The Last Tribe (55 page)

“I agree.”  Paul voiced through his
constantly full mouth.  “That’s a great idea.  We’re not electing anyone or
voting on anything, we’re just brain storming.  I like it.”  He forked the last
bit of orzo into his mouth.

“Alright, let’s do it.  Five
minutes?  Do we have a fire inside?”  John looked at the chimney.  “Looks like
it.  What’s the plan with the kids?”

“They can play in the house, sit in
on the meeting, or watch TV in the RV.  Anyone can participate.”  Todd put the
remaining burgers into a ziplock bag.  “Hubba is going to eat well tonight.” 
He scanned the lunch area.  It was clean.  He motioned towards the front door. 
“Let’s move into the house and get started?  I want to make sure we don’t take
all afternoon.”

The afternoon sun shone into the
windows on the south side of the house, warming the living room.  A crackling
fire brought the temperature up to a comfortable 60.  People could remove their
coats.

Todd placed legal pads of paper
around the room with a few boxes of pens.  Craig wandered over to his father,
“do I have to be here or can I go play with J and J?”

“It’s up to you.   Matt, Greg, and
I can handle it.  Realize you will be placed on the food collection detail, or
the ‘fishing squad,’ as we’ll call it.”

“I’m cool with that.”  Craig said,
turning away from his father.

“Really?  Because if it’s raining,
we still need to eat.  If it’s cold outside, and you’re tired, we still need to
eat.  If it’s hot, and the bugs are biting, and you only have three fish and
you’re tired of fishing, we still need to eat.  This isn’t just a fun fishing
trip with Uncle Hank.  It will be a job, a responsibility.”

“I know, well, I didn’t think of
all of that, but I know.  I’m good at fishing.  It’s the best way for me to
help.” 

“Okay, go play.”  John grabbed his
son by the arm.  “Hey, can you be the adult out there?  Keep things under
control.  Let us know if you need one of us to come out.”  He let go of Craig’s
arm.

“You got it, Dad.”  Craig grabbed
his pullover from a pile of coats and ran towards the front door.

“Alright, let’s start talking.” 
Todd said.  “While Avery and I were downtown today, she came up with a
fantastic idea.  She said we should go to real estate offices and try to find a
solar powered house.” 

People turned and looked at Avery,
who raised her hand and waved ‘hi.’

“Yeah, it was smart thinking, so
smart that Greg and Rebecca tried it already.”  There was additional muttering
in the room.  “I thought we could come together, I mean, we’re not a large
group, and share some ideas.  We have chores or daily tasks that need to be
handled.  We need to milk the goats, collect the eggs, feed the animals, clean
cages.  We need to fish most days, check traps, set traps, collect water,
purify water.  We need to cook meals and clean up after meals.  If we want
bread, we need to make bread, even plan for bread.  We need to collect and
distribute firewood.  We will have to cut down trees and create firewood for
next fall.”

“Are we writing this down?”  Peter
asked, interrupting Todd.  “Some of us are older, and can’t remember things off
the top of our heads.”

“Most of us.”  Hank joked.

“We can write on this wall.” 
Solange said, taking a black marker in hand, and writing down the tasks Todd
mentioned as well as ones she knew to be necessary. 

“Thanks.”  Todd said to her. 

Solange nodded back to him. 
“English is my second language.  It makes sense for me to be the one to write
the notes on the wall.” 

Todd waited for the laughter to
subside before he lowered his voice.  “This isn’t summer camp or boarding
school or the army.  I don’t expect to have a duties chart.”  Todd heard
snickers from his brothers.  “Yeah, yeah, I said duties.  Anyway, I don’t think
we need a formal plan, but we need to make sure this stuff happens.  There are
18 of us in the room right now.  Everyone can contribute, even Cameron and
Casey can collect eggs and feed the animals.  I hope the first part of this
meeting is used to formalize daily and weekly tasks.  What I hope we can do as
a second agenda item is brainstorm ways to do these chores more easily, and
maybe consider projects that will make our lives better.”

“If we knock these out quickly.” 
John began, “we need to discuss long term plans.” 

“Take a look at this list.” 
Solange said loudly.  The chores were listed on the white wall.  “What do we
want to do with this list?  Are we going to choose what we each do best?  Are
we allowed to pick what we enjoy doing, like Craig did with fishing?  Are we
going to assign particular tasks to people based on skills, regardless of
desire?”

“I enjoy teaching the kids.  I can
formally accept that position, if people don’t mind.”  Emily volunteered.  “I’m
not versed in every topic, but I can read, write, and do arithmetic.  People
can float in and out to help me, but I can accept education responsibilities.”

“Done.”  Bernie said to her.

“Yes, done.  I can help when
possible, but thank you.”  Melanie told her friend.

“If it’s okay with Tony, put us
down for fishing.  One of us will motivate each day to take a group.”  Hank
looked towards Antonio with his chin up in a ‘that okay?’ pose. 

“Yeah, I can do that.  I can help
with boats, cars, and engines too.  I’m good with stuff like that, but I can
fish too.”

“Anyone want to accept the
laundry?”  Solange joked.

“I can make sure it gets done, but
I don’t know if I can do it all.”  Jamie sat next to Peter.  “I had a lot of
kids and grandkids, and I usually air dried my clothes, but I had a washing
machine.”

“I think everyone will help.” 
Solange told her.

“Ahmed and I will cook, or make sure
someone else volunteers.  I know Greg is a fantastic cook, as are many others,
but if it’s okay with Ahmed, we will make sure a meal is prepared.”  Todd
commented.

“I assume I will keep my managing
director title.”  Ahmed drew a laugh.

“Matt and I will hunt and trap. 
Right?”  Greg nodded to his brother.

“Water is too big a project for one
person, but I’ll try to set up a system.”  John announced.  “We have water, and
we have ways to collect it or get it, it’s just a pain right now.  I’ll work on
making it easier, and make sure we don’t run out.”

“I will do the same for firewood.” 
Solange said.  “I cannot carry all the wood, but I will make sure we find it
when we need it.”

“It makes sense that I will care
for the animals.  I’m a vet.  I’ll make sure the kids feed them, and we milk
them.”  Kelly said. 

“I’ll do that too.  I mean, if it’s
okay with you, I’d love to learn how to take care of them.”  Avery asked the
young woman.

“Absolutely, I’d love the help, and
to pass along knowledge.  I paid a lot of money to learn how to care for a
dozen chickens and goats.”  Another laugh came from the group.

Items were checked off the list Solange
had on the wall.

Melanie stood.  “I’m going to move
on to the next topic.  As some of you know, I am or I was a surgeon.  I am a
doctor, and I will continue to practice.  I hope I can convince one of the
younger people to work with me, learn some of the things we’ll all need going
forward.  If Kelly thinks she paid a lot to care for chickens and goats, well,
think how I feel right now.”  She paused, “I’m also an amateur botanist, and
I’d like to talk about crops.  If we stay here, even if it’s just for the
summer, we need to build a greenhouse and start our seedlings.  We need to find
some land that allows us to plant.”  She looked around the room.  “If we aren’t
going to stay here, well, we can address the farming question when we get to
our next home.”

“Wait, you’re a surgeon?  Did we
know this?”  Ahmed turned to Bernie and Kelly.

“I didn’t, Ahmed, but I don’t know
what most of these people did in their previous lives.”  Bernie replied.

“I asked everyone to keep it quiet,
not to lie, but keep it quiet until we knew you better.  Physicians are in
short supply.  I’m sorry if you feel deceived.”  Melanie told the three New
York adults.

 “No, I understand.  I’m excited. 
You’re right, we need a doctor.  I think Kelly will be a fantastic resource for
both human and animal well being, but to have a surgeon?  Wow, it’s like we
lucked into an even better situation than we realized.” 

“I planned on attending medical
school.  I would love to learn from you if I can.”  Rebecca said from the back
of the room.  “I have little interest in farming.  It’s not a package deal, is
it?”

Matt jumped in before Melanie could
respond.  “I am excited about the farming.  I know I’m signed up to help Greg
with the trapping and hunting, but I’ve been studying farming for the last few
months.”

“I’d be lucky to work with both of
you.”  Melanie told them.  “Did I raise the question none of us wanted to ask? 
How long are we going to stay here?”  She looked around the room.  “I’m tired. 
I’ve been fighting to survive and keep my kids alive for half a year.  We lived
through the stress of the rapture, through months of confusion and struggle.  I
want to settle down for a few weeks, get our bearings.  I don’t know how we
decide where to go and when to go there, but I’d like to vote on staying here
for at least two more weeks, maybe a month.  We probably have enough moose meat
to last us that long.”

“Do we even have to vote?”  John
asked.  “We all feel the same way.  Two weeks is an easy decision.  I think the
bigger question is if we stay the summer.”

“I don’t know if gas will work at
the end of the summer.  You’re talking another five or six maybe seven months? 
If we don’t have gas, we have to walk out of New Hampshire.  That will be a
problem.”  Todd brought realism to the vacation plans.

“I don’t want to discuss our next
destination, I just want to talk about how long we stay here.  We all okay with
two weeks?”  John asked.  No one replied.  “Anyone not want to stay here for
two weeks?”  The room was silent again.

“Okay.”  John said.  “We stay,
relax, get our energy, put some pounds on you New Yorkers, re-assess the
situation in two weeks.”

Everyone was quiet.  The group had established
daily tasks, assigned them to qualified people, decided on a short-term
timeline.  It was a good meeting.  Todd, who sat down after the conversation
began to flow, stood.  “Does anyone have any additional business?  Anything
they want to talk about?”

“I want to lead a party down to Boston,
look for survivors.”  John announced.  “I was against approaching people, going
to major cities.  I was against finding all of you, and I was wrong.  I want to
give any survivors in Boston a chance to join us.  I assume it will be a day
trip, maybe overnight.  I can take the Suburban.”

“I would like to go with you.” 
Solange said, standing up to join him.  “Any long trip, or any task we do that
is away from our home, we should do in pairs.”

“Does anyone have a problem with us
going down to Boston?”  John asked again.

“If you can help people, it’s the
right thing to do.  If you can save people like you saved us, I’ll pack your
food for you.”  Bernie gave John the support he was looking for. 

“Okay, Solange and I will leave in
two days.  The snow might be off the highways by then.”

Todd continued.   “Well, that was
productive and expedient.  It’s only been about an hour.  Do we want to talk
about long term plans?  I know we just said we would hang out for two weeks,
which is great, but do we want to discuss our long term goals?”

Rebecca raised her hand. 

“You can just speak, Rebecca.” 
Todd told her.

“Everyone knows I’ve run analysis
of where we should go.  Some of you know my findings, that the coast of
Virginia is probably our best spot, except if we can get to Hawaii or some
other tropical island.  There are two ways we can get to the islands.  We drive
to California and figure out how to work a large boat, which I conclude is
improbable.”  She paused and looked at Peter.  “or we fly.”

“Fly?  How are we going to fly?” 
Ahmed asked.

“I’m a pilot, retired navy, retired
commercial.”  Peter spoke loudly, clearly, and with the confidence expected
from a pilot.  “If there is a plane that works, I can get it in the air.  Our
issues are fuel and capacity; capacity for people and supplies as well as
capacity for fuel and distance.” 

“You have a doctor and a pilot?” 
Ahmed asked.

“We have a doctor and a pilot.” 
John emphasized the ‘we.’

“I love that we are talking about
this, and I want nothing more than to live in Hawaii, but let’s also discuss a
third capacity that Peter is not discussing, the capacity to land.  What if we
fly to Honolulu and the airport is in ruins or there are planes blocking the
runways?”

“Honestly?  I don’t see that as an
issue.”  Peter told him.  “I doubt the airports on every island will be
destroyed or unavailable for landing.  If they are, which again, is not
realistic, there will be a stretch of highway somewhere we can use.  Could we
end up landing on the highway in the lava fields on Kona?  Possibly, but there
are three air strips on Oahu alone.  The military would never leave the
airstrip blocked.  We can land at Pearl if we needed to.  Is it a risk?  Yes. 
Is it a big risk?  No.”

Paul nodded as Peter explained the
options.  “Okay, I’m appeased.  You’re good.”

“Son, you have no idea.”  Peter
winked at him.

“Seriously?”  Rebecca said with
exasperation.  “I did all this work and the answer is Hawaii?  Everyone in the
room would have said Hawaii without turning on a computer.  Unbelievable.” 

“We were bored, it kept us busy.” 
Paul told her.  He knew her venom was directed at him.

Kelly stood.  “I like the idea, and
I understand why Hawaii presents so many benefits to us; climate, water, food,
safety, the list continues.  Are we concerned about being stuck there?  If we
fly to Honolulu, I doubt there is a way to return.  We are done.  If supplies
are not as abundant as we think they are, we’re looking at New York City all
over again.”