are posting sentries, but I can't see hurting someone who is just trying to stay alive. The thing that concerns me most is that we are starting to see nightly fires to the north. I think we're going to start feeling pressure from the city as survivors start to migrate out. We're really not ready for that, either as relates to our ability to help them or protect ourselves from them."
Jim nodded. "What can we do to help?"
Pasquale gave a combination shrug and shake of his head. "You all have already done so much for us. I don't know what else we can ask."
