One Step Forward, Two Steps Back

Graham Heights 

Beginnings   

www.youtube.com Mack Reed

Chapter 22
One Step Forward, Two Steps Back

Journal Entry - March 3rd 2019
Personal: Alan Scott

I don’t usually put personal items in the colonial logs, but I could not help myself.  I’m a grandpa.  My daughter had a baby boy and he is strong and healthy.  We are very excited about this spring as we now have five births to look forward to.  It’s great to see new lives in the midst of all that has happened.  

My wife is looking forward to experiencing all that comes with a newborn.  My children were born to my first wife and my second wife has never had kids until we adopted our two little ones, but they weren’t babies.  So, this little one will be quite a learning curve...  

Our adopted kids are not so little anymore and both are enrolled in the school.  Alison is teaching English to elementary age children and I teach math and science.  It’s such a blessing to see these young minds open up to learning.  We managed to raid a couple of Puyallup libraries before the fires took them and rescued hundreds of books on every topic we could think of.  Now we are using these very books to teach hope and  give these kids a future.  Susan is teaching higher level math and science to teenagers and adults .  A handful of brave souls have stepped up to help with classes, lunches and the play area.  It’s like a real school and it feels good.  Play is also on the books and is as important as scholastic studies.  One of my adult sons has started a botany class and is apprenticing two students in the art of growing plants for the purpose of pharmaceutical products.  We have a great need for these plants and with training others on how to grow, graft and clone plants.  All of which are used for infections, disease control, vitamins, pain relief and pain control.  It’s only a start and more will be added as we expand our abilities to grow and learn more about naturopathic ways to taking care of ourselves.  

Colonial news:

Elders Kan Ho and Frank Hanson have created lightweight transport vehicles that run off a human powered generator and or batteries.  We have six of them now and we charge them at night when much of the colony is asleep.  Our exploration teams have discovered large stores of LED lights, wiring and supplies in various burnt out buildings, containers and warehouses. With all these new needs for electricity our little water wheels are having trouble keeping up.  Couple that with babies and hydroponics system our next step was to develop a way to produce larger amount of electricity.  The council was split on ideas that would accomplish this.  The Alder lake plant or the Lake Taps power generating plant.  We have had little to know recon in either direction and as far as I knew, the Lake Taps plant was shut down almost a decade before.  The other option was the Alder Lake power production plant.  It was still operational, but we have heard rumor that there might be a settlement near by.  We certainly don’t want to be poking around or make an enemy to the South.  It seemed just a bit too ambitious at this time, so we tabled the idea until we could gather the intel to make a better decision.

Our Elders meeting was cut short by a call from the lookouts on the tower.  Tacoma was burning again and we could not raise the port outpost.  It did not help that our scouting team was South of us and in no position to help.  We mustered team one to the railway in hopes of either finding members of Fort Lance or helping figure out what was happening.  

The smoke grew blacker and seemed to fill the sky by the time a team was close enough to give us a report.  Just then one of our electric powered rail transports, pulled into the colony’ station.  The team lead was rushed to us and his explanation wasn’t very specific.

Apparently a small band of people had made its way to the ports fuel storage tanks and while  taking fuel from a tank they inadvertently started a fire.  It was unclear as to why, but during their departure they ripped the valves out on two fuel tank.  Thousands of gallons of fuel not only fed that fire, but also spread it to the adjacent buildings and up the hillside.  However, it did not end there.  They saw our team approaching and took off with the fuel truck.  In an attempt to discourage anyone from following, they started a series of fires with some of the fuel they took.

The team lead said they never actually saw the group, but found a burning truck near the tanks that were on fire.  It was a military truck that was not there before.  It was not clear as to how much fuel this band made off with, or how much they still had as they obviously used some to burn buildings in fife and the more in South Tacoma.  These buildings had been standing for years with no maintenance and with the mild, somewhat dry winter, they burned easily.  It would have been much worse had this been dier months like August or September.  Luckily,  most of the gasoline tanks were empty and the fire burn itself out before consuming the two diesel tanks.  This was quite a blessing as we were not done using the locomotive or the two generators in the port.  We went back on high alert and had our patrols look for signs of others in the area.  

I personally suspected the remnants of those that inhabited JBLM.  It was becoming an issue that we need to addressed and either drove them from the area or brought them under our rule.  The problem was they have been there for close to two years and our people didn’t know the place as well.  I was one of the few exception as I was stationed at McChord and my Father was stationed at Fort Lewis.  

After nearly three hours of discussion in open council, we realized that we just didn’t have the manpower to cover such a large section of land.  This band could simple slink off and hide while we looked and then come back when we left.  No, that area was just going to have to wait.  We would secure the port and rail lines.  Then cut back all the foliage so they could not use it to burn us out.  This was going to put a hold on expansion.  

That night the lookouts reported seeing lights and fires back at JBLM.  Still just one section, but they were back or they were building up again and if the raiding party is any reflection of what lies out there, we needed to be ready to deal with it.  

In an attempt to increase our intel on the site, one of our young men came up with an idea to put together a long range drone to take pictures of the area.  The problem is that we could only put a camera that could record, but not transmit.  This meant that we were dependent on the drone to return to us.  If it didn’t then we would lose the drone and everything it recorded.  The second problem is that we had no GPS devices that worked any more.  Either the satellites that transmit the information had failed or that greed of corporate America has caught up with the drone in the form of Planned Obsolescence, which meant the the system just stopped working because it was designed to fail after so many hours of use.   It always amazed me how America fell into the idea of accepting low quality for quantity.  And that an older model anything was less valuable than the newer one, even if there were little to no changes made.   Either way we were sending a drone that would fly beyond our ability to control it remotely, at which point it would start a timer that would allow it to fly for some time, in the general direction over JBLM, then turn and head back to the port, or somewhere close where it would be retrieved.  

Now we only needed a few items to line up like a nice day or a day with high clouds, no winds and the inhabitants at JBLM not to look up.  It only took two weeks for the weather to cooperate, one can only hope for the other factors.  The drone was sent aloft and was under remote control for as long as it lasted.  Once the drone was freed from its electronic master it continued on out of site.  Hours went by without any sign of the drone.  Then, it was spotted as it flew over what was left of St Joe’s, A futuristic hospital that over looked Tacoma.  Just as it cleared the building, the plane ran out of fuel and started a graceful downward spiral.  Its impact with the old hospital ensured that it would never fly again.  Once the team recovered it, they discovered that the camera on the drone had a single gunshot through it.  The SD card was completely obliterated.   So, we were down one drone, a camera and had absolutely nothing to show for it, except the fact that, there were people at JBLM, they were armed and were on alert.  

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As you know this blog contains two books of the Remnant Series. Graham Heights is book 3 of the series. Below is more.

Book 4: Obsidian Arrows

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The Challenge from Within

Graham Heights 

Beginnings 

en.wikipedia.org 

  

Chapter 21

The Challenge From Within

Journal Entry - January 15 2019
Alan Scott

Life was beginning to find a normalcy and two women learned that they were pregnant just before Christmas.  This development brought about the conversation about procreation and the issues that we face in the very near future, however the counsel was struggling on just how they would bring it up to the congregation  and how they could implement the plan.  Susan and I were working on a chart that would show the science side of our argument, but it still did not address the emotional side.  After Christmas we planned a New Year party and it was at this party that we had to address the genetic plan.  It was not a pretty name, but it was accurate.  We hand 323 people, of them only 153 women and of them only 76 were of childbearing age.  If we were to survive as a race, we had to plan out our children and spread out our genetic material so as to keep from in-breeding and the prevalence of unwanted genetic defects.  The plan was simple at first.  Each woman would bear three to four children depending on their health.  All children will need to be tracked for their genetic heritage so that we don’t allow brothers, sisters and or cousins to marry.  This was going to be very intrusive and for a people that valued individual rights, this was going to be a hard pill to swallow.  

The Night of the meeting Susan and I got into a huge fight.  She wanted to present the material or teach the material that we had put together.  I told her that we need them to accept the plan not be told the plan.  She disagreed in her teacher voice and insisted that she was the best at explaining the reasons.  I did not disagree with that, however it would require someone to convince them that the “Plan” was in their best interest over time and that we needed them to do things that were not natural to humans, such as, abstain from having relations with each other while their spouse was being impregnated, artificially, by someone else’s sperm.  The meeting went as predicted with a lot of gasps and well... angry, shushes and heated conversations.  As predicted it was going to be something that each couple or single woman had to come to grips with.  The shift in the meeting came when a young woman stood up and said that it made sense.  That we had to start thinking in terms of the colony and not as a bunch of individuals.  Her speech went something like….

“We are not here for ourselves anymore.  If we want healthy kids and grandkids, we have to stop thinking of what we had and start planning our future.”   She pointed her finger at an older couple, “Your system failed.”  She looked at the congregation, “I don’t want mine to be filled with defective that we could have prevented.”

That pretty much ended the meeting.  After a week of personal meetings with each couple and the few individuals both male and female the plan started to come into being.  The plan was very intrusive.  So, it was decided that each couple would have their own child first and after the child was weaned and the woman felt up to it, it would be time for her to be artificially inseminated.    It may take a few tries before the woman become pregnant, but it was the only way we could be assured that it was right.  We had no equipment to check DNA so, we had to try and inseminate the woman at least four times after she ovulated.  We also had to convince her partner not to be with her during this cycle or use contraceptives.  It was uncomfortable being so intrusive, but it was necessary.  By the end of January we only had two hold outs and they were difficult with many other subjects as well, so it was no surprise that they would not cooperate with this one.  I was almost sure that it was just a matter of time when they would be sent on their way or go voluntarily as they were just unwilling to be put under the authority of the colony’s growing list of rules.  

Over all, the winter has been mild and the people were still optimistic about getting through to the planting season.  Many have turned to fixing or making tools and instruments that make the long grey days easier to deal with.  Musical instruments were of interest by many and at least two bands were congealing over the long nights.  The music was welcomed and surprisingly good despite the crudeness of some of the instruments.   Our normalcy was growing into something that you could enjoy.  However there was a pressure that was growing.  Down time was also time for people to think, wish and remember the past.  Maybe even wanting some of the things they had left behind in their haste or because it didn’t quite belong in this organization.

The counsel could hear the rumbling and It was very apparent that the Elders, which were formed under the Militia organizations needs to change.  We are now the government of this colony and we need to develop laws that govern basic behavior and order.  It was time to revisit who was in charge and what kind of government we wanted or needed.  

We kept the meetings short and had them often.  All of the elders agreed that we needed to expand and hold ground at the Port of Tacoma, well more than just the Fort,  as well as farm lands in the Orting Valley.  It was decided that some the lands would be held by the colony, but you could develop lands outside at your own risk.  We would be the trading hub for all goods in the area and provide some form of inspections to prevent disease and price gouging.  As the discussions continued, more and more items were being added to the list.  Each item needed some type of record to keep all of it straight.

Expansion of lands and businesses would start in the spring of 2020.  This expansion would be in two forms.  One; expansion that would be under the protection of our Militia and could expect the area to be patrolled by the sheriff and members of the security teams.  These areas were subject to a form of taxation by the donation of products and goods (food) to be used by and sold by the Militia to provide for those protecting the colony or running the day to day operation.  Also each family would supply the colony with their adult children to be trained in “military service” so that they could be called up by the Militia in times of need.  

The second expansion would be outlying areas that were free for anyone to farm and or build homes and or take over homes, but they would not expect the protection of the colony or the security of law and order.  It would be the Wild West all over again.  But it would be a great opportunity for those willing to risk it.  The one caveat was, as the colony grew and could expand its services, these lands would eventually be brought under the laws and taxation that the original colony was subjected to.  The distance from the colony that settlers were willing to move and the level of risk they were willing to take on would determine how long it would take before they were incorporated back into the colony.  So great risk gave you the highest level of freedom and we knew that would be enticing to some.

Also during this time, a school was scheduled to start.  It would open just after planting and run year round with the exception of times that required all colony members to work protecting, harvesting, planting and public works project that would need the majority of the colony to accomplish.  It’s teachers were to be paid by the militia’s funds and was free to all students that attended.  This school would accept students from 4 years of age up to 20.  They would receive and education in basic studies with exception of the older students.  The studies of the older children would coincide with the fields that they were apprenticing under.  So if you were learning to be an engineer, you studied math, English and science.  Horticulture would require less math and more biology.  Other courses of study would be developed as we had apprenticeships and teachers.   The Medical field was one of great interest as our Doctor was trying to keep up with the sick and injured.  Train medics and nurses as well as develop a course for more advanced medical procedures.  I was willing to help with schooling on science and math and we had others that helped as well.  However, our medical community, such as it was, had a great deal of difficulty keeping a steady schedule.  They were frequently called away to deal with sick or injured colonists.  So they were going to require their own trainers and educators that would be embedded with them and train/apprentices at the same time.  If you were chosen for the Medical field, you frequently were excused from the militia and other work details.  This did not make it a picnic as the hours were long and unpredictable.  

As for our judicial system, well at best it was lax. When there was a dispute amongst the members of the colony the elder or elders that represented their group would resolve it, however some discontent was starting to build and accusations of favoritism was starting to break down this system.  So it was a unanimous decision of the council to set up as court system and start writing down basic laws that could be expanded on in the future without removing the fundamental elements.  We had a lawyer with us and he all but said he would have nothing to do with such a hodgepodge set of rules and laws.  He wanted the old system back or nothing at all.  We informed him that we would not be needing his services, as the world of elegant words and probable doubt could not be allowed to hold back the hands of justice.  No we needed a system that brought about accountability for wrongdoing and injustice.  What that was, well that would have to be figured out, but not right now.  So we tabled the discussion for spring.  The phrase Rome wasn’t built in a day was brought up.

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As you know this blog contains two books of the Remnant Series. Graham Heights is book 3 of the series. Below is more.

Book 4: Obsidian Arrows

Book 1 is now available in paperback or kindle The Grey Abyss

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R. A. Legg

Learn about the individual heroes of Graham Heights. 

R.A. Legg © 2016. All Rights Reserved.

The Fort

Graham Heights 

Beginnings 

commons.wikimedia.org, Glyn Lowe Photoworks

Chapter 20
The Fort

Journal Entry - December 3 2018
Alan Scott

The final harvest from the dugout gardens was less than desired, but decent considering the lack of rain toward the end of the summer.  Just as a precaution, we will need to start rationing some of our supplies so they will last all winter, but wild game is still very much available and we still have the freeze dried meals that we did not use last winter.  It will be passable.  The fires at JBLM have died down to one or two.  Apparently the party that we destroyed was the main group out there and what was left either turned on itself or left the area.  As of last week only one fire was seen and it only lasted a short period of time in the morning.  No lights are seen at night, so whatever was being built there is languishing.  It was time to venture out to the downtown area and to move forward with the plan to build better storage and housing for the hundreds that were crammed into the few livable houses.  

Junior came up with a plan that was simple.  Two teams of ten people would move into the port of Tacoma.  One visible and one not.  It was a game of drawing out fire and them responding with overwhelming power.  The “tank” as we called it, was the main bait for two reasons; One we wanted those that scurried in the dark to see that we had the ability to defend ourselves, and two, it could be brought to bear on our target with the minimal amount of exposure or our people.  

The first run went well and we were able to get another of the old engines running.  We also scrounged up an old tanker truck and went to the storage tanks on the North side of the port to look for diesel fuel.  There was plenty left as gasoline was the fuel most sought after in the early days of the collapse.  A second flatbed truck and trailer was coaxed back to life and a party took it up to the Tacoma Public Utility yard to see if a diesel generator could be found.  Sure enough one was in the shop and it was all but put back together.  In one week's’ time we  had three locomotives, a tanker truck, two large flatbed and two diesel generators.

It took us another two days to figure out all the tracks and switching to get our train to and from the container fields at the port then the train-yard and finally back to us in Graham.  Again it was far more complicated a process to move things around limited by tracks.  

In the first week we managed to pull one of the large generator over to the port so we could run the crane and our big truck pulled container to a location where the crane could put them on rail cars.  It became quite common to pull up to 40 containers out of the port and to our colony with the help of the third engine.  It was there that things were a little dicey.  The Lever system that Mike and Kan made, lifted the container out of the rail car cradle and then used rollers to move it to a flatbed.  From there it was moved to where it would reside forever and pulled from the trailer;  Sometimes, violently.  It wasn’t pretty, but it was working.  By the beginning of November we had what we wanted for this winter and most of our stores were moved in and secured.  Two of the units were turning into kitchens and with some trusses that were discovered at an abandoned yard, we made a cover from the kitchen units to the gas stations’ awning.  The rest of the lumber was used to make walls, thus making our common meeting place.  The rest of the containers were set out to build the first wall that would shelter us from the wind and others that would try to take what we have grown.  By the beginning of December it was just too hazardous to try and move the containers once they arrived in the colony.  It took the pain of a broken arm to stop the work and the realization that it could have been worse, so we halted this work until spring.  

Our team in the port wanted to build a base of operation around one of the cranes so that they could have shelter in an attack and elders gave them permission to do so.  This however created a new problem.  The “Fort” would have to be manned throughout the winter because if we left it unattended the Rats would move in.  The lights that I saw in the old courthouse was that of vagrants that refused to vacate the area and managed to live off what little they could find.  If we left our “Fort” unattended, most likely they would move in and proceed to pilfer the containers that we were going through to recover items that we could used to rebuild.  Not that we wanted to be selfish, however these scavengers were not interested in building a society, they were just looking for what can sustain them for the next day or two.  I would have no objections to helping them rebuild their little world, but they refuse to respond to our requests for a meeting and do little to encourage a dialog.  So, this fort would require armed guards in sufficient numbers as to deter an invasion and it would need regular replenishing of its supplies.  It was a big step and a risky one, but if just one container had weapons or ammunition in it, we would be in far worse trouble.  So, stay we must and hopefully the effort will justify the cost.  

The Fort would need a commander and its own standard operating procedure and that was not going to be an easy thing to figure out.  At first it will be just a skeleton crew with enough manpower to maintain the place without drawing down what we need up here.  However the Fort could have other uses, I’m thinking a bootcamp of sorts.  We train new recruits and then employ them for a time at the Fort before sending them up here.  It would give us that isolation we need to retrain them and yet still be in a safe enough environment.  Now this commander has two responsibilities.  

The next thing we could do is set out a fishing expedition.  Not that I wanted to waste too much fuel tootling around Commencement Bay or the Foss Waterway, but it would be nice to get some fish up here.  So while we are stymied with winter, we can start preparing our Fort and building both a training camp and fishing port all at the same time.  Now our commander has three responsibilities and will need lieutenants to maintain them.  My oldest Daughter would make a good lieutenant, but she had just informed us that she was pregnant with her first child.  So, her name was removed from the candidates list.    

The elders decided to place John Knorack in charge of the Fort.  He help Kan build the walls and gates and has intelligence that covers both engineering and military tactics.  He was well respected by others in the scout troops and had lead a security team from the beginning.   The elders saw him as the best choice for the Fort and for its ever growing responsibilities.  As an oversight we set Copeland down on a weekly basis to check supplies and moral.  He would be elders eyes and ears.  As for the lieutenants we sent Junior as the Training officer and Michel Walk as the services officer.  Each of these person had direct ties to the eldership and were very capable members of our team at Graham.  

Now for a name.  It was one thing to call it the Fort while it was just a place to stage containers for their movement to the colony, now it was going to be a permanent outpost, so it would require a name.  It was put to the people so that they could be a part of the growth.  We had names like Fort PTO (Port of Tacoma) and Fort Lewis, not after JBLM, but after the first U.S. fort built on the west coast by the Explorer Meriwether Lewis, the explorer that came across the United States after the Louisiana Purchase.  However, The name that seem to fit and became popular with the congregation was Lance.  Fort Lance, as in the ancient weapon used by nights.  It kinda fit.  We had our base, the colony and then a thin line to our point down in the port.  It was where we would train those that would lead us in our expansion and the securing of territory.  The name grew in popularity and so Fort Lance it was christened on this day.

Next Chapter

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As you know this blog contains two books of the Remnant Series. Graham Heights is book 3 of the series. Below is more.

Book 4: Obsidian Arrows

Book 1 is now available in paperback or kindle The Grey Abyss

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Thank-you
R. A. Legg

Learn about the individual heroes of Graham Heights. 

R.A. Legg © 2016. All Rights Reserved.

When Men Go Unchecked

Graham Heights 

Beginnings 

en.wikipedia.org

Chapter 19
When Men Go Unchecked

Journal Entry - September 14 2018
Alan Scott

By the middle of September the teams had burned over seven hundred homes.  Most were devoid of remains, however some weren’t and the scene was never good.   However, having clergy alone eased much of the distress, which I personally didn’t understand as the soul was gone to whatever resting place and the only thing left behind was the remnants of this earth.   It was simple to me, but again I did not venture out and only saw the smoke that rose from their work.  Looking back I can recall the smoke as it moved  in an arch around our colony.  It help to reduce the number of flies that we were fighting.  We also set up hundreds of bat habitats and enforced strict water storage and standing water management to reduce the mosquito population to something near manageable. Fleas and ticks were managed with dusting and daily inspections.  It was tedious, but necessary if we were to succeed.

As for the global weather issues, we could only hope that our luck would hold out and the rains would stay long into the next spring and early summer.  Again it goes back to praying and depending on either guidance or abondance.  So far abondance has been the norm, but we were keeping a diligent watch, it was the least we could do...

Each morning Susan makes the long trek up to the tower to tracks the sun and a few morning stars to see if she could detect this wobble.  Her husband and some men set up an observatory on the water tower.  While we were at it, we also took the time to check the anodes on the cathodic protection system that kept the corrosion from eat away the iron that held our life given water in its place , they were ready to be changed, luckily the maintenance personnel had stored ten years worth of these anodes on the site, so we could maintain our tower for several decades.  Our tower was the most important structure in our colony.  Luckily it had trees growing up around it and thus was camouflaged from outside viewer.  Only from the air could you spot this little life sustaining structure along with our century tower that was built on top so, that we could observe what was going on all around us.

On This clear and cold morning, I actually walked the long gravel road that lead to the tower and used the new counterbalance systems to be hoisted to the top.  It was such an incredible sight to see the land stretching out before us.  I bet you could see for twenty miles in all directions.  That and the fact that it was about the same height as the trees around it made it the perfect place to keep watch on our world without being watched ourselves.  

I surveyed our surroundings and then directed my attention to some known points of interest.   There was still smoke rising from a few buildings at JBLM, so we knew that it was still inhabited, but by who?  That we still did not know.  You could see some freshly plowed areas by the old flight line.  That was encouraging, but way too later for this season.  Hopefully it was the under plowing of crops already harvested.  It would be nice to get some intel from that location if to do nothing but prepare ourselves for what they might try to do to us.  

For security sake, we made sure that we never used any optical or shiny objects after the sun went on the west side of the tower.  We didn’t want any light reflecting or flashing at JBLM and giving up our location.  No, we still wanted to be as inconspicuous as possible.  They, on the other hand, did not practice such light discipline and you could see smoke by day and campfires and other lights by night.  It was as if they were daring others to attack them.  We were not going to be that stupid, No we were going to keep to our own and protect the homefront.

As for our wobble issue…..

“Morning Susan, how’s the view?” I asked trying to shield myself from the cold wind that blew Northeast ward.

Susan was looking East, threw her viewer and making notes in her journal.  She didn’t even look up.  “They were right, it’s wobbling enough that my crud measuring devices can detect it. “  She was not happy with her announcement.  

I sat in the chair beside her mat and talked to her, “What do you think this will mean for us?”

She was still taking readings as the sun climbed from the horizon.  “Could mean nothing.”

“You know they were concerned about something, the way they were carrying on about the ice build-up.” I continued, wanting to know what the scientist in her would think not the eternal optimist.  

She was annoyed, “The ice is building up fast and it could change the weather so that the build-up slows or gets even worse.”

“Remember that movie about the world covered with water.”  I asked.

She thought for a moment and then shook her head yes.

“The reason things were so screwed up, was that the poles changed position, right.”  I asked,

She shrugged her shoulders, “I really didn’t pay that close of attention, the guy was quite a hunk.”

I responded to her tease with a tease of my own, “I’ll let Don know.”

“He already knows who he has to measure up to.” Susan said with a wit that twenty years of teaching has honed to a fine edge.  She continued, “I know where you’re going with this and it’s just a theory.” She was avoiding the conversation.

“We need to keep an eye on it both day and night, so teach someone else how to take readings and then we have to figure out where the build-up is happening and possibly where we could end up as far as longitude is concerned.”  I stated trying to bring the conversation down from a joke to a reality.

“I know.” She responded, “but I don’t know what math will tell us just how our little world will adjust to the change.”

“Well I have two thoughts of possible outcomes.” I wanted the later to be true. “we suddenly shift and Antarctica will end up at the equator and the ice melts in months.” I paused for effect, “Or we wobble enough that the Ice is exposed to the sun more and melts back to what it should be and everything just finds a new balance point. “

“Either way we slow down.”  She said as a matter of fact

“Not enough to feel it.”  I responded

“No, not yet.”  There was more she wanted to say

“We are alive and we can rebuild.” I responded.

“To what end?” She went there.

“There is still time and I am sure that those smart guys back-up their work.” I wanted to sound like I knew the outcome of all this. “One day we… our kids will rebuild and find the information so they won’t have to start from scratch.”

Susan looked at me, “We were this close to fusion reactors and all the power we needed to make life great and maybe even to get off this rock and find new places and new species.”  She held her fingers so close they almost touched.

She was right and I agreed, “We were so close it scared me.” I admitted

She looked confused, “Why?”

“It’s not that I’m an historian, I just remember a lot of stuff and my brain has a way of showing the patterns.”  I looked to the sky, “It seems that every time there is a huge gathering of knowledge and or wisdom.” I paused, “Disaster is waiting to extinguish it.”  I looked back to JBLM, “It’s as if the gift of wisdom makes us stupid to the evil that lurks in the hearts of those that do not have it.”

“Fact or opinion.”  She was turning back into the teacher.

I rose to the challenge, “The libraries in Babylon and Alexandria. The Romans burned three thousand years of wisdom and engineering.  It took centuries to rebuild what humans had learned about our world.”  I thought of the next event, “The computer was created by a Greek and destroyed by the Romans again, because ignorance interprets its world in terms of what will satisfy its immediate wants and discards or destroys anything that might be in its way, like wisdom and knowledge, instead of treating it like the treasure it truly is.”

“Any more?” She was pushing me.

So I pushed back, “The Dark Ages.” I could go on, but I saw the resignation in her face.

“We depend on everyone to use the same measuring stick for their lives and it just does not happen.”  I was discussed with the idea that man just could not be fair with each other.

“So you think they have protected the total sum of our knowledge and wisdom this time?” Susan asked hopefully.

“I know they have.” I said with all the confidence I could find. “Well maybe not the total sum...but enough.”

I looked out over our domain and wanted everyone to think fairly toward each other, even when it hurt.  The philosopher in me just wanted it to be right with the world.  That’s when I saw the camp fire just north of our lines.  Someone was moving south and we were in the way or we were the target.  I showed the smoke to the lookout and he trained his binoculars on the sight.  “Trees are too thick and I can’t get a visual.”

I got on the radio, “Contact, I repeat, contact bearing 256.5 degrees about two miles from the border at marker 57.  Have teams one and two scout ahead and let the sheriff know that we may need his tank.”

The radio responded “Copy that.  Contact bearing 256.5, two mile out from marker 57.”  A pause, “Teams one and two to intercept and recon?”  Pause, “Sheriff to get his tank ready.”

“Affirmative, recon.”  I paused then added, “Make sure they know that we are sending the tank as backup, if they need it.”

The fire burned for most of the day and our teams worked their way into position.  The group appeared to be a hunting party or at least that’s what it looked like.  However they did not venture out into the gap we placed at our border.  The Gap was a 600 meter void of trees and buildings.  It took us almost a year to cut all those trees, remove the structures and build some nasty surprises.  But it was necessary to keep the border identifiable and defensible.  Now the hunting party realized that this unnatural barrier stood between them and where they wanted to go.  At first they stayed on their side and skirted the tree line trying to determine if hostiles were waiting to pick them off in the clearing.  The party continued East towards the Eustis Hunt Road.  

Our teams over lapped each other so that one was watching the hunters and the second was moving out of sight.  They followed for nearly 2 miles when the hunters ventured out of the trees.  My guess was that they felt confident that they were alone and the absence of trees was just weird or the result of a colony that moved on or something.  

On the perimeter we had placed signs that warned trespassers to move on, but these hunters ignored them and moved out into the open.  About half way across one of them disappeared with a slight yell.  The others hesitated and then moved to where their comrade had fallen.  They discovered that he had fallen into a pit of pongee sticks and was dead.  They looked around to see if anyone was going to jump them and then turned back to the cover of the forest on their side of the divide.  However, before they made it to the cover of the trees another member fell to his death.  Now there were only three left.

Team two worked their way down to the road and waited to see if the hunting party would try to cross there.  About a hour after the rag tag party disappeared into the trees, they came out of the woods with fifteen men armed with rifles hand guns and knives.  They were dirty and angry.  Team one was slowly making their way East as the hunting...rather, raiding party was gathering the will to cross the open ground.  The leader was tall and had rags around his head, arms and legs.  Not sure what the significance was, but he had more rags then the rest.  Team one waited till the party was clear of the woods.  They were undisciplined and loosely organized.  They looked around and pointed their guns at anything that might threaten them.   Once the entire group was over a hundred meters from any cover, our team leader addressed them from the safety of cover, “That’s far enough.”

The raiding party shot wildly in the direction of the voice.

The leader tried to get them to stop and eventually shot one of his own men.  That stopped the shooting, but the undisciplined men continued to point their guns in all directions.

“That’s nice.” Mike’s disembodied voice said.

“Who are you!” Shouted the tall dirty leader of the raiding party.

The men of the raiding party continued to swing their guns around wildly in hopes of seeing someone they could justify shooting at.  

“I’m the man with a ten guns pointed at each and every one of you.”  Said the voice again.

“You lie.” Shouted the rag leader.

“Look at your clothes and you will see laser pointers on each of you.” Said Mike.

The leader looked at his chest and two green dots were focused at his heart.  “Then shoot you cowards,” was his response.  He didn’t even try to get away.

The other men didn’t follow his example, but moved as to avoid the dots from being on them.  About six dropped to the ground, but it did not help, the dots followed.  

“Put all your weapons in a pile and back way.  Then remove your shoes and clothes.”  Mike, the disembodied voice commanded.  

“You won’t shoot.”  The leader taunted.

The Rag man’s chest exploded and then the shot rang out.  The leader dropped to the ground and so did the rest of his men.  They started crawling back the way they came but another shot hit the road in front of their retreat and they stopped.  After that they complied and piled their guns, ammunition and knives in a heap on the road.  In another pile they put all their clothing and boots.  Once this was done they stood with their hands on their heads.  The armored truck rolled up with the M-60 trained on the naked men.  Mike got out and walked to the pile of guns.  Nothing of any use, most of the weapons were common and they had very little ammunition with them.  He then walked over to the clothing.  The pile smelled bad and he hated having to touch them.  He used the barrel of the AR-15 to move the garments around so he could inspect what they were carrying.  A vest seemed especially heavy so he picked it up with the barrel and using a gloved hand opened the large cargo pocket.  There was a string and he pulled it out of the pocket.  It was the source of the weight and much of the smell.  At first it looked like fingers, but looking closer it was the genitals of male victims of this raiding party.  Mike dropped it immediately and stepped back.  The discuss on his face said it all.  He reached for his mic, “Kill them all.” A single shot rang out and all of the men dropped dead.   It took the rest of the afternoon to bury the bodies and clean the road as if nothing happened.  Two of our security teams moved out about a half mile to ensure that no one else was in the area while the work crew removed all evidence.  Mike insisted on going through the clothing alone.  He removed four other strings of trophies and buried them in small individual graves.  He then threw up repeatedly until nothing was left.  Team three reported at sun down and set up hidden sentries at the road.  Their orders were to watch for any parties looking for this one, and if they came, to destroy them.  

When Mike returned to camp I pulled out some beers and gave him two.  I sipped some wine we had made last fall and he told me what happened.  I asked him to tell me everything and leave nothing out as I want to record what was going on in the region and keep a record of why we do what we are doing.  The world wobbling a little bit seem small right now and it would have to manifest something traumatic to pull our attention from the men that witnessed such ugliness.  Mike spilled his guts and we listened.  He told us how he got sick and that he wanted to mutilate these men, but knew that was wrong; and wrong is wrong.  We rotated the two teams out and put them on work crews that were creating and building things that would be needed come winter.  They had killed, no executed men that were not shooting at them and we needed to make sure they were okay.  It’s not like those men didn’t deserve it based on the evidence that was found on them, however being an executioner can be difficult and we need to make sure these men receive the care and restoration they need.  So we will rotate them out to do some creative and building activities and shelter them from the ugliness even for a short period of time.  Within three months all of the men would rotated back into the patrol details and hopefully be good hearted about life.  If nothing else, they would be all the more vigilant as to what they are protecting their families from.

Next Chapter

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As you know this blog contains two books of the Remnant Series. Graham Heights is book 3 of the series. Below is more.

Book 4: Obsidian Arrows

Book 1 is now available in paperback or kindle The Grey Abyss

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R. A. Legg

Learn about the individual heroes of Graham Heights. 

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