Arthur didn’t even turn to see Sarah nod as she sat back down. “Those under fifteen, eighteen percent survived. Now, I started my rounds in Newton in the beginning and found several people who weren’t sick, but I came back a few weeks later to find them dead from Rudolph. Now, I’m about to use numbers, I’m rounding,” he said slowly, cutting his eyes to Jason. “My buddy is a math junky,” Arthur informed everyone, making them chuckle. “When he got here in July, I showed him what I was working on. Several times a week we’ll sit in our office and add what we’ve found to see if numbers change.”
Wendy nearly hit the floor laughing hearing, ‘our office’. The first week Jason had been here, Arthur had moved another desk in for him.
“In Newton County, there was a population of ten thousand,” and he saw several around the room raising their hand or in the process of raising their hand. “I’m rounding!” Arthur snapped. “I know there were a few more, but I like whole numbers.”
Seeing everyone understood, Arthur waved at the screen. “Those blue dots ‘were’,” he stressed, “people who had survived Rudolph. Now, not all homes were occupied because as we all know, people left heading to other places if they had a place to go. No, I’m not suggesting everyone who left were preppers, but if they were going to die they’d want to be near family or check on family. But many ran out of food, and with the power off they had no water so they had to leave. Since my buddy is a math junky, he compared that to what we found in Johnson and Franklin counties, and it seems sixty percent of survivors left their homes for who knows where. But for this briefing, we’re going on a ten percent survival rate across the board for all age groups. Now, those who left, are they alive? Don’t know and don’t care,” Arthur said.
“Even if they are alive, this area wasn’t home to them and I’d be surprised if any came back,” Arthur said, glancing at Wendy and saw her eyes narrowed. “And if they come back, they can live by the rules we set or they can fuck off and keep their goddamn mouth shut.”
Knowing damn good and well Arthur was talking about Alicia, Jason cleared his throat. “Yeah, can you keep going?” he asked before this turned into a battle royale between Arthur and Wendy.
“Okay. Here in Newton, I found evidence or have spotted eight hundred and forty-six who’d survived Rudolph,” and he saw hands go up. “Goddamn it!” Arthur growled and all the hands dropped. “The next fucker who raises their hand on numbers, you get math class with the math junky for six months,” Arthur warned. “I know using my rounded numbers that isn’t a survival rate. Rounding, remember but listen, and I’m not kidding about questions on the numbers,” he warned.
Hoping to explain why he offered, “If you have a hundred people in this neighborhood and a hundred in another, one neighborhood might all die, and the next half live. The ratio is based on a whole and for your information, Franklin County balanced out with Newton because more than ten percent survived there. Now the reason I’m bringing this up isn’t Rudolph, it’s about those who survived. And this is where Jason and I have a disagreement. Yes, I said ‘a’ because we’ve had more than one, but I’ll give both points and you decide for yourself. And if you have an idea, tell us. Now, many of those here in Newton County right now didn’t live here, they’ve just taken up residence.”
After running his eyes over the room, Arthur tapped the computer and a lot of the blue dots turned orange. “This is the shitstorm. At each of those orange dots, we’ve found evidence those there were murdered,” Arthur said looking around. “I say murdered because they died by humans, so change it to what word you like; killed, expired, toes up, but they didn’t die of Rudolph. And before anyone asks, yes, we’ve found places where people killed themselves, starved, or died of other causes. Jason found one in Pope County where a man died because he broke his leg and he was alone. I said good riddance because he was alone and there’re kids out there who needed guidance. No, he’s not the only one we’ve found alone or who even died alone. Wendy and I were checking on a man in north Newton County who was living alone and found that a bear got him and his dog. From the scene, it looked like the bear was laying right outside his door and when the man opened his door, walking out, the bear got lunch. No, I didn’t talk to him because he was alone. If he was such an ass to not help kids, I didn’t want to talk to him but he wasn’t threatening anyone, so I let him be. But, fuck the cocksucker,” Arthur snapped his last words.
“There are one hundred and eighty-two orange dots,” Arthur stated and saw all the adults and many of the older kids jerk. “Yes, nearly a quarter of those who survived were killed by humans. I’ve been asked many times by my kids here ‘are we going to go extinct?’ and I’ve always said, ‘No, humans are resilient’. It wasn’t until Jason and I started compiling the numbers that I actually started having doubts. Mine and Jason’s difference is, this is Newton-fucking-County-Arkansas! This is the middle of nowhere and people are capping each other!”
“People are people no matter the location,” Jason sang out.
Ignoring Jason, “My thoughts were killings are worse the closer to more civilization, cities. Jason says no. Since the closest ‘city’ we have data on is Russellville, I can’t say because the numbers are still holding up, a quarter are dying by other humans. And we’re still at the beginning of this shit, with the first winter starting. What Jason and I both agree on, people are going to become more violent. A hungry motherfucker will kill for food, to get it or protect it, and not think twice.”
Scanning the leaders and captains, “No, we didn’t go to every house in the other counties, but we got samplings. Don’t understand? Ask math junky,” Arthur stated bluntly. “I took statistics in college and Jason found me rereading my book to start compiling what I’d found. Well, Mr. Math Junky has the fucking thing memorized, so I didn’t have to reread it. Then you throw in Sutton, Skannish, and Sarah who have fucking degrees in statistics, I didn’t have to worry about brushing up,” Arthur grinned.
Tapping the computer again, the orange dots vanished along with many of the blue ones. “This is what’s left in Newton County. No, I didn’t add us, and thank you for not pointing it out,” Arthur said turning to the screen. “There are sixty-one locations, but more than one person’s there with the mean being…” Arthur moved to look at his notes.
“Five,” Jason answered.
“Math junky,” Arthur laughed and looked up to see Kirk, one of his mini-mes, with his hand up. “Yes, Kirk?”
Slowly lowering his hand, “Pops, not all of them are cruel,” Kirk offered in a low voice just in case Arthur forgot he’d liked some of those they found.
“No, mean can also be used as –average. You’ll understand because you’ll be starting advanced math in February,” Arthur said, and saw everyone in the three groups startle. “All kids have ten hours of class work a week to learn books. They also have ten hours of shop time to learn hands on,” Arthur told them.
“Shit, we weren’t starting classes until next year,” Chad stated. “We’ve been teaching kids how to fight.”
Shrugging, “I don’t count that because we do that every day, and each person here has to put in thirty hours of work each week, but so far we’re averaging seventy hours a week per person,” Arthur replied, then turned to Albert and Jill. “Those in your group will be doing this but right now, I want to make sure they live through the winter.”
Very happy Arthur had more plans for them outside of the notebook, they both nodded as Arthur continued. “Now, the average,” he grinned and winked at Kirk, “in these groups is five, but I have to take eight of these down because they’ve moved in with Chad and they were the biggest.”
“Are you going to give out more notebooks?” Albert asked.
“No,” Arthur replied flatly. “I will say this, any, who I don’t agree with that you bring in, we sever ties. It’s your choice, but I didn’t offer those I’ve found, and many I’ve talked to, to join a group. Those who’re out there in Newton and around the area t
hat I’ve met, I don’t trust. In time, I feel they’ll fall to the Caravan Man.”
Albert’s face paled, “I took in some that you didn’t say I could.”
Giving a long sigh and casting his eyes up, “I wonder if that’s why I wanted to meet them, Albert,” Arthur replied. “I knew, well, I’ve seen most you’ve brought in and I didn’t cap them, so they didn’t give me bad mojo and they kept breathing. Jill’s brought in two groups I’ve never seen. I met them and didn’t say anything but both of you know, if you don’t throw out freeloaders, and you know just what the fuck I mean by ‘throw out’,” Arthur stated darkly. “The bodies better not move when they’re tossed out. You’re at the stage now where a person can give information to others who can hurt you.”
“So later, people can leave if they want, right?” Albert asked.
“Have you read that fucking notebook?!” Arthur snapped making Albert jump. “Your group can’t fucking fight yet and there are other ‘bad’ groups out there who can! You throw a fucker out now and one of those groups gets them, your ass will get overrun!”
Staring at the table as he thought about the notebook, “Oh, that part makes sense now,” Albert mumbled.
“Excuse me?” Chad asked.
“In the notebooks, I tell them they’re vulnerable until they can fight and that doesn’t mean shoot. First you learn to shoot, and then you learn awareness. Next you learn to move with awareness and shoot. Finally, you learn to move maintaining awareness with others, shoot and communicate, and then you can fight. I stress in the notebook many won’t be there until the end of next summer,” Arthur answered.
Arthur could see by the look on Jill’s face that she had doubts on even that timeline. “Jill, I assure you, they’ll learn because everyone knows their first mistake will be their last, and more than likely, cost the lives of others,” Arthur assured her. “No, they won’t be tier one operators, but neither will their opponents. In time, those alive will be at that level because everyone will learn.”
“Now,” Arthur sang out, “back to the numbers. We’re starting to hear about outbreaks of other diseases over the radio. The government compound is having outbreaks of Hanta and I can believe it because we’re hearing several of those. The good ol’ Heavenly Disciples are still having an outbreak of cholera. From the reports of those around the Disciples, it’s hitting them rather hard.”
Lifting his hand as he asked, “You don’t really think they’re dying in the thousands, do you?” Chad asked. “That’s what we’ve heard on the radios, but come on, that many?”
Understanding very well what Chad was really asking, “Oh, yes, I do believe they have the numbers to be dying in the thousands. Some here scouted them in June. Even that far back, they were reporting numbers in the tens of thousands of survivors. I assure you, Mr. Math Junky was being conservative with his numbers, as were Samantha and LL. I never doubted what they reported, but being around my buddy as long as I have, now I know he was going,” Arthur paused, lowering the octave of his voice, “low.”
“I got Wendy and Samantha to put an outline in the notebook about the Disciples,” Arthur said, and saw the new groups start flipping pages. “Hey!” he called out and they all looked up. “They are a threat, but we have much more shit closer that ranks a lot fucking higher. Shit, even when they told me about them, I ranked ants higher than the Disciples. I had personal reasons to rank them higher and in time will address that, but it’ll be some time before I do.”
He chuckled seeing everyone shiver at just the mention of ‘ants’. “Guys, the ant problem is gone, but I’ll cover that.”
Tapping the screen, the boundaries of all the counties came up and blue dots scattered about the screen. “These are all the survivors we’ve found or have been reported,” he said and tapped the screen and some of the dots turned green. “These are the only ones that someone here has talked to,” Arthur told them. “Yes, others here do make contact. As I’m sure you’ve noticed, others here are wearing hats just like mine. You’ve all heard on the radio the reports of Caravan Members. That’s who they’re talking about. Now you understand, why last week my lovely wife, who I’m going to kick her ass, asked you to get hat sizes for your ten top captains and yourselves. You’ll be leaving with hats like mine because I was outvoted in the group. Yes, I changed hats because the hats LL makes were much better than the ones I bought,” Arthur grinned, pointing at LL but winking at Jason.
“You guys, to repay LL, all you have to do is give LL a blow job and girls, all you have to do is clap and cheer them on,” Arthur stated with a smirk and LL levitated out of his chair.
“Goddamn it, you freak! What the hell is wrong with you?!”
Glancing at the others, he saw Chad and his group were laughing their asses off, but the guys in Jill’s and Albert’s groups had a worried expression, along with Albert. “Make sure you cover your teeth,” Jason chuckled. “He slapped me once.”
With bloodlust in his eyes, “You ever even try that with me and I’ll show you an ass beating!” LL shouted to inform everyone that Jason hadn’t touched him.
“We’ll swallow next time, LL. Will that make you happy?” Arthur asked, trying not to laugh.
So mad he couldn’t even speak, LL just dropped in his chair then calmed down, turning to the new groups. “The hats are gifts. The first to try that shit with me won’t have a head to put the hat on,” he warned. Now realizing they were only picking on LL, Albert breathed a sigh of relief with the others.
“Seriously,” Arthur called out. “You don’t have to wear the hat, but it’ll let others know who you’re part of.”
“I advise wearing it,” Jason stated looking around, ignoring the middle finger Arthur was giving him. “It provides more protection than it does risks. Another thing it does, the Caravan Man can’t be singled out, and that scares the shit out of gangs.”
“Um, Arthur?” Jill called out, raising her hand then lowering it. “Did you, um, really kill that group south of Dryfork in July?”
Nodding, “Wendy helped,” Arthur answered. “One of the fuckers shot me, so all but three died. And yes, before you ask, the three we let go were kids and no, we didn’t offer to let them come here. Someone in your group shoots at me, I’m killing. The only reason I let three live was I wanted everyone to know, I don’t give a flying fuck who, age, race, nationality, or gender shoots at me. You’re dead, along with your group.”
Jill looked a little pale, but gave a slight nod. “Yes, that’s why I told you the day we met that the group west of Purdy couldn’t ever be offered to join. That’s where the kids went to. In time, that’s one group I feel could join, but we’ll see,” Arthur told her. “Yes, three adults and five kids were killed.”
Getting to her feet with narrowed eyes, “You were going to let more go, but bullshit!” Wendy shouted at Arthur. “He shot you when you wanted to talk! All he had to do was say, ‘We don’t want to talk’, but what does that fuck do? Shoots you in the fucking chest!”
Looking to the heavens, “I’m a humble man, you can stop any time now,” Arthur confessed, then dropped his eyes to Wendy. “He shot me with a 30-30 in the chest of one of my vests that I made.”
“He could’ve missed, and I would’ve torched the entire planet,” Wendy growled.
“Since your dick is dragging the floor, will you take mine and put it in the closet?” Arthur grinned and saw Wendy slowly calm down. The others looked at Wendy and were starting to get the idea of what those at the ranch already knew, she could be much worse than Arthur.
“You approached them like you did us?” Chad asked.
Nodding, “Yep,” Arthur answered. “I hold my hands out and stop way back to let the other side dictate how we proceed. I can come closer or go away. Sorry, but that’s why Jason was getting edgy when we met you. He saw someone getting steady on a scoped rifle and that means they’re fine-tuning their aim at a specific target. Since I didn’t have any more of my vests, I was wearing what we’d gott
en from the military.”
“My finger never went inside the trigger guard,” Isaac informed everyone. “I was actually aiming at the ground in front of you, Arthur, just in case you tried to get closer. Sorry, but we didn’t want exposure.”
“I understand,” Arthur nodded.
“Yeah,” Chad sighed. “WE had to shoot several people who tried to come closer, who wanted food and wouldn’t stop even after a warning shot.”
“Fuck if I would’ve given a warning shot after a verbal warning,” Arthur chuckled.
“Well, we knew it was a risk and they didn’t stop but we’d all agreed, we didn’t want to piss off the Caravan Man because even then we’d heard you didn’t travel alone,” Chad told him. “But I, for one, will wear the shit out of my hat. That alone will tell others we aren’t there to take, so leave us be.”
“Okay, we got off topic again,” Arthur said turning to the screen. “Now, I’ve asked everyone to talk to those in your group, asking where they came from,” Arthur said. “Except Chad, he knew where they were from without asking.”
Picking up his padfolio, “Again, it backs up the numbers Jason and I came up with. If you add up all four groups, less than thirty percent lived within fifty miles from here, so that’s why I’m not worried about people returning,” Arthur stated, and saw Jason shake his head slowly to warn Arthur to stop trying to piss Wendy off. “The reason I bring this up is because by next summer, people moving will be presenting another level of danger here. Very few will be travelers looking for greener pastures. Most will be looking for greener pastures to take over.”
“Arthur, we’re practicing as hard as we can,” Jill told him.
“Yes, and both of you are doing a good job. I’m only sending you five thousand rounds of .22 a week because I don’t want you to commit so hard to training right now. In December, we’ll be increasing it to ten thousand a week and then you’ll start on your real guns,” Arthur told her, and Jill liked the fact Arthur had this shit planned.
Viral Misery | Book 3 | Revelations Page 17
