The Beginning at the End of the World: A Post-Apocalyptic, Dystopian Series (The Survivor Diaries Book 2) (20 page)

“And you are asking me my opinion?” I asked, already exhausted before the sun had even risen in the sky.

Mark nodded.

“Thanks for asking, but it’s up to you. It’s what you did for the military, and you are the only Arabic speaker, so it makes sense.”

“Okay, then I’ll do it,” he said.

“I just ask one thing, Mark. Please don’t become one of them.”

“Never,” he said. “I can’t stop them from doing whatever they are or aren’t going to do. But I am not going to lie or hold anything back.”

“Thank you,” I told him. He kissed me on the forehead.

∞

By the time I had made it to Annie’s RV for a cup of coffee, a group was detaching the tractor from the truck it was attached to.

Jackson had decided to use RV two as his “base of operations.”

We are now entering the military lingo zone,
I thought. I was an army wife, and when Mark got out, I had purged all of that stuff from my brain. I decided to ignore it as much as possible and to not let it seep into my vocabulary again.

“How are you holding up?” asked Jill as she joined me. We walked towards RV two.

“I’m holding. How about you?” I asked her.

“I am not completely comfortable with Jackson’s team, but I don’t think we have a better option,” she said.

“My sentiments exactly,” I told her as we entered the vehicle. It was too cramped to begin with and was about to get worse.

We took our places as Jackson began to explain what he needed from each of us.

“Mark, obviously you are on radio,” he started. “You will start on the ham set and see what you can get until Fitz gets here with our equipment. Probably nothing, but it’s worth a shot. Listen in to all transmissions for anything that might be suspicious. You never know if they have cells on the ground participating in conversations with survivors.”

Mark nodded. I could tell that he would rather be doing anything other than following Jackson’s orders. The military was a life he had left behind. Now, it had crept back in, and he had no real choice. It needed to be done, and no one else had his skills.

Jackson continued what came so naturally to him; barking orders. “Adam, I need you to lead the transportation. We need to find the thickest brush to camouflage the vehicles in, preferably near snow banks on the hillside. We are going to need to bury them as much as we can. It’s going to take a huge amount of manpower, so everyone be prepared.”

“Patton,” he addressed Bri. “You are in charge of getting security in sync with our people. They need to fall-in with standard operating procedures. We need soldiers.”

“You mean teach them everything it took us all months in boot camp and AIT to learn?” she asked sarcastically. I don’t think that Bri will ever have the same level of respect for the Colonel or anyone in the military again. I smiled at that thought.

I looked up to see Jackson staring at me. “What?” he asked.

“Nothing,” I answered with a grin.

“Yes, that’s what I mean,” he said to Bri. “They already have a head start because we have been training them all along. They are yours, Specialist Patton. Get them ready. Hopefully we won’t need them, but there are no guarantees. Go get started right now. And see if there are others who want to join.”

“Everyone, except Rolette,” I added. “He is not to carry a gun. If he gives you trouble, send him to me. Oh, wait, no. Send him to Jackson or Owens. This is their fiesta.”

My grin must have grown wider, because the vein in Jackson’s forehead sure had.

Annie came in with trays of coffee.

“When will Jake be back?” she cut in. I knew it was killing her to know that he was out there, especially now.

“He’s already on his way back,” said Jackson. “When he does get here, he will be in charge of getting anyone who wants to carry gun ready.”

“Wait, you mean you are going to hand out guns?” I asked. “I am not comfortable with that.”

“What happens if they decide to pick us off on the ground?” replied Jackson.

There was nothing I could say to that. “As soon as this thing is over, we take the guns back. This isn’t going to become a habit,” I answered.

He ignored me and continued. “Bunkering in is going to be the hardest part. We are going to build between twenty-five and thirty snow caves. A snow cave is basically an underground foxhole. They need to stay small; the smaller the cave, the better it will hold in warmth. I am not the expert on this; the point men for the caves will be
Colonel Dirk Mason
, and First Lieutenant Erick Granville. They are both Marines.”

“Can I ask a question?” said Holly. She took Jackson’s curt head bob as an affirmative. “What about the kids? I was watching their faces during the meeting, and they looked completely freaked out.”

My heart sunk. That was totally and completely my fault. In my desperation to inform everyone on everything, I forgot about how the children would react.

“Holly, after this meeting, you and I will get together and come up with a plan for talking to them,” I told her.

“How long until Fitzpatrick and the gang get here?” asked Malcolm, who had been uncharacteristically quiet.

“Last I heard they are about six to eight hours out. Since we are staying here, they will be able to catch up faster,” said Owens.

“I don’t know that we should stay here,” said Adam, unrolling a map. “I think that there is a better place to bunker-in about four hours from here. This is a map from before, and there is a better forested area for us to camo the transport and to build the snow caves close to the trucks.”

“Then we need to move out, now,” said Jackson.

∞

The meeting broke up immediately. We exited the RV to find the camp broken down, and the fires carefully covered with the surrounding snow. I was glad to see that everyone was taking this very seriously. Maybe telling them everything made them feel more a part of it now.

Jackson had Bri’s security team alert everyone that we were moving to a different location. I met briefly with Holly about talking to the children and apologized profusely that I could not be there with her to help clean up my mess. I asked Annie to ride in RV four with Holly to help facilitate the discussion. I was sure Annie’s background as a teacher and her gentleness would help. It was the best I could do, but I have made a promise to myself not to let that happen again. The children’s emotional needs were as important as anyone’s.

Within thirty minutes, we were on the road again. That would put Fitz and the gang between nine to eleven hours behind us.

“Godspeed to them,” said Reverend John.

“Amen to that,” I said.

Emma and Mark had traded places, and I was glad to be riding with Mark. Somehow it felt safer, even though there would be little that he could do if we were suddenly attacked. I wished that I could have all of my family in one place, but everyone had their own important jobs to do. And never once had any one of them complained. My people are troopers.

While Mark familiarized himself with the ham radio, I began to figure out who would be bunkering in their snow caves with whom.

I had never heard of a snow cave before today. Back in the day, I would probably have googled it, but for now I needed to wait until the experts reached us.

While planning the snow cave cohabitations, I did my best to keep families together or at least close to each other. My family was the largest, and it was also the most difficult for me to figure out because I didn’t want to be far from any of them. Maybe the new guys would have an idea of how to fit more of us together.

If this is going to be the way we depart this earth, I want to be with my whole family when it happens.

A few of us in RV two took turns taking brief naps. I have to confess, I was exhausted. I slept for about two hours. I figured I could justify it; after all, we had been up since early morning, and it looked as if the rest of the day was going to be very long. In fact, I hoped that everyone who could would be doing the same thing.

∞

The RV came to an abrupt halt, almost throwing me from the bunk. I hoped that we were at our destination, but we needed to stop and let the tree cutting crew make way for us again. Everyone took the opportunity to use the restrooms and grab a snack. There would be no running around time for the kids, however.

Still feeling angry with myself, and not being able to let it go, I decided to see how the kids were doing in their RV. When I walked in, they were reading books and playing games. Bailey threw herself into my arms. “Can I come and stay with you for the rest of the ride, Laura?” she asked.

I looked over at Holly, who seemed a bit more relaxed. She nodded at me. “A lot of the kids are going to ride with their parents for the rest of the way,” she informed me.

“That would be great, Bailey Bug,” I told her. “Maybe Annie will join us.”

I guess I wanted my mother right then, too.

While the tree cutters did their job, the rest of the Villagers made their way to the vehicle they would be riding in for the rest of the trip. There was probably only an hour or so left of driving time, but it was good for morale.

After another hour of waiting, we were back on the road to our bunker-in destination.

∞

We pulled up to our destination at three o’clock in the afternoon: supper time. I was happy to find that RV three was able to pull it together without Annie. She could really use more than just one afternoon off.

If we made it through all of this, I promised myself that I would find more days for her to rest.

Jackson informed everyone by radio that we would be pulling off into a grove of trees, and for everyone to be extremely careful, that the snow off the road was slick.

As if to help prove Jackson’s point, Emma’s truck skidded and doughnuted out of the lineup of cars. Mark felt badly that she had taken his wheel, but it was what it was, an accident. Emma was pretty shaken, but thankfully she was physically unharmed. The tow truck spent about an hour getting the front wheels of the Tacoma over a slope where they had come to rest.

The rest of us moved on through the forest. We hit sharp bumps and curves, but we finally slowed to a stop. I understood what Adam was talking about when he said this would be a better place to hide. You could barely see a patch of sky from where we stood. There were also large snow banks where we came to a stop. Adam and Jackson took some time to talk about the plans. We watched them from the inside of our warm cars. Their arms swung and fingers pointed until it looked like they were finished.

Jackson opened the door of our RV and picked up the microphone. “Okay, we need everyone to exit their vehicles except for the drivers. We will signal where we want you to park. While we are getting the trucks in position, the rest of you will get the tents set up. Then go to the food RV and get something to eat. We are going to need you all to be patient and to try and stay warm. It’s fine to make a fire today, but make sure it’s not too big.”

We all streamed out of our respective vehicles. People stretched and made their way through the virgin snow that was knee deep in places. Children were held or given piggy back rides, and we tried to find places to pitch the tents.

I guess that most of us had never been in snow that had been untouched by human feet or tires. And since I had never been in the snow before this insanity, I really had no frame of reference to work with. I slipped several times. Thankfully, Mark had lived in Japan, and he was better at navigating through it than I was. He held Bailey tightly and protectively. Through all of this, he had somehow become a great father.

None of us were comfortable in our new camp site, but we made the best of it. Tents went up slowly and fires were built. Finally, the trucks were in place, and we all had bowls of warm, fresh venison stew. Hershey ate his with such gusto that everyone in eyeshot of him laughed and loosened up some.

“Hi everyone,” said Ammie to the crowd. I was shocked that my chronically shy niece was about to speak in front of an audience. “I just wanted to say something.”

Everyone looked at the nervous young woman as she overcame one of her fears.

“I want to tell my aunt thank you,” she turned to me and said. “You have guided us all this far, and it was our decision to follow you. I have watched and have seen how leading us has taken its toll on you. You’ve had broken ribs, you were so sick that we all thought that you were going to die, and you have been so tired that I have seen you fall asleep standing up.”

Everyone laughed at that, that is, everyone but me. I was too amazed by what Ammie was doing to laugh. Instead, a flood of tears ran down my face.

“Laura has guided us through all of this, and has never stopped trying her best to keep us alive. I just wanted to tell her thank you from the bottom of my heart.”

As she bent to hug me where I was sitting, she whispered in my ear, “I love you, Aunt Laurie.”

“I love you, too,” I told her.

Moments like these get me through all of this.

∞

The rest of the day was even more tiring. Plans were made, things were moved around and digging in snow banks began. Jake made it back to us, safe and sound, much to Annie’s glee. When this was all over, I planned to have a talk with my brother about his secret involvement with Jackson and his cohorts.