2nd Earth 2: Emplacement (11 page)

He is smiling, and obviously since he has the upper hand, is in no hurry to finish me off. In fact he tells me he is debating whether to shoot me, and put me out of my misery, or to just let me die of exposure. He figures in this cold, and with my injuries, I may even last until morning. He is wearing a Special Forces uniform from the army. He also lights a cigarette, which is the first that I have seen since I have been in this world. He actually looks old enough to have been in the army when the war started. That would explain the military tactics being used in this attack. He smiles again; he asks me what I am thinking about. He says that he will take a guess.

“You are wondering where I got my training from. I am wondering the same thing about you. You are not old enough to have been in the military before the war, so where did you learn urban war tactics? We have heard on the short wave radio that there are some people that claim to have come from a different dimension, or maybe even a different world. Are you and your friends downstairs some of those people? It is a shame to have to kill such a worthy opponent, but I have plans for those young ladies, and I know you won’t just drive away and leave them for me. Besides I can use those vehicles that you so thoughtfully brought to me. I tell you what, I will give you to the count of ten to get to your gun and try to kill me. If you don’t, I will put another bullet in your other leg, and let the cold kill you. Sound fair to you? Okay, it’s a deal.”

I am under no delusions, there is no way I can get to that gun, but I am going to try anyway. I try, but I can’t even move enough to get turned toward the gun. He is laughing again when he says that it is too bad, but he is just going to have to shoot me. I look toward him, and then I hear a voice tell him that they don’t think he ought to do that. I see the look of surprise on his face as he turns toward the voice, and then I see the large red stain spreading across his chest. I don’t even hear the report of the rifle until the attacker is falling backward. My rescuer fires again, knocking our attacker down for good. I can hear Tim’s voice coming over the radio yelling, asking if I am alright. Everything that just transpired couldn’t have taken more than a minute or two. I can’t reach the walkie-talkie mouth piece, so Teddy brings it to me still carrying his rifle. Tim asks me again if I am okay, and I tell him I will be thanks to my son. Tim tells me that Teddy snuck out when no one was watching. He thinks he is coming after me.

I tell Tim that Ted is now with me, and I couldn’t be happier or prouder than I am right now. Tim says that the attackers seem to have disappeared since I killed those three. I tell him that at least one stayed behind, and I think he was their leader. I stress the word was, I tell them that I am going to need some help very soon, or Dayna, Robin, and Melissa are going to be very angry with him. They have a little trouble finding me, but Teddy cleared a path large enough for them to get through, to put me on a stretcher and carry me out. The pain is terrible, and I think I am starting to get hypothermia, because I am shivering uncontrollably. I manage to tell them how to find the garage where Sara and Gary are before I pass out, from the pain I guess. I wake up with Teddy sitting beside me. I tell him he better get some sleep, because we are getting out of this place first thing in the morning. I also tell him how proud I am of him. Not for killing another man, I’m proud that he did not panic, or do something foolish. He conducted himself as well as any seasoned soldier that I have ever served with.

He turns red from embarrassment, and tells me that he learned from the best, his dad. He asks if I will be upset if he asks if he can snuggle up close to me tonight to sleep. Even with the heat on it is still very cold in here. Every time he moves it hurts like heck, but I still remember the first man I killed. Even though it was in self defense, I still wondered if there wasn’t maybe something else I could have done. When I am asleep, or at least I think I am asleep, Ma and Gunny come to see me. Gunny tells me what a fine job I am doing with Teddy and the other children, but that I better learn to keep my mind on business when I am in a fire fight like that one last evening. The way I feel, I ask them if it is my time to join them. They tell me not yet, they have talked with the head man, and he says that I still have a lot of work to do in this world. There is another couple standing with them, but before I can meet them I am jarred awake by being put into the back of one of the vans.

Teddy yells at whoever almost dropped me, I try to tell them I will be okay in a little while, but I pass out as fast as I woke up. The next thing I know I am lying in my bed at home and Dayna, Robin, and Melissa, along with the children, are standing around the bed watching me I guess. It sure feels good not to be cold again. I try to move, but I still have that terrible pain in my side, arm, and leg, actually both legs. Doc McEvoy and Doc Betty are standing just behind the family. I can barely speak, but I do manage to ask how long we have been home, after Dayna holds a straw up to my mouth so I can drink. Robin says that we have been back for three days, but that it took four days to get back from Rochester, so it has been a week since I got hurt.

Doc Betty tells me that they had a heck of a time setting my broken leg and my arm. She asked me if I knew that I was hit twice by bullets, once through the leg that I know about, and once in the side. That one I didn’t know about. She says it glanced off the ribs and made a terrible gash along my side. She says that also broke several ribs, but without any x-ray equipment it is almost impossible to tell how many. She says they were afraid that they were going to lose me a couple of times, because of the fever and what sounded like pneumonia in my lungs. They ask me how I got injured so badly, no one saw it, so there is only speculation how it happened. I recount the incidents of that day that seems so long ago. Robin tells me that Teddy wouldn’t tell her exactly what happened. He just told her that he did what he had to do, to make sure the other guy didn’t kill me. Apparently I kept slipping in and out of consciousness on the trip home. I don’t remember anything about it.

Tim, Charity, Sara, and Gary come into the room. Tim tells me that if it weren’t for my idea to get a snow plow, we may still be up north. He says he is from New York and never saw snow like that before. With the plow they could push enough snow off the road to get the other vehicles through. I tell him that I remember it as being a family decision. Tim laughs and says he tried to take credit for it, but the others reminded him that it was my idea. It’s not important who has the idea. It took the whole team to make it happen. Sara asks me how I’m feeling. I tell her about as well as can be expected, if you don’t expect too much. Everyone laughs then she tells me we’re even. I must look confused because she laughs and says that she finally got to see me naked like I did her when she got injured in the other world.

Melissa tells her to watch what she’s saying with the children around. Sara says she’s sorry, but the twins are already on their way to tell their friends that their daddy and Aunt Sara saw each other naked. Even Melissa laughs about it, we are one big family, and there are very few secrets anyway. Dayna asks if I would like something to eat besides broth. Apparently I have been waking up enough to get a couple mouthfuls of broth down, but that is all. The children must be satisfied that I am not going to die just yet anyway, because they find somewhere else to be to play with their friends.

Between sips of soup, I tell them all I can remember about the attack and the fighting. The last thing I remember is Teddy wanting to be close that evening after the fight. Tim surmised what must have happened when he came up and found us in that room. He says they were all afraid that I was not going to make the trip home. It was a brutal trip that they all hope to never have to go through again. I am getting very tired, but I am curious if all twenty people came back with us. I am also curious what the difference is between soup and broth. Dayna smiles and tells me that the soup has meat and vegetables in it. She didn’t let me have any of those yet. I must have heard him wrong, because I could swear that Tim tells me they brought back forty-five people. I don’t get the chance to ask again because I am out like a light.

11

When I wake up again, it must be night because Dayna is lying on a cot next to the bed I am in. Little Timmy is sleeping with her, it sounds so soothing to hear the people you love sleeping soundly. I feel like I need to go to the bathroom, so I start to swing my leg over the edge of the bed, but my arm won’t move so I can throw the covers back, and when I even think about moving my leg, the pain is excruciating. I have definitely never been hurt this badly before. I must let out a groan or something somewhat louder because Dayna is now awake and so is Timmy. She is up as quickly as I have ever seen anyone go from a sound sleep to being awake. She sets Timmy on the bed next to me and asks if I’m okay. She is rubbing my forehead while she is asking. I try to talk, but my mouth is too dry, she gives me a drink using the straw again. The water is nice and cool, it feels really good going down my throat.

Betty comes into the room without even knocking. I ask her what if we were messing around, then she would be embarrassed. She laughs and tells me she would be amazed if we were messing around in my shape. I tell her I really need to go to the bathroom, so if they wouldn’t mind helping me to the bathroom, I will be forever grateful. Betty tells me I don’t really have to go; it just feels like I do. She lifts the blanket and shows me that I have a catheter in to drain my bladder. She says she will take it out when I start waking up regularly. Then I can use one of those bottle things like they did where I came from. I am still too weak to hold Timmy, and my ribs hurt too much for him to sit on my chest, like he always did before we went north. He can still talk to his daddy though and he does just that. The fact that we can’t understand a word of what he is saying doesn’t mean anything. We carry on a very interesting conversation anyway.

This time I am able to stay awake a little longer, and I even get a couple of small pieces of vegetable in my soup this time. The days go by and my wounds and injuries heal. I am able to get out of bed long before I can do anything. I am not the type to spend my time in bed or even sitting around. It has been colder than last winter even here, and we think we may have a little more snow this year as well. Dayna confirms that they did indeed bring back forty-five people from Rochester. Not all of them were from Rochester, but forty were. There was another group of fifteen living a few miles from the first group, and five of our attackers, who were women, asked if they could come with us. They never wanted to get involved with those other guys, who were not quite so fortunate when they attacked us. Everyone says they are hard workers, and there has been no trouble, so they are welcome. The last five came running out of a building in one of the towns we were going through on the way home.

Since our group is the strongest, all the groups had a meeting and decided to put most of the new houses up at the smaller groups, rather than wait until the groups maybe join up, somewhere in the future. That makes great sense to me, which also explains why I haven’t seen the crews working on the houses in that direction. Many things are happening around our community. Since each group has a meeting house now, everyone decided to have school for the children in the meeting houses, instead of in each individual home. The classes are not necessarily broken up by age, but by how well the children can read and write. Since only a few of the people who have come here could read before they came, there is no criticism or people picking on others because they are perhaps a teenager and in a class with a six year old.

Teddy has taken it upon himself to help the twelve and thirteen year old girls learn how to read. He is so much more confident than he used to be. The day I could finally get out of bed, and get out to the front porch, he pulled up in front of the house with the largest buck I have ever seen. Jerry and Steve told me that he dropped it with a single arrow. We had a very good talk while I was stuck in bed. He told me he has nightmares sometimes, but they are always that he wasn’t there to help me. I assure him that I will be forever grateful that he was. I also told him how proud I am of him for the way he has handled the situation. Everyone knows what he did saving my life, but not one person heard it from him.

The new people are happy to be here, and to be able to learn how to be self sufficient. Well as self sufficient as you can be in a large family like ours. Frank, his son Eric, and Dayna’s dad Tom, have been refiguring how many acres of each crop we will need to feed the much larger family than we had last year. They are getting ready to plant some of the crops already. I should know better than to open my big mouth, but I have never learned how to think before I speak sometimes. I ask them if it isn’t still a little early to be planting. Last year we waited until the middle of March to plant the beans and the potatoes. Robin tells me I’m a great husband and father, but I have a lousy sense of what time of year it is. She shows me the calendar that we made at the beginning of the year, and it is actually the third week in March. I guess I just didn’t realize that the time has been ticking away since I was injured.

There is plenty of help to make up for my inability to do much of anything yet. I have been helping teach the adults how to read and write. Since most of the new people are women Dayna, Robin, Melissa, and now Becky, don’t want me teaching them unless they are with me. Many of the women who have been with the family since we started have been practicing their handwriting. I asked Dayna about that and she said that she thought she had already explained that to me. I assure her if she did, I do not remember what she told me. This time she tells me that she has heard that the memory is the second thing to go. Then she laughs along with Robin, Melissa, and Becky. Those women spend way too much time around Betty, Sara, and Jenna. I finally find out by accident. I am pretending to be taking a nap on the sofa while the women are practicing their writing in the kitchen. Sara and Jenna come by and ask them how it is going and they tell them that they should be ready to start writing in the new Bibles soon.

Naturally I have to ask what Bibles they are talking about. Sara and Jenna come into the living room and tell me how sorry they are to hear that I have lost my memory now as well.

“Look at the bright side Jon, now you won’t remember what the first thing that you lost was.”

I tell them that I have not lost my memory or anything else, at least not permanently. Dayna, Robin, and Melissa all say that I couldn’t prove that by asking them. All of the women laugh, even Timmy laughs, but that’s only because his mommy is laughing. Dayna comes over and tells me she is only kidding, she has always wondered what it would be like to be a nun since she started reading about them. She says she will never survive if she has to live like this much longer. Now that I am bright red from embarrassment, they are all happy. I change the topic and ask which Bibles they are talking about. Sara finally tells me about it.

“Oh, that’s right Jon, you were not yourself when you came back to the garage that night in Rochester. Well Gary and I got nervous about what might be taking you guys so long, so we decided to look around the neighborhood we were in. We found a church that was really beautiful, so we went in to see what it looked like on the inside. There were several rooms, so we checked those out to see if anyone might be living there. In one of the rooms we found several cases of Bibles that were still in the boxes. They all had pages in the front for people to put their family tree in. We also found cases of large Bibles that have room in the front for a very large family to keep their records in. We thought it would be a good idea, and the others agreed, that we should bring some of them back with us to keep a record of our family here. Even if it does look like your family isn’t going to get any bigger anytime soon.”

I think that’s a great idea, many of our family members still remember their families even though it has been quite a while for many since they have seen them. Some of the younger ones like Josh, Isaac, Ben, and Hank had their moms tell them about their families before the war. Those that can write are going to work with those who can’t, at least until they can. There are enough of the smaller Bibles for each family to have one and enough large Bibles for each group to have one. One evening in early April, I am sitting with the children in the living room while the moms are busy putting names in their Bibles. Dayna has been busy all day getting all the information that she could squeeze out of her father. She has been putting all that information in the Bible tonight.

Robin is doing the same except she doesn’t have a father to ask so she has to rely on what her mother told her. Teddy and Kathy, her two oldest children ask her why she doesn’t put their last name in the Bible too. They continue to say that their name is Gorman, just like daddies. She looks at me like she is asking me to help with an answer. I tell her if she would like to put Gorman in the Bible, I would be honored for everyone to know that they are my children. Tammy and Tina tell Melissa that they are my children too. They look at each other and nod their heads in the affirmative. Jerry, Lisa, and Christy go out to the kitchen to watch their mom working on their family Bible. Becky says she is just planning to put her last name in for the children. She says she never did know the children’s fathers last name. It just didn’t seem important at the time. Most of the time you couldn’t be sure that you would even see the sun rise tomorrow. Karen tells them that they are my ‘dopted children, just like her, Kathy, Teddy, Tammy, and Tina so they should just use the same name. That way they would all be sisters and brothers. Becky smiles and says that makes perfect sense to her, if the rest of us don’t mind.

I am back in the living room when Dayna calls in to me asking what my real mothers name was. I am trying to remember when Tina runs in and tells her that their grammas’ name is Diane, and Tammy says grandpas’ name is Jon, just like daddies. Melissa asks them how they know that. They laugh and say they told them their name when they come and play with them. They point to the older children and say that they have seen them too. The older children all admit to seeing them and talking to them, but they think it was in dreams. Tina and Tammy say they weren’t dreaming, we can ask Zeus, he was there every time. Zeus agrees by wagging his tail and barking. Of course, he does that whenever his name is mentioned.

I tell Dayna that makes it unanimous, their names are Jon and Diane Gorman. I also tell her that now that I heard them, I remember that is their names. Dayna is laughing as she writes them down, she asks if I remember the Horton’s names, or should she just call them Gunny and Ma. Again before I can answer, Tina says that is Gramma Anne, Tammy says Grampa Francis, but he doesn’t like gramma to call him that. Dayna is laughing when she writes the names in the Bible. She puts the given names, then in parentheses puts Ma and Gunny. She tells the others what he told me he would do if I ever called him Francis again. Robin, Melissa, and Becky all look up and say it was Dayna who called him Francis, not them. At least the women are having a good time keeping our family trees.

When we go to bed for the night I dream about Gunny and Ma again. This time that other couple who was with them before, is here again. This time they come forward to where I can see them and it is my mom and dad. I am able to hug them and tell them how much I have missed them. They tell me how proud they are of all my children. Gunny tells me I finally did something right, then laughs and tells me how much he enjoys getting to see the children. He and my dad seem to get along well, they argue about nearly everything, but wind up agreeing on just about everything as well. My ma’s just roll their eyes and tell them they will never grow up. They just laugh and ask them what’s wrong with that. When I dream like this I never want to wake up, but I am always glad that I do.

When I get up everyone else is already up, the women are hard at work filling in more of the family trees. Dayna says she had a dream last night where my moms came to her and told her all about our ancestors. She is trying to write it all down before she forgets it. The others had the same dream and are doing the same thing. They keep reminding each other of small things that one or another forgets. It’s a nice spring day so I decide to go out and limp around seeing what kind of mischief I can get into. Everyone I see is working hard. They are pleased to see me walking without the crutch. I couldn’t use two crutches because of the broken arm. I walk to the wheat mill and see that the people working here are from the group we picked up in Rochester. They tell me how much they enjoy living here and how grateful they are to be here. Naturally we are happy to have them living here.

When I get back to the yard, Tim, Gary, Ken, and Billy are watching me come toward them. They tell me it’s about time I get off my butt and do something. We are bantering insults back and forth when Charity comes up with baby Jon, who is one month younger than little Timmy. Tim and Charity refuse to call him Little Jon because of the Robin Hood books. He has a big smile for his uncles and manages to be held by each of us in turn. Charity asks Tim if he mentioned the idea they discussed the other night. Gary and Ken tell her that if it has anything to do with sex, Carrie and Sara have enough ideas of their own. Charity tells them she heard all about that. It’s just a shame that their husbands don’t have any imaginations. Ken and Gary take out a handkerchief and wave it telling her they surrender. Charity takes Jon and heads to our house to visit with Dayna and the other women. She tells Tim to mention the idea they had.

Now we are expecting something bigger than life. Tim says that they were discussing the fact that our families are growing much faster and much larger than anyone expected. So far it is not big news, but none of us can argue with the logic.

“How many houses do you think there are in town where we get most of our supplies, and in the towns and cities that are within say sixty miles of here? I’m not looking for an answer, but we all agree there are probably several thousand, if we count all the towns and cities right? Of course you all remember how much food and other supplies we found in some of the homes we have gone into. Charity and I were talking and we figure there is a whole lot of food sitting in pantries and basements that is only going to go to waste, because no one is using it and eventually it will all spoil. Of course there is probably already a large percentage that is spoiled, but if it is in jars we could use them as well.”