299 Days: The Community

by Tate, Glen

  “John knows how to fix things,” Grant said. “I’m sure others do, too, but I’d like John to be in charge of things like that.”

  Grant remembered Paul and his welding and machine shop skills. “Of course Paul knows welding and other heavy machining. John and Paul can be the fix-it crew.” John gave everyone the thumbs up sign.

  “Speaking of Paul,” Grant said. “He’s on guard duty right now. With he and John doing all the repairs, those two probably shouldn’t be in the guard rotation,” Grant said, looking at Pow. Besides, Grant didn’t say it, but John was a little old and Paul was, well, totally out of shape. They wouldn’t be the best for guard duty.

  “We’re doing OK on food,” Grant continued. “The Colsons have plenty of steaks.” He didn’t want to say “deer” because the kids wouldn’t eat them. “So I’d like Tammy to be in charge of the nightly group dinners.” She nodded. “Mark and John can work on getting plenty more dinner material out there in the forest and the beach.” More nodding.

  “If my ‘job’ is hunting and fishing, I’m OK with that,” Mark said with a big grin.

  Grant looked at John and said, “Yes, John, that would be hunting and fixing things for you. Double duty. But Mark will be the lead on hunting and fishing if that’s OK.”

  “Hunting, fishing, and fixing things is what I’m doing during my retirement anyway,” John said. He gave the thumbs up again.

  “Mary Anne is a gardener and canner,” Grant said. “So is Eileen. I bet you two can team up to make sure we have lots of good stuff.” Both ladies smiled. They were glad to be part of this. It wasn’t all about guns. There were roles for everyone. People can’t eat guns.

  Grant continued, “It’s not like we need to start gathering food and preserving it right now. I have plenty of stored food and can share. Most of you do, too. But Mary Anne and Eileen should start thinking about what to grow and preserve now, and then we can do it in the summer and fall, if things go that long, which would surprise me.” That was a lie; Grant fully expected this to go a full year; and probably several years.

  Mary Anne said, “Like the apple trees. We can get all the apples in the summer and can them.”

  “Exactly,” Grant said. “We’re at the planning stages now. Thank goodness this thing hit in the spring. Maybe you can find out if you need some canning supplies. We’ll figure out how to get some in time for canning later. That kind of thing.” Grant had been thinking about canning apples since he came to the cabin and saw the wild apple trees. Now it was time to get those wheels in motion.

  “Drew, I need someone to keep track of all the stuff we have,” Grant said. “An inventory. Who has a generator, who needs prescription medication, that kind of thing. This is more important than it might seem.” Drew was glad that there was a role for a retired accountant.

  “We’ll continue to have breakfasts here for a while,” Grant said. “We have quite a bit of pancake mix. But at some point, we’ll be switching over to other things.” Grant knew that the pancake mix would be running out in a week or two. Breakfast for about fifteen every day would exhaust even the best cache of food. He didn’t want to say that because it could cause panic, but he wanted to introduce the idea that he couldn’t keep doing breakfast for fifteen every day. “We have lots of biscuit mix,” he added. Introduce the idea that things will run out, but remind them that there were substitutes. He wanted to balance lowering their expectations while also instilling hope.

  “Lisa is in charge of medical things, of course,” Grant said. What Lisa didn’t know was that Grant already had a plan for her to be the Pierce Point doctor. In fact, being able to offer an ER doctor to the residents was a key part of his plan to build up Pierce Point as a solid defensible and sustaining community. But, he needed to ease her into that.

  “Knowing Lisa like I do,” he smiled at her, “she will be helping with absolutely everything when she’s not doing medical things. So I guess her second job out here is ‘being Lisa.’” She smiled at him. She was glad that Grant appreciated all she did in addition to her doctor job.

  “I’d like each of you to talk to her about any medical conditions you have,” Grant said. Everyone nodded.

  “Manda,” Grant said, “you have a duty, too, and a very important one. You will be taking care of Cole. He doesn’t need full time attention, but you need to be around him. You will be helping with lots of miscellaneous things. So will Cole, but you’re in charge of him, OK?”

  “Of course, Dad,” Manda said.

  Grant looked to see if Paul’s five-year old daughter, Missy, was there. She was. “Tammy, do you think Paul would mind if Manda looked after Missy, too? I think Missy and Cole could become friends.” What Grant didn’t say is that Missy, at age five, had roughly the same language skills as Cole, at age thirteen.

  “Sure,” Tammy said. “With Paul doing his job out here and me at the power company, Missy could use some looking after, especially now that there are…” she almost said, “criminals roaming around” but she didn’t. “There are more things going on,” she said.

  “Tammy,” Grant said, “is a special case. In addition to the dinners at her place, she has a traditional job. At least I think you do, right?”

  “As far as I know,” Tammy said, “I’m still working at the power company.”

  “Well, go to your job,” Grant said. “Lord knows we need the power to stay on. Could you still coordinate the dinners? You can ask any of us, including me, to help you with that.”

  “Sure,” Tammy said. Working her normal job and cooking for everyone was typical for her.

  Grant said, “That’s a good point, too. I’m sure we’ll all pitch in with whatever we need to. I, for one, don’t have any specific duties. I’ll just make sure all the other stuff gets done, but I’ll be working on these things from dawn until dusk. Is everyone OK with me having that role?” Grant figured the Morrells and Colsons would be OK with him running things since he brought the Team to protect them. The Team would be OK with it because Grant brought them to Pierce Point. His family would be OK with it because they were his family.

  More general nodding of heads.

  “We don’t have a washing machine at my cabin,” Grant said. “Could we do laundry at the Morrells or Colsons?”

  “We have fewer people using our machine so we could do it,” Mary Anne said. Tammy nodded.

  “The Team’s cabin has a washer and dryer so you guys can do your own laundry,” Grant said. “Don’t be lazy bachelors.”

  That brought up a good point. People feeling like others weren’t doing enough. It wasn’t a problem now, but it could be over time. Especially with so many people who didn’t really know each other.

  “If anyone has a concern about their duties or other people’s, let me know,” Grant said. “No, seriously, let me know. Even if you think I’m not pulling my weight. We’ll all be helping everyone and I’d like it to be as smooth as possible.”

  Grant realized he was making it sound like they were in a work camp. So he said, “Hey, we won’t be working all the time. We are out here in a beautiful place and our day jobs, except Tammy’s, have been put on hold. This is a vacation in a sense. We have to do things we normally didn’t have to, like hunt, can food, and guard our neighborhood. But we can still have lots of fun. I think this might actually be relaxing once we get into the swing of it.”

  Grant looked at Lisa. She wasn’t fully going for it. She was expressionless again. Not that she disagreed with Grant, she was just waiting to see if this really would be a “vacation.”

  Grant continued, “Beach walks, campfires, playing board games, getting to know each other. This could be decent.”

  Grant had to close this by tying everything together. “This beats the heck out of what most people in town are having to go through.” More nodding.

  He even saw a slight nod from Lisa.

  Chapter 80

  My Husband Got Himself in a Little Trouble

  (May 8)


  The first meeting of the Over Road people, as Grant was calling the group out at the cabin, went well. He had a plan, and the group agreed with his approach. He was very proud that things seemed to be going well. So far.

  At first, he was surprised that these strangers were working so well together and seemed to understand that things had fundamentally changed. He thought about it and realized there were two reasons why this was true. First, the new arrivals, like Lisa, had seen with their own eyes how things had broken down; riding in an armed convoy tends to prove to a person that things aren’t like they used to be. Second, most of the people there, like the Colsons, Morrells, and the Team, were preppers. They weren’t surprised that everything they’d been planning for was coming true.

  After the business of the meeting was done, Grant patted his tummy, which was flat because he was in the best shape of his life, and said, “I’m hungry.” Manda brought him a big plate of pancakes, which smelled delicious.

  Everyone was talking with each other. There was a friendly buzz in the air. They were still getting to know each other, as the introductions the night before were rather brief.

  After he ate, Grant said to Lisa, “So I’ll go into town and get the ‘feminine products’ and other things.”

  Lisa looked scared. She shook her head. She knew something he didn’t know.

  “You don’t want me to get those things?” Grant asked. He was relieved.

  “No, honey,” she said. “We need to talk.” She motioned for him to come into the bedroom.

  This seemed pretty serious. Grant followed.

  She whispered, “Grant, you can’t go into town.” She was searching for the words. She might as well just tell him.

  “Um, you’re on a list of ‘terrorists,’” she said. “It’s called the ‘Persons of Interest’ list. ‘POI’ for short. It’s one step down from a wanted list. They say they just want to talk to you. Nancy Ringman told me you were on it. I looked it up myself; it is true. It says you work for the Washington Association of Business and something about ‘Rebel Radio,’ whatever that is.”

  Oh, shit. At first, Grant thought Lisa was kidding, but he hadn’t told her about Rebel Radio so she must have got that from looking on the internet.

  Grant was initially stunned, but then he wasn’t. He knew that it was only a matter of time before this corrupt government of bullies did this. It’s what collapsing governments always did.

  Grant didn’t know what to say. He thought he was in trouble when he killed those looters, but this was worse. He assumed he had to lay low because the cops would find out he was WAB and perhaps not give him the benefit of the doubt on his self-defense. His court cases for WAB had taught him that “conservatives” often don’t get a fair shake in the current so-called “justice” system.

  Grant didn’t know what to say. He was on a terrorist watch list. What is there to say?

  “I’m sorry, honey,” he said finally. “I’m sorry I’m causing you and the kids trouble like this.” It was quiet for a while in the bedroom. Outside, people were talking and having a great time.

  “I wish it hadn’t happened, but it’s not your fault,” Lisa said finally. Whoa. That surprised Grant.

  “I can see what’s going on,” Lisa said. “People like Nancy Ringman.” Lisa proceeded to tell Grant the story about how Nancy had thrown Cole to the ground.

  Grant was not mad. Sure, he didn’t like what Nancy had done, but he knew that he couldn’t just march over to her house and punch her in the mouth. Besides, she was far away. She couldn’t hurt them out there.

  Lisa finished the story by saying, “Now I get what they’re all about. They’re crazy. They hate anyone who crosses them. So it’s not your fault.”

  She added, “You know, when Cole screamed, ‘Why are you hurting us?’ it got me thinking. Why are they hurting us? They’re crazy and desperate. It’s not your fault.”

  Wow. Thank God that’s what she thought.

  “The government can’t even keep the power on all the time or the internet up. They can’t put out fires or stop protestors and looters. I don’t think they can start finding the people on their list.” Grant was half serious, half trying to calm Lisa.

  “Yeah,” Lisa said. “That’s probably right. Anyway, you can’t go into town. Not until things calm down and we can clear all of this up.”

  That was a surprisingly positive way to look at this. Maybe she wasn’t suffering from as much normalcy bias as Grant had thought. Or maybe, the Nancy Ringman thing had changed her. Either way, Grant was glad that Lisa was back on his side.

  “OK, I won’t go into town,” Grant said. Then he thought of a new problem. “How do we tell your parents this? They’ll probably be disappointed that their daughter married a terrorist.” They both started laughing, and couldn’t stop. It was a release from all the emotion.

  “I’ll have to tell them,” Lisa said. “Should we tell everyone out here?”

  “Good question,” Grant said. “I’ll have to think about that. I trust all of them, but I don’t want to freak them out,” he said. “Oh, wait. They’ll probably read it on the internet, anyway. Crap. We should probably just tell them.” This sucked. Then Grant had an idea.

  He pointed out toward everyone in the next room, “If they’re all with me, and I’m on some watch list, that makes them accessories. Harboring a fugitive. They’re in this with me. That should give them an incentive not to report me.”

  Lisa was impressed. She never thought lawyers were terribly useful. She loved Grant, but she saved lives and he just argued about the meaning of words. However, this harboring a fugitive concept was a useful idea.

  “Good idea,” she said. “I’ll tell them. I’m all nice and everything and you’re a terrorist, so I can break it to them more softly than you. What do you think?”

  God, it felt great to have her on his side again.

  “Sounds good,” he said. Grant paused, “Who else is on the list? Anyone else from WAB?”

  Lisa nodded. “All of you. Tom, Brian, and Ben.”

  Grant hadn’t thought of them in a few days. He’d been so busy worrying about his own family. Were the WAB families OK? Maybe they needed to come out there?

  “I should call them,” Grant said, and then instantly realized how stupid that was.

  “No way,” said Lisa. “That’s what they’ll be waiting for. Assuming there are any police or FBI or whatever available to monitor these things. Probably not, but it’s not worth the risk. For either you or who you’re calling.”

  Grant thought about Manda’s phone. He could use that one. But he didn’t know a fake phone the WAB guys might be using. He just had their numbers. And a call to one of their numbers could be fatal.

  Grant realized that he had no way of contacting them. None. They were totally on their own. He felt guilty. He should have seen this coming and he should have made plans for them to bug out to his cabin. He planned on doing that, but things blew up so quickly. There were too many things to plan and not enough time. Then again, months ago he wouldn’t have approached the WAB with this idea because they would have thought he was crazy. It was kind of their fault, Grant realized, because his friends had treated him as a little crazy for being a “survivalist” so Grant hadn’t pushed it with them. And now they probably wished he had.

  Lisa and Grant were silent as they thought about their friends getting arrested and…worse.

  Grant needed to use humor to lighten up the mood. “Well, I’ll just tell Pow to go buy you some tampons.” They broke into that uncontrollable emotional-release laughter.

  They came out of the bedroom with tears in their eyes. Everyone looked at them, not wanting to ask what had just happened.

  Lisa smiled and said, “My husband here has gotten himself in a little trouble. We need your help.” She proceeded to explain about the POI list and how everyone in the cabin were now accessories.

  Lisa was trying to gauge the reaction of her parents. Would they be devastated that
their son-in-law was a “terrorist”? Or would they realize what was really going on?

  She did a great job with the announcement, and reminded them, “It’s not like the police can just send a car out to go get people. There are no police right now. There’s no way they can actually get Grant. Besides, he’s just a ‘person of interest.’ He’s not actually wanted.”

  She paused. “Don’t tell a soul about this. Not one. We don’t need the attention. Seriously. Please do not tell anyone. Since this list is just symbolic, and no one can do anything to actually get these people, put it out of your mind. It didn’t happen.”

  Chip added, “We need Grant so we can make it through this. He’s pretty involved in what we’re all doing out here. We can’t do anything to put him out of commission.” Chip was concerned that his stash of guns was in the basement of someone who was on a watch list. That would increase the odds of attention they didn’t want.

  Eileen was concerned. She wanted to know more about the list. She asked who else was on the list, and found out all the conservative politicians on the list that she had voted for. It was clear that the list was entirely political. She couldn’t really get her mind past the fact that her son-in-law was wanted, but at least it wasn’t a real crime.

  The Team thought Grant being a POI was cool. They knew that the guns they owned either had been outlawed by some executive order, or would be soon. They had cast their lot with the outlaws. Now it was official.

  The Morrells were excited about it. They hated the government and this made Grant a hero.

  The Colsons were OK with it. They didn’t like the government, but Mark and Tammy worried a little that a POI would generate some interest from the authorities about their little community. But they also realized that the government had their hands full right now. Besides, Grant was a lawyer and it was just a “persons of interest” list so, if the authorities restored order, Grant would probably talk his way out of any trouble. It’s not like he was an actual terrorist.