The Resolution (13 page)

Chapter Twenty-Three: Building Faith

As Ed continued his bedside vigil beside his friend Nate, he read from a tattered old Bible given to him by Meredith. As the candlelight flickered and danced across the page, he sensed movement on Nate’s bed. Startled, Ed placed his hand on Nate’s and said, “Nate, buddy. Can you hear me?

Nate’s hand flinched, followed by the batting of his eyes and a deep breath. “My head hurts,” Nate said softly as he began to shift around restlessly on the bed.

“Nate. Oh, I’m so glad you’re back with us,” Ed said as he wiped a tear from his eye.

“What the heck happened? Where are we?”

“We are safe with friends. We’re free, buddy. No more Camp Twenty-one. No more worry of you getting shipped back to the feds. I’m gonna get you back to Peggy, where you belong.”

“Where is Tommy and everyone else? Are they okay?”

“The Bronco and our bus were hit by an aircraft of some sort. Not everyone got out. I’m not sure who did,” Ed explained sorrowfully. “After the Bronco was hit and we crashed, people started to scramble. It was dark and chaotic. I kicked out a window and dragged you away as whatever hit us came in for the deathblow. We barely made it out. I did see others get out, but I honestly don’t know who. I just saw orange jumpsuits, no faces.”

After a moment of silence, Nate said, “Thanks, man. You’ve been dragging me around for a long time now. I owe you everything.”

“You don’t owe me anything. If it weren't for you guys, I would be alone in this world now. You are my family, blood or not.”

“Same here, brother,” Nate said. “I really need some water. My head is pounding, and I feel like I haven’t had a drink in days.”

“You haven’t... except for this bag, that is.” Ed held the candle so Nate could see the IV drip that Meredith had set up for him.

“Where are we?” Nate said, looking around.

“An old shelter of some sort under a suburban neighborhood home. The couple that lives here is awesome. I’d love to have them as neighbors back at the homesteads,” Ed said with a smile.

Just then, he heard the door to the stairs creak open as Meredith said, “It’s just me.”

“He’s awake, Meredith! He’s awake!” Ed said with joy in his voice.

Meredith hurried down the stairs and said, “Well, hello, there. It’s nice to finally meet you.”

“Thank you, ma’am. Thank you so much for taking care of me and hiding us away, wherever we are.”

“Oh, you don’t need to thank us. We were getting pretty bored around here with nothing to do, anyway. We consider it a welcome break in the monotony.”

“Where’s Henry?” asked Ed.

“He’s upstairs. Why don’t you go and tell him the good news while I check out your friend here. Light that oil lamp and hand it to me before you go, if you could be so kind.”

“Of course, ma’am.” Ed lit the oil lamp with his reading candle. “Here you go,” he said, handing it to her. “I’ll be right back.”

Hurrying up the stairs, Ed realized it was his first time out of the basement since they had brought them in. Looking around the home, he noticed what used to be a nice leather sofa in the corner of the room, which looked like it had been hacked to bits. Looking at its proximity to the fireplace, he immediately understood why.

“Welcome to the surface,” said Henry from the adjacent kitchen, startling Ed. “It’s good to see you in real clothes instead of that jumpsuit, as well. How do the shoes fit?”

“Oh, hi,” Ed replied. “Nate is finally awake.” He could barely contain the excitement in his voice. “And the shoes fit just fine. They are a little loose, but when you’ve been stripped of your shoes and forced to walk around on hot gravel and concrete, loose shoes are good shoes. We can’t thank you two enough for everything you’ve done.”

“See, son, prayers do work. Say, do you want to go on a run with me tonight? I might as well take advantage of the backup while I’ve got it. I’ve got someone I’d like you to meet, as well. Meredith will take good care of Nate while we’re gone. You won’t have to worry about that.”

“I’d be honored, sir.”

“Great,” Henry replied. “After we eat tonight, we’ll head out.”

“What are we looking for tonight? Food? Supplies?”

“Sure, those things are always on the radar. Most importantly though, to use a phrase from the modern corporate world, human resources can be one of your most valuable resources.”

~~~~

Later that evening, as Ed continued to read from Meredith’s Bible while sitting alongside Nate’s bed, Nate remarked, “You seem to be really getting into that.”

“Yeah... I guess so,” Ed replied. “I always considered myself a worldly fellow. Being born and raised in the New York City area of Long Island, I saw the rest of the country as ‘flyover states’ that were there to merely link New York with California. After moving to the Midwest and then ultimately Ohio for work, I started to see things in a different light. I slowly began to see that the great infrastructure of modern-day collectivism was a sham. None of it will ever truly be mine, although they say it belongs to the people. That, combined with the social engineering of governments and a culture that puts modern day humanism on a pedestal above all else, regardless of the damage we do all around us, really started pushing me back to basics. And now, with this all around us,” Ed said, making an all-encompassing gesture with his hands, “I’m really starting to think that, like my mother always said, the ‘Bible is the operator’s manual for life.’ We, as modern humans, had drifted too far away from the basics of life. Prior to the attacks that caused the collapse, people may have lived in the same house their entire life, yet they had no idea if there was anything they could eat in the woods behind them. As a society as a whole, we had completely forgotten how to live on our own planet without a vast infrastructure to support us. And now look what our high and mighty modern society has become without that infrastructure firmly in place. So, yes, I’m taking a new interest in this book in my pursuit of the true basics of life.”

Nate smiled and sat up in bed. “Damn, my head hurts.”

“Still the same?” Ed asked.

“No, it’s truly getting better. I just feel like I lost a championship fight against Mike Tyson. It’s sort of a ghost of a headache at this point that reminds me it’s there when I move or something.”

“Well, don’t push yourself.”

“I need to get the hell out of this bed. Speaking of which, where’s the bathroom?”

“Ha. Bathroom...” Ed said with a chuckle. “You’re in the city now, boy. Or, well, the suburbs. Same thing though. They were all on city water and sewer, which hasn’t worked for quite some time. Living on the Homefront and the Thomas farm with their own well water and septic systems has gotten you spoiled.”

“Yes, that it has. So... what do we do?”

“Oh, sorry,” replied Ed, still chuckling under his breath. “They have a bucket upstairs converted to a toilet with some sort of homemade treatment in it to keep the stink down. They dump it in a hole in the backyard when it’s full. They keep it up there because it would stink things up down here without adequate ventilation, but I can go get it and bring it down here to you.”

“I’d be forever in your debt. Those old stone stairs look like a bitch for a guy on one leg.”

“No problem, brother. I’ll be right back,” said Ed as he set the Bible on Nate’s bed and headed upstairs.

~~~~

After Nate had taken care of his business and Ed dealt with the bucket, Meredith came down the stairs and said, “Ed, Henry is ready for you.”

“Ready for you?” queried Nate.

“Oh, he wants me to accompany him on a supply run this evening. I figure it’s the least I can do.”

Looking concerned, Nate said, “Well, don’t go and get yourself killed. It’s a long way back to Tennessee to have to hop the whole way there on one leg.”

“Don’t worry, man. I’ll be back. I’ve got as much faith in Henry as I do just about anyone.”

With that being said, Ed smiled and proceeded up the stairs to join Henry for their supply run. “Hello, Henry,” Ed said, closing the hidden stairwell door behind him.

“Hello, Ed. I’ve got something for you,” Henry said, opening an old leather saddlebag. “This was my grandfather’s revolver. It’s an old Colt Single-Army, chambered in .45 Colt—or .45 Long Colt as some people call it today. It’s older than I am, so do your best to hang onto it. It’s the last family heirloom I have left. At one time, I had an extensive gun collection, including the Garand I carried in Korea. Unfortunately, during the early stages of the collapse, Meredith and I had to head downstairs unexpectedly to avoid a gang of looters. They cleaned us out. It took everything I had to stay down in the basement and not come up and fight them for it. I’d have killed every last one of those sons of bitches for even touching my prized family possessions. I just couldn’t risk something happening and leaving Meredith all alone in what was the most uncertain of times.”

“That showed some real restraint,” replied Ed.

“It still eats me up to this day.” Henry stared at the remains of his decorative wooden gun cabinet that was now just a pile of potential firewood. “But anyway, back to business here. You can carry this tonight. You won’t do me any good unarmed. But I need it back.”

“Understood, sir,” Ed replied with sincerity.

Henry handed Ed the pistol along with an old-fashioned leather holster with cartridge loops going all the way around to hold the .45 Colt cartridges that any good Western-genre film star would be proud to carry. As Ed admired it for its quality and craftsmanship, Henry said, “My grandfather had that holster rig custom made by an old saddlemaker when he was based at the old Camp Travis in San Antonio, Texas, right after World War I. It cost him a month’s salary on what was then a corporal’s pay, but he knew it would be a prize possession for generations to come, and he sure was right. That pistol and this old shotgun are all I have left from the looters. Thank God I had this old Winchester Model ’97 and that Colt pistol squirreled away in a chest down there for safekeeping.”

“Well, let’s get moving,” he said, ending his stroll down memory lane. Getting back to the business at hand, Henry led Ed out the back door and through the backyards of some of the surrounding houses that had since been abandoned by people who had either passed away with no local relatives, or from people who fled the outskirts of Atlanta, looking for a safer and less populated area to wait things out. Henry knew exactly which fence boards were not nailed securely in place, making a known-only-to-him quick and easy way to transit through the neighborhood with little effort, while remaining off the main streets. Pointing to a large white house with a screened-in back porch, Henry said, “That old son of a bitch there should die off anytime and stop being such a headache to me. He’s got all kinds of issues and no way to get what he needs. I’ve tried and tried to be nice to him, but he threatens my life every time I’ve gone to offer him help. You can only let a dog bite you so many times before you have to just give up and stop trying to feed it.”

Henry then led Ed out onto Willow Park Lane and said, “We’ve got to cross this street and then slip in the back door of that old brick house. That’s where we are meeting everyone.”

“Everyone?” Ed asked with a curious tone.

“Yes, my human resources I was referring to earlier.”

Ed merely nodded in reply as Henry hurried across the street and into the back door of the old abandoned house. Once inside, Ed noticed there was another door that separated the back porch, which had been converted into a room, from the rest of the house. Henry knocked on the door and took a step back, waiting silently for a reply.

“Who’s that?” answered a voice from inside the room.

“He’s one of the survivors I was telling you about.”

“Why is he armed?” the voice inside asked.

“Why wouldn’t he be?” answered Henry in an agitated tone.

After a brief pause, they heard the sound of several locks being actuated, followed by the door opening only a few inches, and then the rest of the way. “Come on in,” the man inside said.

Chapter Twenty-Four: A Community’s Plan

After several bed-ridden days being cared for by Molly back on the Homefront, Evan was finally up and on his feet again. Although Molly had put him on an austere “light-duty” restriction, he was just glad to be out and about on his own property again.

Walking the fence line of one of his sheep pastures, Evan came upon Jake, standing watch in a tree stand. He noticed that Jake’s attention wasn’t on his task at hand, as he had slipped in undetected. “What are you working on so intently up there, son?”

“Oh... uh...” Jake said as he shuffled his drawing papers and pencils into his bag, embarrassed that he was caught off guard by his dad’s arrival. “Oh, hey, Dad. Sorry, I was just drawing. I let my mind wander off. It won’t happen again.”

Evan looked up into the tree from the ground and said, “Don’t worry about it, son. To be honest, I’m glad you have that as an escape. We all need to live in our own little world every now and then. So... what were you working on?”

“Just a character.”

“A character. What kind of character?”

“Just something from one of the games I used to play.”

“I didn’t mean to disturb you,” Evan said. “I just had to get out of the house and go for a walk. I finally talked your mom into letting me out of her sight for a few minutes, and had to take advantage of the beautiful day. So how are the sheep?”

“Good, I guess.”

“You guess?”

“I mean, they’re good.”

“Well, I’ll leave you to your work. Just try and remember to look up every so often. You’re lucky it was me who snuck up on you.”

“Yeah, I know. Sorry, Dad.”

“It’s okay, son. I just want you to be safe out here. And, by the way, thanks for picking up the slack while I was gone. Your mom said you were quite the man of the house. That makes me feel good to hear.”

Jake just smiled down at him in response.

“I love you, son,” Evan said as he continued his stroll.

“I love you, too, Dad,” Jake replied.

As Evan continued his walk around the property, he reflected on all of the things that had happened to them since the attacks. He looked around and felt truly blessed to be in their situation and to have their resources, while simultaneously feeling cursed from all of the bad that had happened to their friends and loved ones. The harsh reality of it all, though, was eating away at him. All it would take would be a UN convoy to roll up their driveway to make it all go away. They were no longer dealing with looters, criminals, and desperate people who wanted to take what they had; they were dealing with the might of a huge global force that had chosen to insert itself in their world. And to add insult to injury, it was at the invitation of their own government.

Returning his thoughts to reality, Evan knew that Daryl was right. They needed to put a contingency plan together, and they needed to do it soon. The only certainty seemed to be that things were going to get worse before they got better.

~~~~

Arriving back at the house, Lilly and Sammy greeted Evan at the door with their usual exuberance and excitement. “Daddy, Daddy, Daddy,” they said, running to his arms.

“Yes, my little angels, Daddy is still here.”

“How was your walk?” Molly asked as she put the eggs away that she had just brought in from the chicken coop.

“It felt good to be out. I’m still not myself, but I’m getting there. I found Jake standing watch in one of the tree stands... well, sort of.”

Looking at him with a confused expression, Molly asked, “Sort of? What do you mean ‘sort of’?”

“He was so preoccupied with his drawing that he didn’t even notice me walk right up to the tree he was in. I wasn’t sneaking around, either.”

“Did you get on to him about it?”

“No. I started to reiterate the importance of maintaining vigilance while on watch, but I thought I would talk to you about it first. I know it’s got to be hard for a kid his age going through all of this. The little ones don’t know any better, but teens, especially, were living in the electronic lap of luxury here in America, with every device known to man within their reach, along with a world that’s never gone without air conditioning and heat. They know what they are missing, whereas the little ones don’t.”

“Yes, he does seem to drift off here and there these days, like he is in his own little world. I was thinking of seeing if Mildred would want to get him and Haley together to hang out sometime. They need some interaction with others their age.”

Just as Evan started to mention the future possibility of getting Haley in contact with Sabrina and Rhonda Gibbs, Griff walked into the room and said, “Daryl and Charlie are here.”

“Great!” replied Evan, excited to see Charlie for the first time since their return.

Meeting the two men on the front porch, Evan walked right up to Charlie and gave him a hug. “I’m so glad to see you, Charlie.” He pulled back and looked him in the eye. “I’m also so sorry how things went when you got back here. I can’t imagine what you went through.”

“It is what it is, Evan,” Charlie replied. “There’s nothing hindsight will do to fix anything. We just need to learn from our mistakes as we move forward.”

Nodding in reply, Evan said, “So, gentlemen, what brings you out this way? Other than my wife’s fabulous cooking, that is.” He winked at Molly as she stood by the front door listening to the conversation.

Charlie and Daryl grinned at each other as Charlie said, “Yes, Evan, you busted us on that one. But the second reason we came by is that we’ve discussed the contingency plans that Daryl mentioned to you before, and we think we have, at a minimum, something to start with.”

“Okay, great. What do you have?”

Daryl spoke up. “Well, there are several potential safe places, as we see it, for the time being. Back behind Linda’s property, there is an old ATV trail that leads over the ridge and down into the bottom of a valley that’s pretty steep on both sides. If you keep following the natural flow of the terrain, you come up on what used to be an old hunting camp—
used to be
being the key term. The cabin is long gone, but the remnant of an outhouse remains as well as there being the year-round creek in the bottom. The natural layout of the terrain and the thick trees and vegetation give it almost an enclosed canopy feel, helping to hide from potential prying eyes above. Though not a long-term option, it could be a quick hide-and-wait camp with the basics of hygiene already in place. The next one would be the old mine, back behind the Muncie place... uh, I mean the Vandergriff place. Have you ever been there?”

“No, I can’t say that I have,” replied Evan.

“That’s the beauty; I doubt many people have. It’s a failed mine from the early 1900s. It never produced anything—I think they were looking for coal seams—but it never paid off, so they abandoned the place before roads and stuff were put in. It’s really low key. I played there as a kid and visited it just the other day with this in mind. The brush in the area is so overgrown you can’t even see the entrance. You sort of have to know it’s there. It’s big enough on the inside to house everyone, and deep down inside, there is a spring water pool. It’s ideal in my opinion—for those who can make it there, that is. And lastly, although not a physical shelter, I think we should hide caches of camping supplies and food at several strategic points away from the primary bug out locations in the event some or all cannot make it to the aforementioned locations, or if changing conditions dictate that we be frequently on the move.”

“Daryl, I’m sure glad you’re on our team,” Evan said with a smile. “I like it. I like it all.”

“Good, I’ve already spoken with most of the other homesteads and everyone is onboard with the idea. I’m gonna take a few folks on a tour to the sites I mentioned above so that everyone is familiar. I don’t want to draw maps or write anything down for obvious reasons. Griff here is gonna go with me to represent you folks.”

“What’s the plan for having the repeaters up and running?” Evan asked.

Jason replied, “Charlie and I are gonna go on a ‘hunting trip’ in the morning to set them up. Hopefully, we can get in touch with the Blue Ridge folks soon. The way things are going, we don’t want to stay in the dark for too much longer. The last thing we need is surprises.”