Mountain Home

[WiseOwl]

This is a great story. I started reading last night and now at work, being as slow as we are, I just finished the last 4 pages. Keep up the good work. You definitely have my 2 thumbs up!

[Christian for Israel]

thanks for the comment. it gets discouraging when nobody says anything.



Chapter 26

With the power restored, the group was able to get back to pilot training. After a week away from flying, most of the students needed a couple of days to get back into it, and there were several close calls. Finally though, everyone seemed to be back to where they were before the power problem.

After everyone soloed in the Tomahawks, Robin moved up to instructing in the Greyhound as Jack pulled Mel and Pam to check them out in the C-130’s. After a week of practicing in the big cargo plane, they were ready and took over training of the others, freeing Jack to continue teaching rotary craft to his two students.

By the end of June both Mike and Donald had soloed in the Huey, and Jack decided to ferry them up to Gowen field and try to acquire more helicopters. Flying over to the army reserve area, they landed and went to make a thorough examination of the hangars so they would know for sure what they had to work with.

Most of the hangars had been used to house craft down for maintenance, or small fixed wing planes, but the last one they looked in had two Black Hawk’s inside.

“Oh man, will you look at that! Beautiful!” Jack exclaimed upon seeing them.

The Black Hawk didn’t have the range of the Huey, and was about as fast, but it could sling load four times the weight, or carry twice as many passengers. Knowing they could really use these ships, the men went to work getting them ready for flight.

“One problem with these is they were meant to be flown by two people.” Jack informed the others. “That means we can only take one back at a time. Mike, why don’t you fly the Huey back while Donald and me grab one of these?”

“Suits me,” he replied.

Climbing into the right seat of the Black Hawk, Jack started the engines and brought the rotor up to speed. When Don was belted in and ready, they took off and followed the Huey back to the complex. Landing and shutting down, they jumped aboard the Huey and returned for the other one.

Jack realized they’d need two more pilots if they were going to use both Black Hawks, and asked the others who else wanted to learn to fly them. He wasn’t a bit surprised when Mel and Pam volunteered, but was a bit taken aback when Robin did also. He still wasn’t used to the new assertiveness of the young girl, but saw that she was determined. Taking her aside, he said “Robin, I’m delighted that you’re interested in getting involved in everything, but I’m concerned about the twins. As young as they are you won’t be able to devote much time away from them for training, you’re already extending yourself to the limit training the others in the Greyhound. Would you be too upset if I suggested waiting until next spring to learn to fly the choppers? That way the kids will be old enough for you to take the time you’ll need to learn.”

Looking at him for a moment, she replied “I guess so Jack, I just don’t want to get left behind here.”

“I understand, we’ll try not to let that happen, ok?”

“Ok,” she said, looking slightly embarrassed.

With that handled, he returned to the others. “All right, as soon as everyone has soloed in the C-130’s, we’ll begin training in the Huey. Until then Mike and Don will build air time in the Black Hawk and handle any short range jobs that are needed.”



During the winter they had put together a list of the groups around them that wanted to be moved to their area. Not all the groups wanted to join them, and that was fine with Jack. He offered assistance to all of them, whether they wanted to join or not and as a result had fostered goodwill among their neighbors. As the first crew was formed for the cargo plane, Jack started sending it out to bring people in. he also got the others to go back to Gowen and bring in three more planes. That way, even if all three crews were out, they’d have one plane in reserve.

By the middle of July people were beginning to come in, and the group got them settled in the shelter to begin with. Jack was well aware that the shelter couldn’t hold too many, and already they had tripled the number of people living there. He proposed to the group that they retake and settle Mayfield, twenty miles to the north. It would have to be cleaned up to begin with, he explained, including disposing of the bodies of the former residents, but it would allow them to move into ready made houses, at least for the first few hundred people. After that they would have plenty of room for expansion.

One of the new people asked how they were supposed to get power and water up there, and Jack suggested they extend the power lines from the shelter to the town. “Once we have power restored up there, we’ll work on getting wells dug and pumps installed.”

This seemed to satisfy people, and they agreed. Jack explained that they’d need to plant crops next year (they had planted a large garden for the complex that year, but it wouldn’t feed all the newcomers), but for now they could ship in food from the grocery warehouse in Boise to feed everyone. This was agreed upon by all present, and they made plans to go the next day and start cleaning up the town.

The next morning Jack, Mike and Don used the choppers to shuttle in thirty three of the new people to begin the clean up. They had left the young children at the shelter, and taken anyone twelve and older to help with the task. Mike had trained Allison, his daughter, to use the radios and the girl was maintaining contact with folks all over the country. Everyone that wanted to join the group was told that first they had to agree to the rules, but no one had a problem with that. Everyone understood that kids in this new world had to grow up fast if they wanted to live, and they all saw the wisdom of living by the morality of the Bible, even if they weren’t all believers.

That first day they spent cleaning up enough houses for the group to live in while they completed the job. Almost every house had mummified corpses inside, as people naturally had stayed home as they got sick, and had died there. The job was gruesome, but they soon got over it. One of the good things was the bodies were light, as most of the moisture had evaporated out of them. As the bodies began to pile up in the street, Jack and Mike flew back to the complex and got the Skycrane in order to fly up to the site of the power line repair and retrieve the backhoe and dozer to facilitate the digging of mass graves. By the end of the day they had cleaned up five houses and buried the bodies in a vacant lot nearby, and were ready to stop for the night. Jack flew back to the complex and picked up a hot meal that was waiting for him, and brought it back to the town for all the workers. Everyone seemed to be in good spirits, despite the nasty job they’d done, and as soon as they’d eaten, they found places to bed down for the night.

Knowing they’d need a watch posted, Jack had asked James and Susan to get some sleep during the day and fulfill that roll during the night. He wanted to give the new people a good night’s rest as he knew the next day would be a hard one.

With new groups coming in daily, the job of removing and burying the bodies was over sooner than expected. By the end of the second week it was done, and there were more than a hundred people living in the town. With the job now completed, Jack got crews together to string power lines. In town they were usually able to use existing power poles, but in areas they had to simply mount insulators on trees. He knew this wouldn’t hold up forever, but it would give them the time they needed to build better supports later. This part of the country didn’t have many trees however, and outside of town was mostly open plains. Instead of trying to build supports for the power lines, they decided to find a trencher and conduit if they could and put the lines underground. That presented problems of its own, including the fact that the frost line was about four feet deep in this part of the country, and the line would have to go in below that point.

At the heavy equipment lot in Boise they found a trencher that was capable of digging as deep as eight feet and got it running. Sling loading it to the town with the Black Hawk, they started searching for suitable conduit. That proved to be easier said than done, and they couldn’t find exactly what they were looking for. What they did find was six inch PVC water pipe the city had stored on their lot, and decided to thread the lines through that. It wasn’t the best solution and sure was a pain in the butt to work with, but it sure beat building and installing hundreds of power poles.

On the day that power was finally restored to the town’s power grid, there was a celebration. There were almost two hundred people living in the town at this point, from all over the country. Most had been without electricity for the entire year and a half since the plague, and many had been hungry and sick as well. This return to civilization was a welcome relief after so long, and everybody went all out.

During that first night however, there were three houses in the town that caught fire. No one was living in them at the time, and they simply burned themselves out, but the people were afraid, fearing that someone might be trying to attack them. After investigating the fires they realized that the cause was electrical appliances left on when the lights went out. With the restoration of power some of these had come back on, eventually overheating and starting the fires. With their new understanding, the people shut off power to all but the neighborhood they were living in at the moment, and formed a crew to go through all the houses and turn off every appliance until such time as the house was again occupied. This seemed to solve the problem, and there were no more unexpected fires in town.

By early fall the town had grown to more than seven hundred people. As winter was approaching, Jack’s people ended the exodus flights for the year and helped the towns people get organized for the winter. So far crime in town was unheard of, but they insisted that all of the residents be armed and formed some of them into patrols that roved the surrounding area, watching out for trouble. The towns’ people also organized a town counsel to make decisions. At first they tried to get Jack to run it, but he declined. He had no desire to get involved with other people’s daily lives, although he was honored that they trusted him enough to ask.

Sitting with Pam in their apartment, her belly big with their first child, Jack confessed to her that he wasn’t sure whether this town was God’s will or not.

“I’ve been praying about this for the past year, and still I get no answer hun. In my mind I know that genetic diversity is required to have a growing society, but in my heart I’m still not sure it’s God’s will.”

“I understand your concern Jack, and I’m not sure what to tell you. I know the Bible says that God filled the world with people from just Adam and Eve, and that He could do it again if He wanted, no matter how many people we had here.”

“But the difference Pam is that Adam and Eve were created perfect by God, genetically perfect. There were no bad genes to cause trouble if brothers and sisters married and had children. After sin came into the world and brought genetic problems with it, that changed, and that’s when God changed things and said that incest was wrong.”

“But that doesn’t explain away Noah and his family Jack, scripture says that there was so much sin in the world that God destroyed everyone with the flood. Even if Noah were perfect genetically, what about his wife? Or his sons’ wives? Surely there were genetic problems in them, yet God still repopulated the world from just those eight people…couldn’t He do it again?”

“I guess so hun, but all I have right now is science. Anyway, I can’t see anything wrong with gathering folks together, whether for diversity or just to help each other live. There’s no doubt about it, the more people you have, the easier a job is.”

“I guess you’re right Jack, I don’t see where bringing everyone here will cause any problems either. I guess you should just do what you feel is necessary, at least until God tells you one way or another.”

With that, they got up and headed for bed.

[610Alpha]

Don't be discouraged, you can see how many times this thread has been viewed. With those C-130's they can really raid grocery stores/warehouses for food until they get crops planted. Keep goin, we're reading.

[dmfield]

Pretty good story. Keep it up.

[Christian for Israel]

thanks guys.



Chapter 27

During the month of October Jack helped the new town get things set up and running. Among the new projects that needed to be handled was the need to arm so many new people. There had been guns in the houses, and a local pawn shop had a few rifles and shotguns as well, but not nearly enough for everybody.

The town council was comprised of two older men and one woman. They were well aware that they weren’t capable of providing for the needs of the growing community like the old US Government had, so they pretty much left everyone alone and only got involved when the people asked their opinion. Still, they weren’t very knowledgeable in this whole ‘running of a community of survivors’ thing, and consulted Jack often. For his part, even though Jack had said he didn’t want to be a politician and run for office, he was more than willing to give advice and help out in any way that he could. Without his being aware of it, the council had put him in the position of leader, only without the title.

When the question of arming the community came up, soon after they had stopped bringing new people in for the year, Jack was quick to come up with a solution. He explained to the council about the several armories in Boise, and mentioned that there were many gun stores and pawn shops there as well. They were already making runs there for food, and with their blessing, he put together a team to acquire the needed weapons. As he was about to leave one of the council members spoke up and said they might as well inventory other things in the town, and that he may want to consult with one of the medical people that had arrived to determine what was needed to outfit the new clinic they’d set up. Thinking that a good idea, he agreed and left to get things set up.

Two days later a group of twenty six people headed out towards Boise. In the lead were Jack and Don in the Mog, to provide protection for the group with the Browning machine gun. Following them were two tractor trailers they’d gotten running, along with three straight frame box trucks. Overhead Mel was providing cover in the Huey gunship, scouting ahead of the group and alerting them to any potential problems with their planned route. The convoy traveled the short distance quickly, even though their top speed was only twenty-five miles an hour. Along the way they saw no signs of life, but as they neared the airport Jack again got an uneasy feeling that someone was watching them.

When they arrived at the airport he asked Mel to scout around, explaining his feeling to her. A few minutes later, as she was circling over the interstate to their north, she reported that she thought she saw movement in a building about a block from the highway. Asking her to return and pick him up, he asked Don and two other men, both armed, to accompany him.

As they boarded the helicopter he said “every time I’ve come here, I’ve gotten the feeling we were being watched. We’ve never had any trouble, and I don’t want to go in guns blazing, but I’d like to resolve this today if possible.”

Nodding their understanding, the men got settled for the short hop over to the building where Mel had seen movement. Landing in front of the building, they got out and carefully made their way inside. It was an old three story brick business, apparently a carpet store and warehouse. There were no signs of life downstairs, except for a path through the dust that led to a staircase. As they slowly mounted the stairs they called out, not wanting to startle any resident and cause them to shoot out of fear. When no one responded to their hails, they proceeded. As they neared the top they could hear the sound of scuffling feet, and a moment later that of a door slamming.

Gaining the second floor they caught a glimpse of a lone figure running away from the structure. Apparently he had gone down the fire escape when he realized they were coming up. From what Jack could see it was an older man, and he seemed to be dressed in rags. That in itself was strange, as the stores were full of clothing for the taking, if anyone were simply willing. Looking around the room, they saw that it was apparently the home of a vagrant. There were empty wine and booze bottles around, along with old food containers and a few ratty blankets. There were no signs of weapons of any kind, and the figure hadn’t been carrying a rifle, so they decided the guy likely wasn’t any sort of threat to them.

“Well, I don’t think we need to worry about this guy. Why don’t we leave some of our blankets and some food here, in case he returns, and a note or something offering help if he wants it, then just leave him be?” Jack said.

“Are you sure that’s wise?” one of the others, a young man in his mid twenty’s who went by the name of butch, asked. “What if he wants to cause trouble?”

“I’m afraid we have no right to bother anyone based on what they might do sometime in the future.” Jack said seriously. “So far, although he’s obviously watched us every time we’ve come here, he’s never given us any grief. As far as I can see, we have no cause to bother him, we need to simply be willing to live and let live.”

Agreeing, the group went back out to the helicopter. After getting some food and supplies from the group, they returned, being just as cautious as before, and placed the items in the main room downstairs, along with a note that said they’d leave him alone from now on as long as he didn’t attack them, but that he could contact them by flying a white flag from the top of the building, if he ever needed anything.



The first order of business after their little excursion was to establish a permanent base of operations. The inventorying of the city would likely take a good portion of the winter to complete, and they’d need a comfortable and secure place to live while it was being done. The first place they tried was the National Guard Armory, but they decided quickly that, while it was a great place to house weapons, it lacked a little in providing creature comforts.

“Well I sure don’t want to live here for months.” Don said to Jack as the two walked along the wire cages looking at weapons. “Bare walls and concrete floors just don’t do it for me.” He said, grinning.

“Nope, this would be the pits. But while we’re here we can load up the rifles and ammo and send it back to town. Also, I want our mechanics to check out some of those Hummers and see if they can get them running, they’ll help us get around without people having to ride in the back of the panel truck anymore.”

Walking back outside he told the group what he wanted, and while most of them pitched in to load the truck, several who had mechanical experience from before the sickness went to work on the vehicles. Within an hour both jobs were accomplished, and they had six more vehicles at their disposal. Five of the hummers had Browning machine guns, and one had a TOW anti-tank missile launcher. When they finally got the TOW equipped Hummer going, Butch let out a yell. Calling out to him, Don asked “what are you so excited about?”

“Man, I used to drive one of these during the Gulf war…they’re great!”

“I take it then,” Jack called back, “that you know how to operate that weapon?”

“Yes sir! No problem. Now we have a weapon to be reckoned with, for sure!”

Smiling at his enthusiasm, Jack said “just make sure it doesn’t go off while pointing at any of us.” Seeing the look that appeared on the young man’s face, he laughed out loud, then told everyone to get ready to go, they were going to check out the terminal building next.

Boise was a good sized town, and their new terminal reflected that. Jack knew the building had just been completed a couple of years earlier, and everything was nice and new inside. After exploring the structure, the group decided the third floor conference area would be perfect for their base. The building was fairly defensible after the ground floor had been sealed off, with the only access then being the raised roadway to the passenger drop-off area. They parked Browning equipped Hummers at either end of the building on that elevated section of road, posting personnel in them to act as sentries and provide defense if necessary. The Huey was parked on the roof, and a pilot would be available at all times if heavier firepower was needed.

With that accomplished, Jack sent the truck of weapons back to Mayfield with two Hummers to provide an escort. They returned a couple of hours later with a message from the council that weapons training would begin the next day. Jack was aware that they were still several hundred rifles short, not to mention having virtually no pistols or heavier weapons. He decided to spend the rest of the day with a crew of eight and one of the trucks looking for more while the others got the conference area set up for long term occupancy.

Their first stop was the army reserve armory where they’d gotten the SAW’s. Searching the building they counted two hundred thirty M-16’s, and eighty-one M-249’s. Loading these up, along with several hundred cases of ammunition, the group decided to try one of the large gun stores in town to look for pistols and shotguns.

Heading into town, they made their way to ‘Shooting World’, a dealer Jack had visited before the sickness. Arriving at the store they saw that the front windows had been smashed out, but when they got inside they saw that although the glass cases were also broken into, most of the guns seemed to still be in place. Looking through the mess, they found that exposure to the elements hadn’t been kind to most of the weapons. The Glocks looked to be in the best shape, although Jack was loathe to carry one, as they had always felt like power tools in his hand due to the plastic outer construction. Still, they were better than nothing.

Thinking about it, they decided to simply collect everything left in the store. It would have been nice if they could have stuck to one caliber and make of pistol, but they needed so many that this was impossible. They also took every box of ammunition, no matter the caliber. Among the rifles, they selected personal guns, each according to his taste. Butch walked out with a SPAS-12, an Italian made combat shotgun that held nine-twelve gauge shells and had a sling that had twenty-five more. It was a heavy, mean looking thing, all black and with a folding stock, but the grin on the young man’s face as he walked out made everyone chuckle.

Heading back to the terminal for the night, they knew that at least one shop in town didn’t need to be inventoried now, but there were still many more that did.



After the town of Mayfield had been armed, the next thing on Jack’s list was medical supplies. One of the people he’d hand picked for this trip was a middle aged registered nurse named Louise. Out of the people they’d brought in over the summer, they had five paramedics, a handful of EMT’s, one man who’d been a first year intern in an emergency room, and Louise. Talking with her, Jack had learned that most of her experience lay in pediatric medicine and she’d spent three years in the maternity ward as well. This was good news to him, as Pam was due to give birth in the next few weeks, and having someone with experience there was a great reassurance.

Making their way to the nearest hospital one morning, the group was overcome by the sight of so many decomposed corpses. Bodies lay everywhere, some on gurney’s and beds, others on the floor. From the remains of clothing they could tell that a few were medical personnel but the vast majority were ordinary people who had come seeking help as the plague swept through the area. Some of the people who had come with Jack and Louise weren’t able to take it and had to return to the vehicles, but most were able to ignore the sight after a fashion, and help conduct the search for useful items. They took instruments from the emergency room and surgery, and portable equipment of all kinds, including X-ray machines. Finding the pharmacy they discovered that, while some of the drugs had gone bad, the majority were still useful. They also were able to get lab equipment that Louise said she thought they might be able to use to make their own penicillin, as well as use for running tests and such.

When they were finished they’d loaded both tractor trailers and one of the panel trucks, and Jack sent them back to Mayfield, along with an escort.

After the experience at the hospital, nowhere they went bothered them anymore, and the group made quick work of identifying useful items and recording their locations. After two weeks of this, Jack got a call from Robin at the complex, saying that Pam had gone into labor. Quickly gathering Louise, he had Mike fly them back immediately. After checking to see if she were all right and to assure her that he was there, Jack again took up position in the dining room to wait while Louise and Mel attended to his wife.

As he waited, Jack got down on his knees to praise God and thank Him for the blessings He had given him. His first marriage had been childless, which was the main reason it had failed. His wife blamed their inability to have children on him, and eventually left him for another man she hoped would be better able to produce. As he prayed, Jack asked God to help him be a good father to his children, as well as help him lead them well by loving their mother. He was aware that actions spoke louder than words to one’s children, and resolved to always walk his words, whether they could see him or not.

Finally, after what seemed years of waiting, Louise came out and announced to everyone present that he was the father of a healthy baby girl. Grinning like a fool, Jack rushed to Pam’s side and looked upon perhaps the most beautiful sight in the world, his beautiful wife holding their precious daughter in her arms. Leaning over to kiss Pam he told her how much he loved her, and how proud she’d made him. He then gently kissed his daughter, and was overcome as joy filled his heart.
__________________

[610Alpha]

Took some literary license on the amount of Ammo at the reserve center eh? Toped Level Facility would have been better. The only time we had ammo was during annual qualification. Any other time we had clubs :)

[Christian for Israel]

gotta keep the story going. still, keep pointing out mistakes, who knows, i may need to make some changes. :D



Chapter 28

The team completed the inventory of Boise by the middle of January. In all they’d found three food warehouses and several grocery stores. Most of the non-perishable food was still good, and even after Jack siphoned off enough to completely restock the complex, there was more than enough food to feed thousands for at least two more years. They’d gone through agricultural warehouses and had enough seed and fertilizer to plant close to half a million acres, along with brand new tractors and farming equipment at farmers co-ops. As there was plenty of arable land around Mayfield, all of this would be useful in getting crops in the ground as soon as winter was over.

The group had also been able to find several hundred new diesel vehicles, mostly trucks and pick-ups, along with many that were used but serviceable. The tanks of stabilized jet fuel at Gowen field were down to fifty thousand gallons, but Jack believed those at Mountain Home AFB would hold a considerable amount as well. This meant the new residents of Mayfield would have transportation and fuel until the enlarging of the garbage converter was completed. That converter was producing around five thousand gallons of oil a week now, which provided just over three thousand gallons of usable diesel fuel after refining. But that was already being used up as the community expanded, and they all knew it would never handle all their fuel needs at its current size. The community was also considering building another converter plant in town, partially to reduce the distance they had to haul the garbage.

Every one living in town now had at least a combat rifle and pistol, but few felt the need to carry guns anymore. This was due in part to the fact that crime was non-existent, and in part to the perceived lack of an outside threat. As most people saw it, the security teams were armed, and people were, for the most part, used to looking to others to keep them safe. In fact, many in the town had not been exposed to guns much before, and if they were asked, would likely say that they didn’t see the need for anyone to have them now.

The next project that the council had approved was the moving of flight operations and training to Gowen field. Jack’s team, along with construction volunteers from town, spent a month building permanent apartment style housing on the second floor of the Boise terminal. These apartments would house flight crews as well as students, and provide a place for incoming refugees to get cleaned up before moving on to town. Jack had been aware during the previous summer that the constant take-offs and landings by the big transports had killed the grass and torn up the ground above his buried landing strip. Worse, the heavy planes had started to break up the runway itself, as it had never been designed for so large a craft in the first place. Moving everything to Gowen would greatly relieve the problems at the shelter, not to mention the constant flow of people through what was essentially his home.

The three flight teams they had going had been run ragged the year before, and as radio contact with other groups had increased, the prospects for the new year looked even worse. They simply needed more pilots and flight teams to keep up. When the council announced that flight training would begin in February, and volunteers were needed, they got more than they knew what to do with. Realizing that this could easily become a full time operation, Jack proposed that his pilots become instructors, and that they be the ones to run the school and train pilots. This was met with enthusiasm, and he was told to go ahead.

With that problem taken care of, the salvage team proceeded to Mountain Home AFB. Primarily looking for aircraft to expand their fleet along with fuel and maintenance facilities, they were startled to find such a modern hospital on the base. Inside, as with the hospitals in Boise, they found the remains of many people, but by now had grown so used to the sight they hardly noticed. The supplies and equipment available there far surpassed anything available elsewhere, and after careful consideration they decided to set up operations there instead of trying to move everything back to town. For one thing most of the best equipment was permanently mounted, and for another the bed space and building infrastructure would be welcome. Setting aside two Black Hawks as air ambulances, the ER intern and several paramedics moved to the base to clean it up and get it set-up, leaving Louise and the EMT’s to handle non-emergency cases at the clinic.

Moving on, the salvage team did find aircraft, but mostly they were F-16 fighters and B-1B bombers. The planes were nice to look at and fun to fly, but not very useful for moving people around. They did find some transports however, including two C-17 Globemasters, and quickly got them running and transferred to the operation in Boise. They also found several mid-air refuelers and toyed with the idea of trying to refuel aircraft in flight. Deciding for the moment that this was simply too risky, and of no real benefit to them right then, they put the idea on the back burner, concentrating on more pressing problems.

At the tank farm they discovered the base had approximately half a million gallons of treated jet fuel, enough to keep them supplied for years. It would probably be usable for three to four years before going bad, which would give them time to get their additional garbage converter up and running. Also by that time, everyone who wanted to join them should already be there, greatly reducing their need for fuel.

Completing their work at the base, the crew spent a couple of days in the town of Mountain Home, but found little that interested them. With the job done, Jack disbanded the salvage crew, and returned to the complex. Several of the crew, led by Butch, requested his permission to move into the shelter permanently. This pleased Jack since he had developed friendships with many of them. Giving his permission as there was now plenty of room, eleven of them moved in, increasing the total in the shelter to forty-one. The rest returned to town, with a few going on to the flight school to try and become pilots.

By the first of May the exodus flights had resumed. Anywhere from twenty to a hundred people a week were arriving. One of the first groups to arrive was from Long Island, NY. Among the three adults and two teenagers was a woman in her mid forties named Sylvia. When the town representative had asked if she were a Christian, the woman had looked down her nose at him and said in an arrogant tone “of course I’m a Christian, I’ve been involved in the church my whole life. Why, right before the sickness I was leading the church in forcing the pastor to resign, as his old style preaching was bothering some of our new members. Can’t have someone running a church who scares off people, just because they’re different, can we?”

Hearing the arrogant tones, the young man just kept his mouth shut. After the woman passed on he looked at her, shaking his head.



Back in Long Island, Sylvia and her group had been slowly starving to death. The others had found her locked inside her home earlier that year, hoarding the little bit of half spoiled food she’d been able to collect. Together they’d managed to find enough to get by on, but just barely.

This was a completely new experience for Sylvia, she’d grown up the daughter of a wealthy Christian family. They’d gone to church since she was little, but never seemed to have any time for her or her brothers and sisters. Desperate for recognition she’d eloped at age sixteen with a guy who was close to thirty. He’d been a small time businessman who was able to grow over the years to be fairly prosperous. Prosperous enough to allow them to move to Long Island, but nowhere near as wealthy as her family. Seeking any way she could find to prove to everyone that she was important too, she’d joined the local Episcopal Church. There she’d found the ground fertile and the congregation open to influence. This was one of the more traditional branches of the church, and Sylvia soon realized that there was a growing movement to modernize it. Getting involved, she discovered she had a surprising ability to sway others to her point of view and used that to establish a base of supporters who would vote her way. That was how she was able to get enough leverage to oust the current pastor.

The pastor had been a very traditional Christian. He didn’t accept the churches new view that unrepentant homosexuals should be accepted into the church, and was even against allowing women to preach. Using his values against him, she had convinced most of the congregation to get rid of him in favor of a more ‘progressive’ leader. What many at the church weren’t aware of however, was that the man she had in mind to fulfill this role was also having an affair with her, which would give her a position of power ‘behind the throne’ as it were, if he was selected.

But then the plague had come, killing her lover and the rest of the church. Amazingly she seemed to be immune, and at first that made her feel superior to the rest of them. But within weeks of their deaths she’d realized that surviving was more torture than anything. Food was scarce, and there was no one around for her to control. Feeling worse than at any time in her life, she had almost given up entirely when Steve and his friends found her.

Now, thanks to Steve’s goofy old friend who’d always been wasting time with those silly radios, they were again among people. Looking about herself as she arrived in the town, she felt there was something here she could work with, and that maybe life would be worth living again soon.



As the summer progressed the number of people in town swelled. Surprisingly, many of the newcomers were young people, most were still teenagers. The reason for this soon became clear however, as they all seemed to have stories of older folks getting into fights over dwindling resources, and killing each other off. Many had also survived as slaves and sexual objects of larger groups, before they’d died attacking each other. Often the younger people were held in secured areas, effectively protecting them from most of the fighting. These young people, once they arrived at Mayfield, had quickly taken advantage of their new status as adults, arming themselves and taking positions in security and among the pilots, intent on never allowing anyone to enslave them again. Many of these new people had gotten to know the instructor pilots as well as the earlier security people. These people were more friendly with Jack and his bunch than many others in town, and the newer youth were able to get to know them as well. They often went to the complex and associated with the people there, having picnics and parties, and simply hanging out.

The pilots had taken a long time to get familiar with the huge C-17 cargo planes, but by early August they announced that they were ready to attempt trans-Atlantic rescue flights. One of the first places they traveled to was England, where they were able to pick up close to five hundred survivors. They were also able to use the island nation as a fueling stop, and from there proceed deep into Europe. By the end of flight operations for the year they’d added close to four thousand people to the town, mostly from Europe.

During the summer and fall, Sylvia had made a tremendous effort to get to know as many people as she could. The younger people from the continental United States hadn’t cared for her and her ideas too much, but those from Europe were much more willing to listen. She had volunteered early on to help get newcomers settled, often meeting them at the airport, and in this way became a representative of sorts, as she was the first person most people met as they arrived. She had bent over backwards to be gracious to them, offering every bit of help she could, ingratiating them to herself. By the time they were done for the winter, she had met nearly half of the people currently residing in the town, and had most of them convinced that she had their best interests at heart.

Getting together with several of the new arrivals, along with some of her older acquaintances, Sylvia commented “what is the deal with that Jack?” she said the name as if it were distasteful.

“What do you mean?” April, an older woman asked.

Sylvia had found she had much in common with April in the past few weeks, they’d both been church matrons and both felt that changes were needed in the town. “Well, for one thing, he’s living with that child. You know, the one that had his baby?”

“Oh, you mean Pam. She’s his wife Syl, there’s nothing going on there.”

“Who says she’s his wife? There isn’t even a proper pastor here. I’ll bet he just shacked up with her and told everyone they were married so no one would say anything.” Sylvia said, with a look of disgust. “And what about that other one, the one with the twins…oh, I know people SAY she was married, but she’s so young. I’d be willing to bet he knocked her up as well. After all, they WERE living all alone in that…that dungeon he likes to stay buried in, for a whole year. Not only that, but have you ever noticed all the young girls living down there with him? I’ll just bet he’s sleeping with all of them.”

April had been living in town for more than a year now, and had never personally seen Jack doing anything inappropriate, but that didn’t mean anything. What Sylvia said made sense, and she DID wonder about a man who’d want to live underground in that old army base…it just didn’t seem right to her. “Do you really think so?” she asked her friend. “You don’t suppose he thinks of them as a harem, do you?”

“Well, I know one thing for sure, no one would make such an effort to bring so many kids here unless he had some unusual reason for it.” Sylvia said, sure that she had the attention of everyone now. She also knew that the things said here would spread rapidly, and before you knew it, rumor would become ‘what everybody knew’.

One of the new people spoke up, “I heard he brought everyone here for some sort of breeding thing, something about needing thousands of breeding age people or something.”

“That’s just what I’m talking about,” Syl said, “he’s bringing all the young girls here to sleep with him. Having ten or twenty wasn’t good enough for him, he wanted as many as he could get. Probably wants to fill the world with his children…like he was God or something…what a pervert!”

The others nodded their heads, surely there must be something to what this woman had said. After all, she was practically a representative of the whole community and all, having greeted each of them personally when they arrived. If she believed something strange was going on here, then likely there was…she was in a position to know, after all.

As the gathering broke up, Sylvia considered the evening’s events with satisfaction. The seeds were planted now, all she had to do was water them and they would grow strong, and soon enough they’d all beg HER to take over the town and run things right. Happily, she made her way home.

Over the next weeks Sylvia heard more and more bizarre stories about Jack and everyone who lived in the complex as the rumors she’d started mutated like she knew they would. As things progressed she started mentioning to all who would listen, which was most people, that it was such a shame that someone like that was in charge of what likely was the last civilized place on earth. The fact that it was Jack who had started gathering everyone together didn’t matter, as long as ‘that pervert’, as people were beginning to refer to him in whispers, was going to act like that with young girls. Some of the rumors had gotten so strong that it was difficult for her to believe there wasn’t some grain of truth there as well. After all, if there weren’t, wouldn’t they simply die out? At least this was the way she reasoned things, and how she justified herself.




Near the end of September, at one of the town meetings that was becoming increasingly popular among the older residents of the town, Sylvia stood and addressed the crowd “ladies and gentlemen, it has come to my attention that the current leaders, both the town council and the position of Mayor, were appointed by a very small minority of our current population. This flies in the face of the way we do things in America, and I propose that we take action to correct the situation.”

“What do you propose we do?” April spoke up from the crowd.

“I propose we hold an election, let everyone have a vote and let their decision stand.”

Immediately April seconded the proposal, and most everyone in the room agreed. The attending council members conferred, then announced that they’d hold elections on October first.

Not being satisfied with that, and acutely aware that most of the young people seemed to have some misplaced loyalty towards Jack, Sylvia continued. “One more thing, when you say everyone should have a vote, surely you don’t mean those children as well?”

One of the council members spoke up, “well, no one below the age of twelve I should think, but for the rest, if they act like adults then we treat them like adults, so yes.”

Looking at the man as if he were obviously either senile or crazy, she said “oh come on now, where did you get such a foolish notion? I mean, it’s obvious that those children can’t vote, they don’t take anything seriously. Look around you, there aren’t any here, and this is where all the decisions are made, right?”

At this, several people looked around themselves. There weren’t any young people there, which seemed to confirm what this woman was saying.

“We are older, and that makes us wiser. We understand the needs of this community far better than children are capable of, and they obviously feel the same way, as they are willing to leave the decisions up to us even now. I propose that no one under the age of twenty-one be allowed to vote. They can be adults if they want, but voting is a serious matter, and takes wisdom to get right.”

Several of those attending spoke up to say “I agree”, or “Hear hear”, or “She has a point”. A few weren’t so sure, but mostly these were new arrivals, and the whole idea of children being equal to them was strange to begin with. After more than an hour of debate, a vote was called for. When hands were raised it was obvious that three quarters of those in attendance were in favor of the measure, and it passed as well.

Finally satisfied with the results of her efforts, Sylvia sat down, smiling smugly to herself.

[Christian for Israel]

Black Hawk:


C-130:


C-17 Globemaster:

[vick]

hey Christian,i'm reading it right now.so far pretty intresting.

[vick]

Boy!this is really tugging at my heart strings.

[WiseOwl]

I love it...now the plot thickens...............

[vick]

I'am not much of a reader of books,but your story has captured my interest.I'am at chapter 11 and will continue tomorrow.

[Christian for Israel]

wow.

so many comments you're gonna spoil me. :D

here's another chapter for ya.



Chapter 29

The election went off without a hitch, and Sylvia became the new mayor with nearly eighty percent of the vote. This was due in part to the fact that the community members under the age of twenty-one weren’t told until the day of the election itself that they were to be denied their right to vote. Oh, they were outraged to be sure, but by then there was nothing they could do about it. Also, Sylvia had been sure to mention to them that Jack was behind the idea of excluding them, and that his idea that they be considered adults had more to do with encouraging them to carry the bulk of the workload, than allowing them such privileges as voting. She knew that these people looked to him as their leader, and by telling them this they would be less willing to start trouble over it. For their part, while a few of the young people, those who had been there the longest, didn’t believe that Jack could ever do such a thing to them, many didn’t know him that well. These considered this to be the final betrayal and, unwilling to be forced to carry the responsibilities of adulthood without being allowed the authority to go along with it, began to make plans to get away on their own. Better to be an adult by yourself when your work would go to taking care of you alone, than to stay there and be practically enslaved by the people around you, they reasoned.

Of course, the main reason Sylvia had won was that Jack had never wanted the job to begin with. While she was quietly campaigning, and spreading as many rumors as she could, he’d been staying at the shelter ignoring the whole thing. Although so many people were starting to accept the rumors as fact that it’s doubtful he’d have been able to win if he’d tried.

Although the position of mayor was hers, according to the charter they’d agreed to the year before she could be over ruled by a unanimous vote from the council. This had never happened before, the council usually only went to Jack when they didn’t know what to do, and always agreed with his decisions, but now it was a major sticking point for the new mayor, and one she realized she’d have to deal with. One of the first problems she’d had was when she tried to enforce her beliefs that everyone under twenty-one should be treated like children. Oh, they could still work, after all without them who would grow the food or fly the planes, but as far as getting married or carrying guns, there was simply no way she was going to allow that. But no sooner had she announced her decision, than the council declared it null. Each of them had seen enough over the past year to understand that these people were a valuable part of the community, and they deserved to be treated as such. Returning them to the position of mere children would undermine their whole town, as they each felt the young people would refuse to act like adults if they weren’t treated that way.

Having been stymied over her very first ruling, Sylvia was determined to find a way around the problem. The best way she knew of, and the way that had always worked before, was to get the other council members to step down quietly. This would allow her to appoint someone else in their place, someone who would be willing to go along with her on issues. Knowing it would require careful planning on her part, she had to find or create an embarrassing situation for each of them, present them with her evidence, then convince them to step down, all without the others finding out. She knew that if anyone ever learned what she was doing the game would be over, and she would probably be run out of town. Fortunately she was good at this sort of thing, and it was also good for the town, as they needed her very badly in her estimation. Like everywhere she’d ever been, she realized the people here were sheep, and they needed a good shepherd. Well, according to the vote they wanted her to be their shepherd, and she was more than willing to take on that role.

Over the next several weeks she watched all the council members closely. One, she noticed, had an eye for the ladies. He was always letting his attention stray whenever one walked by, and she knew she could use that against him. She talked to one of her most staunch supporters, and the woman agreed to seduce him. A few days later the woman led him to one of the unused offices in the old police station/city hall they were using for a council building, and a few minutes later Jim, another of Sylvia’s people burst in on them. They hadn’t actually been in the act of doing anything, but they were both half undressed when they were interrupted. The woman immediately claimed the councilman had assaulted her, and Jim decided to bring the matter directly to the mayor. When they were all in her office, Sylvia got the story. As soon as the woman had finished she asked her and Jim to allow her to handle this, and to keep quiet about it. They both readily agreed (of course), and left the room. Smiling sweetly at the councilman, she said “well, this is an interesting situation, how do you think we should handle it?”

Looking at her darkly, he said “this is an outrage! I didn’t assault anyone. Maybe we shouldn’t have picked such a public place, but it was her idea, not mine!”

Smiling at him again, she calmly said “of course it was, but if we were to bring this out in public, who do you think the people will believe?”

Stunned, the man sat back. He hadn’t thought of that.

Continuing, Sylvia said “I think they might just believe her, especially when the one who caught you backs her up.” At this he realized he was being set up, and anger began to replace his outrage. “Of course, we could keep it quiet. And you could simply resign your position on the council.” She said, trailing off as he began to see the real reason for all of this.

“Resign?! And allow you to fill the position with someone of your choosing?!”

“It’s either that, or we go public. I’ll bet we could even convince everyone that execution was the only way to keep us truly safe from such a monster as yourself…what do you think?”

Realizing his very life could be on the line, the councilman sank back into his chair. Hanging his head he said “you win, but you must be the most evil person I’ve ever met. How can you sleep at night?”

“Oh, I sleep very well, thank you. Here, I took the liberty of writing your resignation for you. All you have to do is sign it, and everything will be forgotten.” She said, sliding a piece of paper across her desk to him.

Understanding that he had no choice, he signed the paper, vowing to get as far away from that town and her as he could.

As soon as he’d signed the paper, Sylvia convened the council and presented it to them. She said the councilman had confided in her a personal reason for having to step down and, while she agreed with his reasoning, she couldn’t divulge the details to anyone else. Shocked at this turn of events, the other two council members could only accept what had happened, and ask who she was going to appoint to take his place. Acting like she had forgotten that she had to do this, she took several minutes, apparently trying to make up her mind. Finally she turned back to the others and said “how about Jim? I’m not sure he’ll agree, but I think he’s got a good head on his shoulders, and would do a fine job. The others saw no reason to oppose him, and agreed with her choice. And later that day she had her first ally on the council.

One of Sylvia’s friends was Jean. He’d been a colonel in the French military before the plague, and she’d recently appointed him head of the towns’ security department. The rest of the security personnel had already taken a dislike to him, and already there were whispers floating around that he’d been seen inviting young boys into his home in the middle of the night. Going to him now with the problem of removing the other two council members, he was enthusiastic in his willingness to help.

The next day, while most people were off performing various jobs, Jean first went over to the house of Margaret, the only female council member. Her door wasn’t locked as, without a crime problem, most of the homes weren’t secured. Careful not to disturb anything, he went into her bedroom, and from the closet selected one of the council woman’s high heeled shoes.

Making his way from there to other homes in the neighborhood, he proceeded to break into several, knocking out window panes with the shoe. Going inside he looked around for personal items. Money wasn’t being used in town yet, and most possessions people had were items found in the town and free for the taking. However, almost everyone had some personal item they’d brought from wherever they’d come from, and these were what Jean was looking for. Finding one or two valuable items in each of the homes, he carried them with him as he went. At the last house he did the same thing, but this time, after breaking the window, he broke off the heel of the shoe, tossing it to the ground underneath the window.

Finally he returned to the council woman’s house, going inside and hiding his found items in an obvious place. Returning the shoe to the closet he closed up the house and returned to his desk to await the festivities.

Several hours later, as people returned to their homes, a commotion started outside the community center. Arriving with several security people, Jean asked what was going on. A heavyset woman spoke up in English, heavily accented with german, saying that her home had been broken into and a precious family heirloom had been stolen. As she finished others spoke up also, claiming the same thing. Jean announced that they needed to get to the bottom of this, and asked several witnesses to accompany him, along with the homeowners and his security detail.

They went to each house, looking at the damage and getting descriptions of the items missing. At one house a security member found the broken heel Jean had dropped outside the window, and he took it as evidence. Finally, he asked the crowd if anyone had seen anything unusual during the day, such as people messing around the area, acting suspicious. One of them (another friend of Sylvia’s) spoke up and said she’d seen council woman Margaret messing around the homes, but didn’t think anything of it since she was an important person and all.

Upon hearing this, the crowd demanded Jean and his security team go immediately to her house and do a search. When they arrived and pounded on the door, Margaret answered and demanded to know what was going on. Ignoring her, Jean, followed by the crowd, pushed into the house, and quickly found the items in question. Calling for the security team to arrest her, he continued the search and finally found the shoe in the closet. When the heel matched the shoe, he declared to the crowd that they had found the guilty party, and ordered her brought before the mayor, as they didn’t presently have a judge.

A judge wasn’t the only thing they lacked, there was no courtroom in the town, nor was there a jail of any sort. Until they were able to gather the town to an impromptu town meeting, they simply held Margaret in one of the unused offices, under guard. Later that night she was brought out. Protesting her innocence, she was forced to sit as the ‘evidence’ was presented. When her turn came to speak she claimed ignorance to the whole thing, but the crowd obviously didn’t believe her.

Finally, Sylvia called for silence in the room. Looking straight at Margaret, she said “as the Mayor of this town, I find you guilty of stealing from your neighbors. Obviously you can not continue on as a council member now, and the only question left is what to do with you. As I see it, we have only two options, as we have no jail. They are execution or banishment from the community.”

At the mention of execution, Margaret’s face turned pale and she felt faint. She knew she was innocent, but had no way to prove it. Wondering how she had gotten into this, and whether she’d get out alive, she looked with horror at the embodiment of evil before her.

“Execution seems to be too great a penalty, even though you stole items greatly valued by those to whom they belonged. Therefore I sentence you to be exiled from this town, effective this very night. You will be given water and food for one day to take with you, along with the clothes on your back. If at any time you attempt to return, no matter the reason, you will be shot. Do you understand?”

Unable to believe what she was hearing, Margaret simply stared at her. Finally the security team was brought in, and they escorted her from the town. Later that same night, April became the second council member to be appointed by Sylvia.

The third member was easy. The two new people simply voted with Sylvia on everything, effectively making him unable to oppose her. Although he argued with her and them, they simply ignored him, at the same time pressuring him to step down. During this time, Sylvia passed several rulings, making the changes that would ensure the community would become exactly the way she thought it should be. The first thing she did was declare anyone under twenty-one to be a child, and to effectively have no rights whatsoever. Young community members with houses of their own were forced from them and made to live in ‘child dormitories’, which were homes overseen by older people the Mayor had appointed for the purpose. One of these people was Jean, and he was given charge of a dorm where preteen boys were forced to live. This gave him access to the boys at all hours of the day and night, and soon horror stories were floating around of the goings on in that house.

Also, marriages between young members of the community were disolved, and the people concerned were forced apart. The only time this didn’t happen was when one partner in the marriage was an adult, as seen by the community, and from then on marriage of young people was allowed only with the permission of the Mayor, and only if the person requesting the marriage were an adult. Many older men were soon to be wed to some very young female community members, even if the girl in question didn’t want to. She had no say in the matter, as she didn’t have any rights. Every one of these marriages that occurred just happened to be with older men who were in good favor with Sylvia, and in this way she maintained her position of power.

Another ruling that was quickly passed was the confiscation of all firearms, except from the security people. Explaining to the community that, with the exception of the stealing Margaret had done, there was no crime in town, there was no reason therefore for anyone to be armed. Most in the town had thought for a long time that this was needed, and gave up their arms willingly enough. A few however, were resistant to the idea, and held out. Knowing who was most likely to be resisting the new law, Sylvia announced that anyone who still possessed a gun would be considered an armed criminal from that point on. Further, she said that an armed criminal was a danger to the community, and that if caught, would be executed, since they couldn’t be trusted to live peaceably with their neighbors. Many refused to believe she could really be serious, and still refused to turn in their guns, until Sylvia carried through with her threat and actually executed one of the residents after his neighbor reported he’d kept back a shotgun. After that no one opposed her order, and soon the only people who had guns were the security people.

During this time the people who had started out working as security either drifted away from the town, or were fired for various trumped up reasons. Jean was systematically replacing them all with people who would be loyal to him and Sylvia, no matter what. Still concerned that they might rebel at some later time, he locked up all supplies of ammunition and only issued five rounds to the people who were on duty. Their rifles would be passed from one shift to another, and all others would remain locked up along with the ammo. In this way, he figured, they’d have enough ammunition to enforce the Mayor’s directives, especially among unarmed people, but wouldn’t be able to rise up against him. Most of the new people had never shot the rifles to begin with, and few had even been shown how to operate them. In short order they became corroded as the different guards refused to take care of them, preferring not to even have them.

Finally, the Mayor announced that being a Christian wasn’t to be encouraged among the towns’ people anymore. As she said, there were many ways to get to God, and it wasn’t right for them to claim any one way was the only one. At this many who had said they were Christians suddenly announced they were atheists, and others who had never made such claims even began practicing such things as pagan rituals.

Finally, the time came that Sylvia had been fantasizing about, biding her time. She had the support now to pull it off, and saw no reason to wait any longer. This was the day she’d rid herself of that pervert who’d started all this! Today she’d get Jack and force him to stop his perversions with everyone in that bomb shelter. Calling for her security detail, she announced her ruling that Jack be declared an outlaw, and told them to go at once to his shelter and arrest him, bringing him before her to be sentenced.

[Christian for Israel]

Chapter 30

Over the summer, Jack and his people had stayed either at the complex or the airport in Boise. For some time, Jack had been wanting to back off the multitude of projects that had been consuming his time, and spent more of it with his wife and daughter. With flight operations moved to Gowen field and radio contact with outlying groups being handled by the growing town, he now had the time he wanted. Spending about half his time with his family, he and the other pilot instructors used the remainder to teach flying skills to anyone who wanted to learn. They’d also found time to repair the runway at the complex and re-sod the field, but had held off bringing in any more large aircraft until the grass had grown in.

One of the things Jack had noticed that was funny was that it seemed mostly young people had an interest in becoming pilots. The security and farming interests also seemed to have more than their fair share of teenagers, which made it appear that only the young community members were willing to do any actual work. He knew this couldn’t be true, but it sure was odd. What were all the older people doing, he’d often wondered, there wasn’t really that much necessary work in other areas.

Still, he loved teaching and associating with those young people. For the most part they were honest and hard working, and they wanted to learn. They hadn’t developed the cynicism that comes with age, and were a true joy to be around. They were also willing to just jump in and help when they saw someone doing something, which few of the adults seemed willing to do. For the most part, except for seeing new people occasionally as they arrived, Jack didn’t associate with the others from town at all. His job was pilot training, and he was happy to leave the greeting and settling of newcomers to them.

He’d seen Sylvia around the airport on several occasions, and she appeared to be different from most of the older citizens in that she was willing to help get new people settled. Each time there was a flight due in she’d be there to greet them, and in fact had taken one of the crude apartments in the terminal itself just so she’d be available if others needed her. Seeing this, he’d wished more of the older residents were like her.

By the end of summer all of the new pilots were trained. They had even checked out on the huge C-17 Globemaster. With training completed, there wasn’t much need for Jack and his people to remain in Boise, and they returned to the complex. The new flight crews would be living at the terminal permanently, but already the number of people coming in was starting to decline. Some of them, with fewer flights to crew, had decided to see if they could figure out how to fly the A-10 warthogs based at the field. They’d soon found the training manuals and before long were taking the planes up, learning just what they were capable of. It wasn’t all that unusual to see them practicing bombing and strafing runs that fall, honing their newly learned skills.

The announcement of the elections to be held had come as a relief to Jack. He’d been aware that the council considered him the town leader, and he had absolutely no interest in political office. He was more than willing to help out when he could, but had no desire to be held above others as something special. As far as he was concerned, politicians were for the most part useless feeders off other people. When Sylvia announced her intention to run for mayor, he’d silently wished her well and stayed away from the whole sordid affair. He was confident the people had enough sense not to elect someone who would harm them, and figured the town could take care of themselves. Besides, he had a project he’d been wanting to work on, and it would mean that he’d be absent for long stretches of time, something he couldn’t do if he had to play at being in charge.

As soon as the election was over and he knew he didn’t have to worry about running things anymore, he gathered up his salvage team plus anyone else from the complex who wanted to go, and headed out to several of the larger cities around the state to see what was there and what could be used by the town. Taking both Black Hawks as well as the Huey, they were able to carry twenty two people, plus enough supplies for a week. The first place he wanted to check out was Twin Falls, and after that the towns of Pocatello and Idaho Falls. If they still had time afterwards, he planned on going to Salt Lake City as well.

The flight to Twin Falls was short, it wasn’t much farther than Boise, and they arrived a couple of hours later. Flying over the town, they scouted for a good place to set up a base of operations. Finding only a few office type buildings, they selected one that had a heli-pad on the roof, and set down there. The building was several stories tall, and with access to the ground floors blocked off, it was secure enough. Next they flew one of the Black Hawks over to a nearby motel and began ferrying mattresses and bedding back to the office building. They were finished about an hour before nightfall and, having a quick meal, the group turned in early.

Over the next week they searched the town. Always aware of the possibility of running into people who were hostile, they assigned one of the helicopters to orbit an area in support of ground teams, and scouted any place they wanted to search as if it were already confirmed to be hostile. After determining the area to be safe, they then began exploring to see what was left that the town could possibly salvage.

Twin Falls was a small town, not much bigger than Mountain Home. As such, there wasn’t too much of interest to the group. They did find several food warehouses with dry goods that were still in good shape, and they marked these on their map in case the food was needed. They also found a good deal of construction material, and decided they should be able to build a good number of houses from what was available.

Cruising over the town one day, Jack spotted a mobile home dealer’s yard that contained a variety of single and doublewide trailers that appeared to be new. In the back of his mind he’d been aware that so many wanted to live at his complex that it was beginning to get cramped. He’d been trying to come up with a solution that didn’t involve kicking anybody out, and the idea of bringing in trailers seemed to be a good one. Already they had put in two used trailers from the Mountain Home area for use by the animal handlers, now they’d be able to move several others outside as well.

Back at their base of operations that night, he laid out his plans to the others. They saw the benefits to the idea right off, and began making plans to move a number of trailers back to the complex. The next day was spent selecting trailers and getting the trucks that pulled them running. The yard had two trucks, which would allow them to move one double or two single trailers a day, without pushing themselves. Deciding to call off further exploration until the trailers were in, the group hooked up to two single trailers and headed back, with the helicopters flying above them in case of trouble.

Arriving back at the complex, Jack was aware of many more people than normally lived there. After they got the trailers set up he went below to find Mel and see what was going on. Mel had elected to stay behind this trip and take care of the children so their mothers could go on the salvage operation. Besides Pam and Robin, several other women had given birth by this time. Among them was Don’s wife, Wendy. She’d delivered a healthy boy near the beginning of summer, to the delight of all. Already, Pam and Wendy were conspiring to get their two hapless children together, figuring it would be the perfect arranged marriage. Jack knew they weren’t serious, but kept an eye on them in any case. If the kids grew up and decided to marry, great, but he wasn’t about to let HIS daughter be forced into a marriage no matter how well intending her mother was.

Finding Mel, he asked what was going on and why so many people were at the complex.

“You’ll have to get the details from them Jack, but the gist of it is, apparently they weren’t allowed to vote in the election, and were told it was your idea that they couldn’t.”

“What!? When was this decided? And by who? I never suggested they couldn’t vote, why would I, it was MY idea for them to be treated as adults in the first place.”

“I know that Jack, but that’s what they said. Why don’t you call them all together and discuss it, they are also talking about some kind of rumors floating around about you.”

Deciding that was a good idea, he went to the intercom and pushed the button, saying “can I have your attention please, this is Jack. I would like to have all the people not currently residing here to meet with me in the dining room in fifteen minutes, thank you.”

Determined to get to the bottom of this, he headed for the dining room, with Mel at his side.

Calling the meeting to order, Jack saw that not only the non residents, but most of the residents were there also. In fact, the only ones not there were those who were getting the mobile homes set up. Looking around the room at all the people, he said “Mel informs me that some of you weren’t allowed to vote. Can anyone fill me in on the reasons why not?”

A young man in the middle of the group stood and spoke “they told us on the day of the election that we were too young, that no one under the age of twenty-one was allowed to vote.”

Someone else shouted from the crowd, “yeah! And they said it was YOUR idea too!”

“You didn’t really do that, did you Jack? You said we were all adults, did you say that just so we’d work like adults, but not intend for us to be real adults, like the council said?” a young lady asked, coming close to tears.

Several more spoke up, saying about the same thing. Finally Jack got control of the meeting, and said “no, I never said anything like that! It was my intention that EVERYONE who worked would also exercise authority as well, including voting. Whoever told you that I was in favor of this was lying to you…I never said anything even close to that, and the council knows it!”

“I told you he’d never do that to us.” One person said to his friends. “Jack has always been for us, it was that new Mayor’s doing, she’s been behind all the bad things happening.”

Hearing Jack’s profession of innocence in the matter, the crowd settled down. They were sure he’d never lie to them, he never had in the past, even when the truth had hurt. Finally getting quiet, they allowed him to speak again.

“Ok, I’m going to look into this, but I also want to hear about these rumors…what are people in town saying about me?”

Suddenly everyone seemed to get embarrassed. No one wanted to say what was being said, and there was a hush over the gathering. Finally a teenage girl spoke up quietly from one corner of the room, “they call you ‘the pervert’. They said you and Pam aren’t really married.”

Someone else said, “yeah, they said you were just living with her, and that you were the father of Robin’s kids as well.” At this, Robin looked up.

“They say she was never married either, that you just said that to hide what you did” Still another said. “They say you have a bunch of young girls living here and that you’re sleeping with all of them.”

Everyone in the room was nodding as more rumors were revealed. “That you brought everyone to town to have sex with.”

“That you were messing around with the little children also.”

“That you even were having sex with little boys.”

“Everyday there’s a new one, and people are accepting everything being said as if it were the truth, they don’t even bother to question them anymore. And if any of us does question, they all look at us as if we’re crazy and ask if we’re defending you because we are doing the same thing. It’s getting so bad there’s no way to live around them anymore, so we all decided to come here instead.”

Shocked and disgusted at what he’d been told, Jack shook his head for a moment. “I can’t believe this, why would anyone say these things about me? I haven’t done any of those things, you all know that! Who’s saying this?”

Someone from the middle of the room spoke up, “everybody. At least, all the older ones. At first it was just the new people, the ones who never met you, but now a lot of the ones who know you are saying it too. The young people, the ones who weren’t allowed to vote don’t believe any of it, and a lot of them have started to leave, but not even a lot of them know you real well, so they aren’t coming here, they’re just leaving.”

Stunned at these revelations, Jack ended the meeting by telling them they were all welcome to stay as long as they liked. He said he had to think about this and decide what to do about it.

Before they left, one of the people from town said, “I don’t think you should go to town Jack, I’m not sure what would happen, but most people there don’t like you anymore. I don’t want you to get hurt, if something happened to you, what would the rest of us do?”

Looking at her, he paused before answering. “I’ll consider it, I really don’t want to have anything to do with them anyway. This whole idea of bringing people together was a bad one…I never should have gone ahead with it without God’s approval.”

With that, he made his way to his apartment, he had some praying and thinking to do.

Realizing he needed to be left alone, Pam got their daughter, Sarah, and went over to Mel’s apartment. Neither woman could believe what was being said in town about Jack, and they were sure that the trouble over all this was just beginning.

After several hours, Jack knocked on Mel’s door. Entering, he announced “I realized that I have gone against God by building this town and community without His blessing.” Turning to Pam he said “remember when I told you that I didn’t see what it could hurt to bring people together, even if I didn’t feel it was what God wanted?” she just nodded. “Well, now we know. I have been on my knees repenting of my sin of rebellion towards His lead, and seeking His forgiveness. I’ve also asked Him to lead me now, to let me know what if anything He wants me to do to try and fix this mess. As of right now, He hasn’t led me to do anything, therefore I’m not going to try and change things in town. Instead, we are going to focus on getting enough homes set up above us so anyone who wants to can live here. As for any other action, we’re just going to wait and see what God has in mind before doing anything.”

Seeing the turmoil on his face and knowing how remorseful he felt, Pam stood and went to her husband, holding him in her arms and comforting him. “It’s ok Jack, we all get off the path occasionally, even the people we think should be above such things, like pastors. We all fall down, but the important thing is that we get up again. Everyone thought it was a good idea to gather people together, and now we all see that the mistake was in trying to do something without God. We’ll get better as we go on, just don’t feel as if you’re the only one who made a mistake.”

Holding his wife, Jack was amazed at her words. She truly was a gift from God, and he silently said a prayer of thanks for her.




Over the following weeks the group brought in many new homes. They had needed escort vehicles to stay with the trailer trucks, and at first used the Mog and Eric’s Toyota. They mounted one of the M-249’s on the Toyota, but Jack wanted more firepower than that. Going up to Boise was now out of the question, as the people there worked for the town and he didn’t want them aware of how many people were now living at the complex. Getting hummers from them might lead to questions he really didn’t want to answer.

Instead, they went to Mountain Home AFB and found plenty of vehicles. The problem was, none of them were equipped with weapons. Finding a couple that had mounts installed, but no guns, they brought them back to the shelter and mounted Brownings from spares they had on hand. Now they were able to send two escort vehicles with each truck, giving them adequate protection in case there was anyone around who wanted to stop them.

By the end of the month they had cleaned out the yard and had more than forty homes set up above the complex. Between them and the shelter itself, they now had more than a hundred and twenty people living there. They’d also heard more rumors from town, including some about Jean, Sylvia’s new security chief. News was brought to them by people on their way to find somewhere else to live, and said that the council members had been replaced in a way some citizens said was suspicious. Also, the Mayor had recently announced that all people under twenty-one had no rights, and were virtually slaves of the town. One person bringing news said they’d even split up married couples, taking their children and giving them to people who were ‘older’. Another report was about the new security chief and a dorm for young boys that he ran. According to the rumor this man was doing bizarre things with the boys, sexual things.

Upon hearing this, many at the complex were enraged and wanted to go over there right then and attack them, especially they wanted to kill the security chief. But before they were able, Jack spoke to them. “Hold on everyone, you can’t just go attacking anyone on the basis of rumors, those are the same rumors as are being spread about me. Without evidence, we have no more right to go attacking them than they do attacking us. As much as I hate saying this, until we have something more concrete, we simply have to wait and see what happens. If these stories are true, then action will be taken, but we all have to trust God and leave this in His hands for now.”

They knew he was right, and even though they still wanted to do something, everyone settled down. Jack could commiserate with them, he too wanted to do something, but he held off until he had clear evidence to act on.

More stories kept coming in, including something about Christianity no longer being allowed to be preached. Jack was amazed that everything had happened so fast, but at the same time he knew many of those in town had been from Europe, and weren’t used to having Christianity preached so openly. Still, he was alarmed to learn that other religions, including pagans were starting to practice their beliefs openly, and hoped it wouldn’t be long before God acted.

One day, as they were sitting down to lunch, Allison called him into the control room. When he got there she told him there were people at the gate from town, and they said they were there to arrest him! Pushing the button for the gate intercom, Jack said “what is this, what do you people want?”

On the camera he could see one of the men step forward and reach out to the intercom. “This is town security, we have a warrant for the arrest of one Jack Mitchell, issued by the Mayor. Please don’t make things hard on yourself and come out peacefully, we don’t want to have to use force unless we have to.”

Amazed at the audacity of this idiot, Jack looked at Allison and chuckled. Finally he pushed the button again and said “that’s nice, but I’m afraid the mayor has no authority here, and you have no jurisdiction. Now, if you’ll kindly turn around and go on back to town, we’d appreciate it. We don’t want you’re kind anywhere around here. Thank you.”

Unsure what to do, the sergeant turned from the intercom and looked at his men. This wasn’t going as he’d expected. He’d been sure that Jack would simply submit to their demands, as the people in town did. It had never occurred to him that he’d act any different. Feeling he needed advice on this matter, he got back in the hummer and they went back to the town.

When Sylvia heard that her security force had turned back just because that criminal TOLD them to, she was incensed. Calling for punishment for the entire detail, she was practically frothing at the mouth. How dare anyone oppose her!? After all, she was the Mayor! Finally, Jean was able to get her calm again. He said that he’d personally take charge of this, and there was no way Jack wouldn’t be in their custody by evening. This seemed to calm the woman, and she concentrated on planning his execution, after she had found him guilty in court.

Gathering every security person he had, Jean went to the armory and outfitted them all with rifles and plenty of ammo. They then got aboard trucks and made their way to the complex, Jean riding in the lead vehicle. When they arrived he told his driver not to stop, but to knock the gate open and keep going. The driver complied and hit the gas, but the effort wasn’t entirely successful. As the truck hit the gate, one side popped free, but the other held. Wrapped around the front of the truck, the fence held it tight as it pivoted on a fencepost that hadn’t given way, pulling the truck off the road. They hit the ditch, stopping abruptly. The force of the impact drove the driver into the steering wheel, and his face into the windshield. Jean fared better, only hitting the dash and crushing his nose. After sitting there a moment trying to recover, blood gushing from his shattered nose, Jean climbed out of the vehicle. Not bothering to see if his driver was even alive, he made his way to the second vehicle in line and climbed in, ordering them to proceed with the assault.

Hitting the gate set off the sensors, which sounded an alarm. Mike was on duty in the control room and, seeing what was happening on the monitor, ordered general quarters. This got everyone inside the shelter and all the doors closed and locked. By the time the trucks were approaching the main entrance everyone was inside and ready, and Jack had appeared at the control room. They watched on the monitor as the first vehicle pulled up to the entrance. A security guard got out and went over to the doors, but couldn’t figure out how to get them open. After a few minutes, Jean ordered one of the vehicles with a Browning on top to open fire and try to shoot their way through. At this, Jack realized these people could be a real danger, and went over to the defensive controls. Raising the closest flamethrower, he aimed off to their left a few feet and fired a two second blast.

When Jean saw the stream of flame shoot from a previously hidden turret and land a few feet to the side of his group, he suddenly believed they were all dead. Without even being aware of it, his bladder let go, drenching his pants and running down his legs. After a second the flame stopped, and a loud speaker somewhere spoke in booming tones “THE NEXT SHOT WON’T MISS. GET OUT OF HERE AND DON’T EVER COME BACK. THIS IS YOUR ONLY WARNING!” realizing there was no way they could compete against such firepower, and scared out of his mind at the thought of burning alive, he screamed “RETREAT”, then climbed into the nearest vehicle and drove off at high speed, leaving the other passengers of the truck behind.

Finally all of the assault force managed to get away, even the driver they’d left at the gate, although many of them had no intentions of returning to the three ring circus the town had become. Deciding that staying would only get them killed, they headed in different directions, hoping they could manage to get by on their own. Returning to Sylvia, Jean convinced her that Jack was as good as in prison where he was, and all they had to do was keep him there. She wasn’t convinced and still wanted to kill him, but she also realized they’d need more people and better equipment to do it, and decided to do as Jean said, at least for the moment.

[610Alpha]

Yeah ol Jack got a head of himself. No good deed goes unpunished. Poor Jack should have kept a better eye on things. Shoulda woulda coulda. :) Keep it coming can't wait to see wat God does with these people.