Premonitions: Book 2: War

by Diana E. Anderson

  “What in the world is going on here?” I asked.

  Both Maureen and Anita started talking at once. “One at a time,” I said. “Maureen, you go first.”

  “Anita was on the schedule this afternoon to help clean the barn. We waited for her before we started, but she didn’t show up, so I came to find her. It’s not the first time she’s been late, and I thought she might have forgotten. Instead, I found her playing cards and she said she wasn’t going to help today.” I turned and looked at Anita, who stared back at me with her arms defiantly crossed.

  “I am sick and tired of working. Before all this happened, I didn’t have to work. I’m an officer’s wife. I could go shopping, see a show, visit with friends, and as long as the cleaning lady came twice a week, I had time to do the things I wanted to do. Now, though, every time I turn around, I have to work. I am tired of this. I’m not going to do it and you can’t make me. What are you gonna do, dock my pay? It’s bad enough we have to live in these crappy apartments with nothing to do, but I don’t need this witch hassling me to go pick up cow dung or whatever the heck she wants me to do. I’ve had it.”

  “You’ve had it?” yelled Maureen. “We are out there every single day taking care of the animals, making sure you have milk, eggs, and meat, and you begrudge us a couple of hours of work?” By now, Maureen was in tears, her frustration with Anita getting the better of her. Marcie walked over to Maureen and put her arm around Maureen’s shoulders.

  “Calm down, my friend. It’s not worth getting your blood pressure up like this. Let Denise work it out.” Marcie continued to speak quietly to Maureen, and we could see Maureen starting to settle down. I turned back to Anita.

  “I can understand that you are tired and stressed out. This situation we’ve been living in for months has been more than a little bit stressful for all of us. That’s not an excuse, though, to shirk your duties.” I tried to stay calm and keep my voice level, but it was hard. Anita was defiant, though. She looked at me with a haughty expression and barked, “I am not shirking my duties. I should not have any duties. I didn’t come here to work. I came here to be with my husband, who works hard enough for both of us.”

  I took a deep breath before speaking. “Why do you think you shouldn’t have any duties around here? You expect to eat and have clean clothes and a place to sleep, right?”

  “You owe that to me because of my husband. He is sacrificing a lot to keep all of you safe. It’s bad enough I have to live in the same apartment as enlisted wives. I certainly do not have to continue to do this menial labor you are inflicting on us.”

  Kiara had remained silent thus far, but she stepped close to Anita and looked down at her, frowning. “Anita, I don’t know who you think you are, but I seriously recommend you reconsider what you just said”

  “Or what? Are you going to throw me out? My husband won’t like that, and he can make it very difficult for you civilians.”

  Kiara took a deep breath, and I could see her clenching her fists in anger. “First of all, I am not a civilian. I am active duty military and I outrank your husband. Second, you’ve got some nerve. Denise and her team took you in when you had nowhere to go, and this is how you treat them? You think you are better than others because your husband is a lieutenant? Let me tell you something. Being an officer, or even an officer’s wife means you need to work harder than the others. Your job is to be a great example, a mentor to the ranks. Your job is to do your best to help take care of people, be a role model and a supporter, not waltz around here acting like you are the Queen Mother or something.” I had never seen Kiara, who was always so happy and upbeat, act so angry. She took a breath and continued speaking.

  “You do not deserve to be here, and I pity your husband. Before the collapse, you would just be a liability to him and to his career. Now, though, you are liable to get him killed. You disgust me.”

  I was making a valiant effort to not lose my temper. I couldn’t believe the attitude this woman was displaying. Of course, when she made the crack about the enlisted wives, several of the other women looked offended and stepped back.

  Kiara reached over to take Maureen’s arm. “Come on, Maureen. Let’s go get something cold to drink. You don’t need to put up with this.” Maureen gave Kiara a grateful look and walked away with her.

  I watched Kiara and Maureen walk away for a minute or so, and then turned back to Anita.

  “You are living here on my land in my building, eating the food that my friends and I gathered and put up. In exchange for a safe place to live, you are expected to help with chores. You signed yourself up for the barn duties and I expect you to carry out your obligations. If you do not like the rules here, you are welcome to leave.”

  “And just where do you expect me to go?”

  “I don’t care. The choice is yours. Either you pitch in and do chores like every other person here, or else you leave.”

  I could see she was really working herself up into hysteria, so I turned away and pulled out my radio.

  “Mark, do you copy?”

  “Roger, what’s up?”

  “I need you and Second Lieutenant Braxton over here at the apartments right away.”

  “Roger, is someone hurt?”

  “Not yet. Just hurry.”

  Anita turned to walk away, and I stopped her. “You just wait right here until they get here.” As Anita tried to step away, the enlisted wives who had stepped away from her before closed in, blocking her way. Anita folded her arms again and gave several dramatic sighs, rolling her eyes, but nobody moved out of her way. We stood like that for a few minutes. Finally, we could hear an ATV roaring towards us. Mark and 2LT Braxton jumped off the ATV and hurried towards us.

  “What’s going on, Denise? Is everything okay?” Mark asked.

  “Actually, everything is not okay. This young lady seems to think she is too good to help with chores and is refusing to help. She believes that because she is an officer’s wife, she is above what she calls menial labor.” I could see 2LT Braxton’s expression go from concerned to confused to upset. Ignoring everyone else, he walked up to Anita and took her arm.

  “Nita, what is wrong with you? You know we all have to work if we are going to survive. How could you be this way?”

  “Oh, Pete, when we got married, you promised me I wouldn’t have to work if I didn’t want to. Look at my hands, all chapped and my nails chipped from working like a common servant. I’m tired of it. Tell these people you promised me I didn’t have to work.”

  “Anita, that was before the world ended. Now we all have to do everything we can to survive. That means there is no such thing anymore as not having to work. If you don’t work, you don’t eat.”

  “So now you are threatening me, too? I don’t know why I married you if you are going to tell me lies and not take care of me. Go away. Leave me alone. I don’t want to see any of you anymore. I am going to pack my bags and head back home to our house in Spring Lake. The heck with all of you.”

  Pete Braxton looked at his wife with a sorrowful expression on his face. “Our house is almost certainly gone after that nuke last night. You have nowhere to go but here. We are incredibly lucky to be here and together. Even if it means we have to work hard, at least we are alive and relatively safe.”

  While the lieutenant was talking with his wife, I saw James approaching with something in his hand. When he got close enough, he addressed Anita in a soft, calming voice.

  “Anita, I can see you are pretty upset. I have some medication with me to help you calm down and rest. Will you let me give you some medication to help you?” Anita looked at her husband, who nodded yes.

  “All right. Yes, I need something to help me.” James asked Pete to accompany his wife to their apartment to administer the injection in private. After he gave the shot, he instructed Pete to stay with Anita until she fell asleep. He explained that the sedative would probably help her sleep for a few hours.

  When James came back outside, he walked
over to Mark and me. “She is having a mental break, probably as a result of everything she’s been through. I will talk to Father Dan and see if we can set up some counseling for her. I am also going to start her on some antidepressants to help her cope a little better. We need to be supportive of her if we want her to get better. Let’s take her off chores for a couple of days until the medication starts to work.”

  I was glad James was able to do something to help her, but I was concerned that others would start having issues as well. When I voiced this to James, he said he fully expected a couple of people would not be able to stand the pressure, and we just needed to keep our eyes open for others who seemed to be struggling. I thanked James and asked him how he knew to come over with the medication.

  “Well, it’s not like I couldn’t hear all the yelling, but Kiara and Maureen came to find me to tell me they thought Anita was in need of medical intervention and explained what was going on.”

  I thanked James and Mark and told them I was headed back to the house. Just what we needed was something else to worry about. How many more folks on the farm would start having mental issues from all of the stress? When I got back to the house, I shut myself up in my office with a psychology textbook. I was still reading when Tom came to get me for supper.

  “I think I need to talk to Father Dan about setting up some sessions for folks who are starting to feel the stress of all that is going on,” I told him as soon as he walked in.

  Tom looked at me with a frown. “Are you one of those people?” he asked.

  “I could be with everything I’m worried about right now, but I think I am still coping okay. After the big battle this afternoon, though, I am worried about some of the others.”

  “What big battle? What did I miss?”

  “The big battle between Maureen and one of the wives. They were both yelling at each other, and apparently the woman just lost it. James had to medicate her to settle down and I still don’t know what we will do with her once her mood is a bit more settled.”

  “Are you thinking of kicking her out?”

  “Tom, you don’t know how much I’d like to, but I can’t. I don’t think she can really help her behavior, but I think she can help her attitude. I’m willing to give her a chance if she will do the work that she is scheduled to do. If she refuses to work, though, she is going to have to go somewhere else – but where can she go? It is such a quandary.”

  “Well, what about sending her to the new housing development. Maybe if she is working on a home for her and her husband, it will help her cope a little better.”

  “That is a great idea. I’ll talk to Mark about it in the morning. Thank you. You always seem to have good ideas and suggestions for me.”

  “Okay, then, how about this for an idea. I suggest we go eat dinner.” I laughed, and we strolled over to the dining hall, arm in arm.

  After dinner, we had a community meeting to talk about our new project with Mark. The meeting was short because while everyone had a lot of ideas and seemed enthusiastic, we really did not know what we had to work with. We decided to wait to make any plans until Tom and I could see the community and get some ideas of what was needed. After about twenty minutes of talking, we adjourned our meeting and even though it was still early, I headed off to bed.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  The next morning, Tom and I geared up and went to meet Mark at the barracks. Mark was accompanied by a group of soldiers and two MRAPs were parked nearby. I noticed one of the MRAPs was towing a large trailer. Mark called us all together to explain our plan for the day.

  “We are going to drive through the community to the elementary school. It’s located pretty much in the middle of the subdivision. We’ve been through the subdivision a number of times and have never seen anyone. I really figured if people were not in their homes, they may have moved into the school. The last time we were here, though, there wasn’t anyone in the school. My plan is to check the school again to be sure it is vacant. We are leaving six of the soldiers here to essentially guard the school. The trailer holds the supplies they will need, as well as some other things that we thought would be useful. We’ll use the school as our base of operations as we work on this community. Today, we’ll focus on updating the map to show what houses are here, which ones have been destroyed, and if we see any that look occupied. After we do that, our next task will be to give the school a good cleaning so that if we do have citizens come volunteer to work with us to rebuild, we have a clean and safe place for them to stay until homes are ready to be occupied. I’ve got a large map of this area, and we brought a couple of drones to help us, so we don’t have to walk so far to map everything out.”

  I looked at Mark with a puzzled expression on my face. “I thought you didn’t have any drones? At least, that’s what Carter said.”

  Mark grinned. “We didn’t, but General McPherson does, and he gave us a couple. In addition to marking homes, garages, and outbuildings, I want to mark any areas that would be useful as community gardens or places where we could stable animals. I think there are two churches in the subdivision, but I don’t know what condition they are in. After we do an overview with the drones, we will then drive street to street to get a better look at what we have to work with. Any questions?” He looked around and nobody seemed to have any questions, so he told us to load up and we headed into town.

  Although I had been to town numerous times since the collapse on scavenging trips, it still was painful to see the damage and destruction that had occurred. I was glad that we were going to be reversing some of that damage. After driving through miles of burned out shells of buildings, we finally arrived at the Whispering Willows subdivision. I was happy to see the gates to the community were closed and locked. Mark explained that his troops fixed the gate last time they were there and added the chain and lock to keep the area secure. One of the soldiers hopped out of the other MRAP and unlocked the gate.

  After we drove through, he locked the gate back up, and we continued driving. The homes within looked to be in better condition than many of the homes in Riverdale, although there was still obvious evidence of looting, and there were a few homes destroyed by fire. Most of the homes that burned were near the outer fence. It made me wonder if people who were not able to get over the fence just burned the nearest homes out of spite. The homes in this development were a bit larger than most of the homes in Riverdale, and the lots seemed to be a little larger. Grass had grown up quite a bit since last fall, and some of the homes looked like they had overgrown and untended gardens. I made a mental note to check these gardens to see if there were any “volunteer” plants that came back on their own from last year’s crop.

  We soon arrived at the elementary school. There were no signs of life around the school. The grass and shrubs were overgrown, and there were several broken windows that we could see. The deserted playground struck me as so sad, watching a lone swing moving with the breeze. I hoped that before long, the playground would again be alive with the sound of happy children. Mark called me back from my playground daydreams and told us to stay in the MRAP until he and his men were sure the school was safe. It only took them about 15 minutes, and then Mark was back. He reached into the MRAP and pulled out a large briefcase before inviting us in. As we entered, two of his soldiers were headed to the front door to keep watch.

  I was quite surprised that the inside of the school did not seem to have been disturbed. Everything was very dusty, and there was some trash and debris littering the floor, but other than that, it looked like school had just let out. There was artwork on the walls, and the parent’s sign-out book was still sitting on the counter at the main office. We walked further to the cafeteria. It was surprisingly bright due to large windows near the ceiling and several skylights.

  Mark looked around and said, “I think this is where we will set up. We’ve got plenty of table space, and we can use the bulletin boards to post our maps.” He directed several of his troops to move a few tables toget
her near the bulletin boards and asked me if I could try to find a broom so we could clear an area to start working. Tom and I went out of the cafeteria and found a janitor’s closet down one of the hallways. Instead of just the broom, I grabbed the entire cleaning cart, along with a couple of bottles of cleaner and a bag of rags on one of the shelves.

  We pushed the cart back to the cafeteria, where the men had already moved tables and Mark was tacking maps up onto the bulletin board. I grabbed the cleaner and a couple of rags and started wiping down the tables and chairs while Tom and one of the soldiers took the two brooms and started sweeping. It only took about 40 minutes to make the room a lot cleaner. Of course, it needed more than a quick wipe-down, but at least the majority of the dust and trash was gone.

  While we were finishing up the cleaning effort, Mark set up two of his men with the drones. Each man had a small tablet contraption that controlled the drones and sent back pictures from the cameras mounted on each drone. Mark also had two laptops set up on the table nearest the maps with one soldier at each lap top. Tom and I must have looked a bit perplexed because Mark then explained that each laptop was set up to also see the pictures from the drones, so the men could mark their observations onto the maps. He finished giving instructions to the men with the drones, and they left to go launch their drones. He walked over to another table away from the maps and lap tops and invited us to sit down.

  “While the guys are doing preliminary surveillance, I wanted to talk with you both about how we are going to put this effort together. My men and I know how to swing a hammer, but this project is going to take a lot more than just you telling us what to nail together. Tom, you are an awesome contractor, as you proved over and over with all the construction we did at the farm, so I want you to oversee the actual construction efforts here. Denise, you are one of the most organized people I’ve ever met, so I am hoping you will have some ideas on the big picture.”