2nd Earth 2: Emplacement (23 page)

That’s another improvement that James, Jenna, Morgan, and Mike have made since coming here. They know a lot about dairy farming, and have been able to get the automatic milking machines working, so the job of milking the cows is much easier than it was. Each group has their own cows, so they had to go from group to group and teach those in charge of that chore how to use them. Anyway, getting back to raising our own beef cattle, we discussed all the pros and cons and decided that we may be getting into something that will just add more work, with no real return on investment. We all agree that when the area becomes more populated with other than our groups, then we will probably need to do something, but as it is we simply don’t need to do it.

This year we planted oats as one of the new crops that we wanted to try. I honestly don’t know much about harvesting and preparing them, but I definitely enjoy the oatmeal and the oatmeal cookies that the ladies always seem to find time to make. We found grape arbors at the farm where Billy and Ramona moved, so this year we have grapes. We were even able to make some raisins this year, much to the delight of the children and some of us who are simply young at heart. The wives have started cutting up dried peaches, apricots, cherries, and apples and putting them in oatmeal cookies. Between that and the ice cream made with the fresh fruits, you can see why we need the exercise we get from riding our bikes. We do eat well, but we work hard as well, so none of us seem to be getting fat, at least not yet.

I have been able to get back into good enough shape to beat the teenagers at the obstacle course. They are still very popular with the groups that can use them. The younger people got so good at running the course we did for them that they have pretty much all started using the bigger one. The wives love to race me on the course, but they always cheat so they can win. I won’t tell you how they cheat, but I don’t mind losing, if that helps you figure out what they might be doing. Fall comes and turns into winter before we realize it. We are getting ready for another Thanksgiving already, and our family has grown by twenty new members. They are fitting in with the groups as if they have been here from the start. We continue to have babies and our couples continue getting married. Melissa is expecting in January, the twins are about as excited as they can be. They say they know this baby will be a little sister, time will tell.

5

Dayna, Robin, Melissa, and Becky chastised me, because when we talk it seems like everything is going along without a hitch here in our community. Things are going very well, and all of us are doing much better than we did before we came here, but we do have our share of setbacks. For instance, this summer we had a tropical storm that made its way inland and blew down a windmill in Barbs group, and two of them in Ryan and Carol’s group. We were able to get them back up and running within two days, so the impact was minimal. Everyone involved agreed that compared to what they lived with before coming here that was a minor inconvenience. Not all of our crops grow as we would like them to, but we plant almost twice what we think we will need, so we still get more than enough for our needs.

Just like in any home, water heaters go bad, pumps stop working, and have to be repaired or replaced, but we work our way through these small inconveniences, just as you have to when they happen to you. I prefer to talk about the good things that are happening, rather than dwell on the small problems. We have been very lucky, and have not been attacked in almost a year. That doesn’t mean that we let our guard down, because we are still ever vigilant. We continue training the new people and giving refresher training to everyone. There has been nothing in any of our lives to make us believe that we will never be bothered again. We continue to check with other groups on the short wave radio. Tim, and many of the others, are always talking to someone, mainly in the evenings. The group in Arizona has been dropping some hints that all may not be as well as they would like. They have been growing much like we have, only not to the extent that we have.

In their conversations, Tim says it sounds like they are having trouble getting enough food, and other necessities, for the larger group that they have become. After our get together on Thanksgiving, Tim raises them again, only this time they come right out and ask if there is any way we could send them some of our people who know farming, mechanics, and electricity. When they only had thirty some people in it, they were able to sustain fairly well, but they have had twenty people join their group, and now they don’t know what to do. Clark, the leader of their group, even asks us if we are being honest when we tell them we have over four-hundred people in our group.

We assure him that we have more than one group to accommodate that many people, but we do have that many, and are able to accept that many more if we can find them. He says he knows he is asking a lot, but they are afraid they will be no better off than they were living in the cities, without some help. We assure them that we will do something to help them. We give them some advice to maybe get them through until some of us can get there, but he tells us they don’t have vehicles like we do, and they have no idea how to get any. We assure them we will have some help on the way shortly.

We call an emergency meeting of all the groups on Friday, after Thanksgiving. Our group has already discussed the situation, and we have some volunteers to go. Bob and Blake, along with their wives, say they will be happy to go. Trevor’s wife is expecting anytime now, so they don’t think it’s a good idea to go. Chip and Marty, along with their wives, say they could use a vacation. Those two, along with Troy have come so far from the first day I met them. That day they were running faster than Dayna could from the predators in the city. Now they are some of our best fighting men, as well as being able to do just about every job on the farm.

Sara, Gary, James, Jenna, Mike, and Morgan all ask if they could be allowed to go, because they want to see how that area survived the war. They will definitely be missed, but we’re pretty sure the other group needs them more right now. Doc McEvoy and his wife want to go along as well. They say they spent their honeymoon in Arizona, and feel like it’s time for a second one. Teddy wants to go to teach them how to hunt, but we assure him that we need him here. Andrew volunteers to go for that purpose, so they have a very good group of people to show them what we know. Just after everything is settled, and it’s decided that they will leave in the morning, we have a wedding that no one expected. Well, actually we have been expecting it for a while, but with Andrew leaving for an extended period of time, Lindsay told him in no uncertain terms that he is not going without her. She also told him she will not go with him unless they are married. So now they are married.

For supplies they are mainly taking only emergency rations, and twenty gallons of gas, just in case they hit a stretch where they can’t find any vehicles or stations to get it from. They are taking plenty of guns and ammunition, although we are sure they will be able to find plenty on the way, and when they get there. They are taking a small bus, and a pickup equipped with a small generator and a compressor. We have also started taking along a couple of extra tires, just in case. We learned the hard way that tires don’t last forever, and they can be difficult to find, when you really need one. They are also taking a short wave radio, so that they can keep in touch with us on the trip. Tim and I would like to be going on this trip, but we are needed by our families, so we will stay where we belong and leave this mission in the capable hands of our friends.

Hello everyone, Jon asked me to tell you about our trip to Arizona. I’m Doctor Donald McEvoy, please call me Don. My wife Emma and I are excited to be accompanying this wonderful group of talented young people to Arizona, to help some dear friends of ours there. We are starting out on Saturday morning, and are not exactly sure how long it will take to get there. We are not even sure how long it will take to teach them how to be as self sufficient as we are. When we heard of the group started by Jon and Tim, we couldn’t believe that anyone could be living as they claimed to be. When we found them, we were astonished at the progress they had made, and just how self sufficient they were. Since then we are continuously astounded by the things that our friends and families are able to accomplish.

Getting back to our adventure, most of our party has been on at least one trip except Emma and me, so this is rather exciting to us. Bob, who is the unofficial leader of this trip, is a very interesting man. He used to be called the Colonel, and very much looks the part, but after meeting Jon he dropped the title Colonel, and is now known simply as Bob. Jon is a most remarkable man, if you ask him he hasn’t done anything except help out a little in our community. However, if you speak with those who were the original group settling in Virginia, they will tell you he is the only reason they are still alive, and is the driving force behind our success. I have spoken in depth with Tim as well, and even he says that Jon is the one that made everything happen. Tim says he would like to be able to say he helped some, but it was Jon’s idea to join forces in the city, and to find a place where they could live without counting on others. Just like when they were in the world they came from, he was content to follow Jon and do whatever he could to help.

We are able to make better time than any of us anticipated, mainly because Bob knows the roads and is able to navigate us past the worst places, with little or no delays. So far we are able to find gas stations when we need them, and have even found food close to the stations. The first time we stopped for gas, we found a young couple with one child living in the city we stopped at. We drew them a small map how to get to the community, and they assured us they were heading there as soon as possible. We stop for the night at a motel that used to be part of a large chain. James and Jenna tell the rest of us that they have stayed here before, and room service is terrible. Those two are always joking around, but when there’s work to be done, you would have to look very hard to find someone working harder than they are.

Day two of our trip is uneventful, but interesting. We simply drive all day, except when we stop for gas, and to spend the night. It’s Sunday, so we spend part of the day reading the scriptures out loud, so our drivers can partake of the word as well. On day three we find another couple with a small child. We are too far from home to send them there, so we take them along with us. On day four we find five more people, and now our vehicles are becoming full, but none of us can just leave them to fend for themselves with winter coming on. I know you are thinking that they have survived this long without us they should be able to last another winter. Being a doctor, I have seen people healthy one day, and pass away the next. I for one will never turn anyone away that needs my help. We pull into the farm, of the group we are here to help, just before dark, on the fifth day. We were not sure what we would find, so we stopped at a store in one of the big cities on the way, and was able to get enough food for a few days anyway.

Clark, the leader of the group, is happy to see us, but is not quite so happy to see the people we picked up along the way. We assure him that we will take them with us when we leave, and will be responsible for their food and safety while we are here. We can see a huge difference in this group and ours. For one thing, they are settled in the lower mountains here in Arizona, and there is very little around it in the form of cities. The original founders of this group lived in a fairly large town, but all the food has been gone from there for quite a while. The farm they are living on does not have room for more than the thirty people who settled here. They do not have electricity, and most of the people are sleeping in the one barn on the property. We decide to sleep in our truck and bus tonight, and discuss possibilities in the morning.

In the bus we have a pretty lengthy meeting, discussing how best to help these people. One suggestion is to find a couple more vehicles, and bring them back with us. That would obviously be the quickest and easiest fix, but would not help any other people who may be living alone in this part of the country. By the time we get to talk to Clark and his wife Susan, we have a plan to propose to them. We get to tour the place in the daylight, and it doesn’t look much better than it did in the failing light last evening. Bob has been to this group and tried to prepare us for what we would find, but I don’t think any of us quite believed it. After breakfast and a tour, we decide to be totally blunt with them. We recommend that they move from this location to one a little closer to the desert, where there are still four seasons, but that are not as severe as in the mountains or on the desert.

Some of the group is afraid to make a change, so we tell them we will take their leaders, and go looking for somewhere that will give them room to live, and even to expand as they want to. We tell them if we don’t find a place, we will help them fix this place up, and help them get some vehicles so that they are more mobile. On the way here we passed some likely places that our people are going to take them to first. It’s a good thing I came along, because they have several people that need medical attention. This is where we meet the young man who came here from the same world Jon and the others came from. We use the short wave radio which is a hand crank type and call our group back in Virginia. After making sure we are all right, and letting us know the people we sent to them arrived with a couple more people, they ask us what we think of our mission.

Sara outlines the situation very accurately. Tim and Jon tell us that if we think it would be best, to go ahead and bring them all back with us. We tell them that we fear if we do, that there will be nowhere for the others that may be in the area to go to, and they may perish. Jon tells us we should do exactly what we are doing, and find somewhere worth fixing up. He tells us what to look for and when he is done talking Sara tells him, “Yes daddy Zeus.” Even Jon laughs and says he gets carried away sometimes. Sara laughs and tells him if he wants to get carried away out here with us, he is more than welcome. We have all expressed that we would feel safer if Jon was here with us. When he is around we all feel that everything is under control. We have to end our discussion and see what we can do in the interim.

We ask if there are any cities or towns where we might be able to get some food and other supplies. Brian, the young man who came from the other world, says they have walked to all the towns within a day’s walking, and they are all just about empty of food. He also tells us he was a registered nurse in the other world, but he has nothing to work with here. Luckily I brought some medical supplies and herbs that I know help heal common ailments. Chip and Marty, along with James and Jenna, decide to go looking for a small city that is supposed to be about twenty-five miles away, at least according to our map. Some of the newer people say that there is a city over that way, so our guys figure they may as well go over to see what they can find.

The groups get back to the farm at just about the same time. The ones who went to look at another location seem to be somewhat uncertain about what to do. Our men and women, who went to the city nearby, had very good luck in finding food supplies, as well as winter clothing and other essentials. We have a meeting to discuss the proposed move with the group, and it really doesn’t look like they want to move. Clark keeps saying that they should be able to make it work where they are, and we are simply pointing out the weaknesses of their position. Still no closer to a solution, we decide to call the group back in Virginia to see what advice Jon and our council might have. As soon as Jon gets on the line, he tells us that if it was up to him, he would help the group improve their living conditions, and if the new people who have come to the group would like, we can help them start their own group somewhere else.

The new people all say they will be very happy to go to another location, where they can be self sufficient, because living here is not really any better than living in the towns. We were not planning to start two communities, but it looks like that is what we need to do. Chip and Marty say that there are plenty of good vehicles in the city they went to, as well as a farm store where they can get pretty much everything they need. When our team starts something, they are pretty much unstoppable until the project is done. Sara, Gary, and James start looking to see how this farm was powered before the war. Bob, Jenna, Mike, Morgan, and my wife and I go with the new people, to show them the farms we passed on the way here. All of the others get to work helping them find equipment in the barns, and checking out the area for the best fields to plant crops.