The Zombie Plagues Dead Road: The Collected books. (154 page)

Mike sighed again, his mouth was fixed
in a grimace. He nodded. “I'll take care of it.”

“
I don't mean to put you in
the middle of it,” Bob added.

“
It isn't that... It's no
big deal,” Mike fixed a smile on his face. “I'll take care of it,
Bob.”

The others were quiet for a few moments
and then the conversation picked back up once more. When the women
emerged from the pool the men were all waiting, clean clothes and
towels in hand.

Dinner preparations were well under way
when the men came back down the tunnel, lanterns in hand. Mounds of
fries, fried chicken, all cooked in fat rendered from the milk
production and saved in one of the cold storage areas. Lilly and
Cindy began seating the children when they saw the men.

Everybody ate well and then Bob,
followed by several of the men, traveled back down the tunnel to
see the second large cave that opened into the valley on the other
side of their own.

~

“
You could drive one of
those little pickups or one of those electric four wheel drives
right up to the ledge into this cave, straight out through the
tunnel and out into the valley at the other end, and then right out
through that valley to the mountain on the other side of us. Easy
as pie. And I don't think we'd be doing anything all that unique if
we did it either,” Bob said.

They were all back in the large
gathering area of the cave. It was coming close to nightfall and
everyone was getting ready for posts or to head to wherever home
was and settle down for the evening. The small crowd around Bob
murmured and several, Ronnie and Mike among them,
nodded.

“
As
in
it's been done
before
?” Steve Choi asked.

“
Probably... I think this
place was peopled for many generations by people that reached that
other mountain, the other valley, just that way,” Bob
agreed.

“
Exactly,” Shar
said.

“
Shar saw it. If you look
at the tunnel floor, with some lights in there now, you can see the
middle humps up and the sides are worn down. Wheels: Cart wheels,
wagon wheels. They didn't actually go driving out into the valley,
and neither can we, but think of the work they saved themselves by
being able to transport their harvests right into the tunnel to
store it. On this side you actually can drive right up into the
cave and then the tunnel. It's a straight shot right up from the
valley floor to the ledge and through the cave to the other valley
nearly,” Bob elaborated.

“
Of course we've closed off
the entrance here, but we don't really need to do what they did. We
have the barns for storage. What Josh and Shar want to do is move
themselves over into that other cave. Build a couple of barns in
that valley the same as we did here. That would be bison and sheep,
goats, and a crossbreeding I have wanted to do with cows and the
bison. That would take a lot of the strain off this valley. It's a
much bigger valley.” Bob finished.

“
Now... Right now, it's
open. Those herds that are there can go left or right and walk
right out of there. To the left will bring them to us, no way out
there. So it has to be to the right that they have an entrance into
and out of that valley. That's all one long hill, steep in
places... A ridge really, not a hill at all... Steep in places, too
steep for them to get out anyhow. But I can see there looks to be a
gap about three or four hundred feet long that dumps right out into
the plains and from there they can get into the forest, and of
course the plains lead off to the middle of the country.... The old
country anyhow. A mountain or two in the way, but effectively the
world is open to them through that gap and they are closed off from
it if we can close that gap.”

“
Now if we come around
from our side... Sneak around and close that gap before they figure
out what we're up to we'll have us a herd of bison and another of
horses. We'll have to tame them... Domesticate them might be a
better word, but they'll come around. They'll get grain from us, we
can get them close that way. It won't take long.”

“
The top cave, the one
above us, is huge: Once it's cleared out it would make a perfect
barn. Ready built. Not all of it, but a good portion of it. The
left over space could be used for grain and hay storage. It's got a
lot of natural ventilation.”

“
We'll straighten out the
smoke hole situation, actually build a real chimney around it to
the top. And we'll keep a small area accessible by a staircase down
to here that joins to the tunnel so we can easily reach the upper
field or the valley and they can reach here just as easily.” He
shrugged and looked around at those listening.

“
The other big cave area is
where Josh and Shar want to make a place to live. It's plenty big
enough for a few others if they wanted to live there too,” Bob
finished.

“
Sounds good to me,” Mike
said. He looked around the room finishing on Candace and Amy who
had just wandered over. “We're all here so we should vote on it
now.” He turned back to Sharon. “That's something you two would
want to do?”

“
We thought it could work.
We'd like to,” she agreed.

“
Then we'll do it. He
looked around and all the eyes he met were in agreement. Mike
turned back to Candace as Shar left to talk the plan over with
Josh. He raised his eyebrows.

“
If we're going to do this
then we have to make a decision about replacing Molly,” Candace
said quietly. The surrounding group, except Steve Choi, was what
remained of the council. Only Janna Adams was missing.

Bob looked around and spotted Janna,
her eyes moved to his own as though she could feel the weight of
them on her. She nodded and then smiled at Cammy whom she was
talking to. A few seconds later she came over. The silence held
until she came over and settled down next to Candace.

“
We need to discuss a few
things... Us as a council,” Candace said.

“
Maybe this meeting would
be better somewhere else?” Mike asked.

What did you have in mind,” Ronnie
asked.

“
Barn would be a good
place, “Bob offered. “No one comes down to that place unless it's
to work.” That elicited a few chuckles.

“
Steve,” Mike
started.

Steve smiled. “No problem. I'll see you
all later.”

“
Um hm,” Candace agreed.
“Except I think Mike was going to ask you to come with
us.”

Steve had already begun to turn away
and Candace laughed a little as he suddenly reversed direction and
his mouth opened and then closed. “Well.”

“
Private meeting,” Ronnie
said. “Have to keep it to yourself”

“
Oh... That's not a
problem... That...” Steve seemed flustered.

“
Come on, Doc,” Bob said.
He threw an arm around Steve and a few minutes later they were all
strolling down through the night darkened valley to the
barn.

FOUR

“
Okay, so this is a private
business meeting, except Stephen Choi,” Mike gestured at Steve and
then allowed his hand to travel around to everyone. Nods and
assenting murmurers greeted his hand as it swept around and then
came back to Steve. “Relax, Steve. We asked you here for a reason.
We have all talked about this a little, privately. We had to make a
few decisions.”

Steve nodded, looking
uncomfortable.

“
So we thought to ask you
to take the empty seat on the council,” Candace said. “We need to
have a public meeting here soon and we need to get this
straightened out so there isn't a lot of dissension immediately
over this issue. This guy wants to take the seat, or thinks his
girl, friend, buddy should do it. That kind of thing”

“
Yeah. We're probably at
our last chance to make changes on our own. We have grown so much
in the last month that there will be no more making the rules up as
we go. We have to be answerable to those people,” Ronnie
said.

Mike was nodding.” Yeah... Well said.”
He turned back to Steve. “Not trying to short circuit things...
Well, maybe a little, but we started this and we would like a
little control.”

“
Stephen,” Janna said. “You
are an asset to this community and you should sit on this
council.”

“
But what about, Jessie?”
Steve asked.

“
Jessie wants to leave,”
Candace said.

“
Really?” Steve looked at
her. “I thought she liked it here.”

“
Maybe, but she told me she
wanted to leave... Her name was on my list too, but if she isn't
staying it makes it tough to start something only to watch it fall
apart.” Candace said.

“
We talked to a few people.
Not really looking, just feeling people out... Bear... Beth,
Sharon, Josh, and there are a dozen others too. They all have other
pokers in the fire,” Bob said. “Things they want to do, and this is
a job that I think is about to get very intense. The more people in
The Nation the harder the job will be too.”

“
What about the Fold...
That was Jessie’s dream... Probably why she is leaving too,” Steve
said.

“
I doubt it,” Amy said. “I
think she has other... Reasons, I guess. But, The Fold, The Nation,
it's a name, right? We're all free, we're all here. Isn't that
what's important? I mean are we arguing America versus Mexico or
Canada?”

Silence held a moment and then Ronnie
spoke. “ Anybody can be here. The Nation was our name... A name is
important in some things. I mean it has to be called something. But
that doesn't mean no one here believes in this... Fold of Jessie's.
She can build that, just not here... This is the
Nation.”

Mike was staring at his hands folded in
his lap. Bob looked over at him and then to Candace who was looking
up at the ceiling.

“
Is this... Is this coming
back to the old discussion we had way back on the way here? I
mean... is this the split?” Bob asked.

Mike raised his eyes and smiled. “Bob,
I don't think it is a split, but I do think we can't dictate what
becomes of this place. We got us here... All of us. And the others
have made their way to us. It's going to change. We can try to
stick together and we might have some things our own way, but
eventually this Fold, Nation and I have heard a few other names to,
will have to work itself out... Probably at a meeting too. We
can... We can guide, and that's about all we can do.” He frowned.
“It could be us leaving to find a new place... Most especially if
we try to force something on them they don't all agree
on.”

So... So am I being voted in by the
people at the next meeting?” Steve Choi asked.

“
Uh uh,” Amy
said.

“
No, dear. You are being
appointed right now... If you want it,” Janna Adams
said.

Mike raised his hands
palms up. “Probably the last thing we will do without a mandate by
the majority. And that's why I want to get it done now. The
position is an open ended thing... No time limit. I suppose that
someone will want to change that too. Make it a year or even less,
but right now it's open ended until they have us do a vote on it.
So we can get a lot of the...” He paused and smiled,
“
guiding
we want
done before other people start pushing for change.”

Bob was staring down at the ground, an
unhappy expression on his face. Probably, Mike thought, he hadn't
thought that far ahead and realized that the changes he had fought
against would happen and there wouldn't be much he could do about
it at all. “Okay, Bob” he asked. Bob raised his head and let a slow
smile spread across his face.

“
Yeah...” His smile got a
little crooked and then he grinned. “Thought it would be longer, I
guess.”

Arlene spoke up. She and Lilly had
followed them down and had stayed out of the discussion. “Steve,
you are probably going to be very respected and liked because of
what you know... “ She smiled. “You're also a genuinely nice guy.
Given the opportunity I would rather get input from you than
someone else. Your group was heading out to do the same thing. You
would have taken on this same responsibility anyway...”

Steve nodded. “I thought of that... I
accept.” He smiled and a great deal of conversation and laughter
greeted his smile.

Mike raised his voice slightly and the
chatter died down. “So, lets get some things straightened out as
best we can.”

Amy nodded. “This Fold thing... I hate
to bring it up, but I have heard a lot about it. It doesn't really
seem fair that other people could come here and change what we are
doing... Our name even.”

“
I guess that's what I
don't like about it,” Ronnie added.

“
We can't do much,” Candace
said. “If we ignore them it will get bigger just because we are
ignoring it. We're going to have to address it.” She turned to Mike
and Ronnie who were having a side conversation. “Probably sooner
rather than later.”

Mike nodded and Ronnie
spoke. “I think we should bring it up ourselves. We need a public
meeting soon, I mean like the next week or so, and I think we
should bring it up then. That way we don't look like we're hiding
it or not taking it serious... I also think bringing it up that
fast could short circuit it too.” He frowned. “I don't mean to
sound so... So
clandestine
, I guess,
plotting
, but they won't
be ready for it and we could put it to a vote and get it shot down
pretty quick. The longer we wait the more opposition we'll
have.”