Spring 2028
"I don't like it one bit. No. Too much risk." Kathryn said.
"What's the alternative?" Caroline said. "We go and hide? For how long? If they were just passing through, headed west, they would have taken a route south of us. I think they're here looking to stay. We need to find out what their intentions are sooner rather than later. If I'm out there, by myself, they'll show their hand right away as to what they're up to. Kathryn, they've got women. They don't look like they're looking to cause trouble. "
"Nobody looks like they're going to cause trouble until they start shooting." Kathryn said.
"Kate. I think Caroline's got a good plan." Miles said. "If these people are bandits, they're not going to shoot a girl first thing. They'd take her and - you know -"Miles looked at Caroline and Meghan and felt his face turn red at the implied subject of the conversation. Caroline and Meghan saw him, how red he turned, and even in this tense and charged moment, giggled. Kathryn saw her husband and cracked a smile, too.
"Ok." Caroline said. They're coming. You guys get there," she said, pointing to cover just behind her. "Get locked and loaded, just in case it goes sideways. When they show, keep your guns trained on them until I give the word. Go!"
Caroline could hear voices and horses. They were close. Miles, Kathryn and Meaghan disappeared behind cover. Caroline holstered her pistol in her waistband, covered by her jacket, but where she could draw quickly. She walked to the middle of the street and stood there, arms at her side.
From around the corner, two figures cautiously came into view; two men, on either side of the road, carrying hunting rifles at port arms. They stopped when they saw Caroline. For half a minute, Caroline and the two men stood perfectly still, watching. The two men looked at each other, dropped any pretense of covertness, and walked out in the middle of the street, facing Caroline. One of them looked back and beckoned to the rest of his party, just out of sight, to come around the corner. The two men took their rifles down and held them one-handed, barrel down, in a non-threatening way.
Ten other people, six women and four men, came into view. They joined the two men. Again, several seconds passed as the group and Caroline continued looking at each other.
Caroline spoke, in a commanding tone of voice she didn't know she had. "My name is Caroline Ross. I live here. State your business."
A woman with light-colored hair walked to the front of the group. She was carrying a rifle, pointed down. The others carrying rifles and shotguns had them pointed down as well. The rest didn't display any weapons at all. She turned her head and said something. A dark-haired woman slowly came to stand beside the first woman. Carefully, both women put their rifles down on the ground. A second later, the rest of the group laid their rifles and other arms they were carrying on the ground as well. Caroline sighed inaudibly and smiled to herself. I think we're doing okay.
A large elk carcass lay on a large table under an open roof in a corner of the horse pasture in Jackson. Claire Tanaka and her sister, Wendy, cut the elk in portions for freezing and drying. They were twins, and while not identical twins, looked close enough alike that a casual observer might mistake them for such. Stuart, Joanie's husband, shot the elk that morning, and dragged it back behind his horse. Claire and Wendy saw him coming in and met him just inside the fence.
"You need a butcher?" Wendy asked.
"Yes ma'am." Stuart said.
Claire and Wendy walked with Stuart and his horse to the table in the pasture. The table, which was used exclusively for butchering and preparing meat, was covered by a roof, but open on all sides so that the breeze might help blow away the flies.
Stuart had already field dressed the elk and helped hang it on a metal hook.
"This is a nice one," Claire said, "any problems with bears this time?"
A juvenile grizzly followed Stuart the last time he shot an elk and brought it in. Finally he cut a back leg off and gave it to the bear to leave them alone.
"No bears this time." He replied, taking out his knife and began cutting and pulling the elk hide away. Wendy, being careful to keep the hide in one piece, started cutting and pulling the other side. Soon they had the hide removed, and after scraping away the flesh that stuck, folded the hide as best they could. Stuart uncomfortably tucked it under his arm and went to take it to the storage building used for tanning and curing animal hides. He looked back. "Thanks for the help. You want me to come back after I've pinned this up and give you a hand?"
Claire shook her head. "Thanks, anyway."
"Good deal. I'll go help Joanie in the kitchen." Stuart, leading his horse, went to take care of the elk hide and his horse before he joined his wife.
Wendy and Claire set about cutting up the elk. A short while later, they heard the pasture gate open, and saw Jed and Beth Carson, Jackson's newest residents, coming in, each with a large creel. Jed carried a plastic tub.
"Do you mind if we borrow part of your table?" Jed asked.
"Whatcha got there?" Wendy asked.
"Forty-seven trout." Beth answered, reaching in her creel and proudly displaying a large steelhead.
"Where did you catch them?"
"About a mile south of the plant."
"Forty-seven! Damn, that's three or four times what we usually catch. You guys know what you're doing.
"We grew up fishing for trout so it's just experience. Come with us next time. We'll share a few secrets." Beth said, winking at her husband.
Jed and Beth cleaned the fish, while Wendy and Claire cut up the elk. Jed spoke up. "All of you have done pretty good here. To have built this place to what it is, you all should be very proud."
"Well, Miles, Kathryn, Caroline and Meaghan had been here a while. They laid the groundwork and we just pitched in." Wendy said.
"I knew they were already here." Jed paused. "Were you some of the original crew that came with Maria?"
Wendy nodded her head.
"How did that go down, when you guys first came?"
"You never heard the story?" Claire asked.
Jed and Beth shook their head.
"Well, let me tell you -"
"Jackson. Finally. I can't believe we're here." Olivia said.
Maria, in the lead, looked back from her horse at the rest of the group. "Be careful. Check out one building at a time. Make sure we're alone."
They were following a small creek to town. The first buildings were a hundred yards or so away. Maria stopped and dismounted. The others on horseback, Sasha, Olivia, Stuart, Joanie and Wendy, dismounted as well.
"Tie the horses up here." Maria said, walking her horse to a length of wooden fence. "It'll be easier to clear these buildings and watch our backs."
They set out in pairs to clear the first group of houses. After finishing, the pairs returned and reported to Maria.
Mike, with Jim at his side, spoke first. "Nothing, but there were foot prints. Boots. Dust was disturbed like someone had been there pretty recently." Jim said.
"We saw footprints, too." Adam said, accompanied by his sister, Sasha.
"Same here." Meaghan said.
Stuart and Joanie came up. "We circled around this group of buildings, in case someone was hiding. We didn't see anything, but further down the street it looks like hoofprints." Joanie said.
Tommy, who had circled back by the creek to check their rear, shook his head. "Nothing behind us, either."
"Good." Maria said. "Just go slow. The next group of houses is around that corner, it looks like." She said, pointing to where the street made a ninety-degree left turn.
Jim nodded at his partner. "Me and Mike will take point - check it out." They split up to turn the corner with one on each side of the street. Maria could see them make the turn, then look. She saw them both walk to the middle of the street and stand there, looking.
Just as Maria started to say something, Mike looked at the rest and motioned for them to come. The rest slowly walked around the corner, Tommy and Maria in the lead. They turned, and stopped, spread out even with Mike and Jim.
There, standing in the middle of the street, about twenty yards away, was a young woman. She appeared to be unarmed.
Maria's group and the young woman eyed each other up, silently. After what seemed like an eternity to Maria, the young woman broke the silence. "My name is Caroline Ross. I live here. State your business." She spoke in a forceful, commanding tone.
Maria walked to the front. She turned. "Sasha," she whispered "Come here." Sasha looked at her brother.
"It's okay, Sahsh." Adam said. "I've got your back." He walked to the front with her and stood while she peeled off to stand beside Maria.
Maria laid her rifle down. Sasha did the same. The rest, taking Maria's cue, put their guns down as well.
"My name is Maria Flores. This is Doctor Sasha Ivanov. We've come from the east. We're looking to settle here."
"I can see all of you." Caroline said. "Stay in view. You're covered. If any of you try anything, you're dead."
Maria and Sasha, hands open and at their sides, walked slowly to Caroline. She's so young, Maria thought.
"We've got twelve people here." Maria said, stopping to stand a few feet in front of Caroline. "We're looking for a place to live. We can find a corner here, stay out of your way. We've got some supplies, food, ammunition and guns to trade, if you want."
"You're a doctor?" Caroline asked Sasha.
"Yes. I lived in the Chicago QZ, with my brother, Adam. When that was overrun and abandoned, we found Maria and her group. We've been traveling with them since. My brother's an engineer. He can help you build and fix things."
Adam smiled and waved at Caroline. Wow, she's beautiful, he thought.
Caroline took a long look at Maria, then at Sasha, and then studied the group behind her. She looked back and imperceptibly nodded her head. From behind her, coming out from behind camouflage, was another young woman, and a middle-aged woman and man. They all carried hunting rifles. The man slung his over his shoulder, and the two other women did the same.
"This is my sister, Meaghan." Caroline said as Meaghan came up beside her.
Miles, meanwhile, went up to Maria and offered his hand. Kathryn joined him. "Miles Kelowitz. This is my wife, Kathryn." He held his hand out and smiled. The corners of Maria's mouth turned up. She shook his hand, and then Sasha did likewise. Kathryn, Caroline, and Meaghan exchanged handshakes with them. Tommy, in front of the group with Adam, glanced at them, and the ten travelers walked slowly to the others. After handshakes and introductions, Meaghan giggled to her sister. "I won't remember everybody's name. It's been so long since we've seen anybody."
Kathryn and Miles went to Maria and Tommy. "You've made quite a trip." Kathryn said. "But we don't want you to have a corner of this town where you can stay." Maria's face twitched as she started to speak. Kathryn continued. "Come with us. We have a little group of houses, a few dozen set by themselves in a neighborhood. They're in pretty good shape. That's where we live. You all can stay there as long as you want."
Maria looked at Tommy, then back to Kathryn. "Thank you."
"That was a big risk you guys took. We heard stories of bandits pretending to be injured, just so you'd drop your guard. I guess it wouldn't be unheard of to use a woman by herself the same way." Jed said.
"You're right. It was a big chance. One thing about Maria, though, is that her instincts are usually spot-on. She pretty much took charge coming out here, and kept us out of trouble." Claire said. "We'd go one route rather than another, or go around a town instead of through it. When she said 'I have a feeling', we listened. It turned out Caroline was thinking the same thing. She said her gut reaction after seeing Mike and Jim was that they weren't bad people and it might turn out okay."
"I know where you're coming from. It was just us two traveling west, but you learn quickly to trust your instincts." Jed said, looking at his wife. "That's one reason why we wanted to make sure to tell you about Bill in Omaha. There was something about him that struck us as being on the up-and-up."
"So Miles, Kathryn, Caroline and Meaghan were the only ones living here?" Beth asked.
"Yep. It looked a lot different." Claire answered. " The fences weren't up. The houses were in pretty good shape, though. After we settled in, Miles and Kathryn made sure we started preparing for the winter. We went house by house in the other parts of Jackson and stockpiled food, and went hunting so we could make jerky, cut firewood and started gathering hay for the animals. They kept telling us how bad the winters were, and I guess that scared us into making sure we were ready." Claire paused, and then looked right into Jed and Beth's eyes. "I don't want to scare you, but winters are bad. Worse than anything you've ever seen. But you know what?"
"What?" Jed said.
"We've never lost anybody. If you're ready for it, prepare for it, you'll make it. I know it will sound like we're nagging sometimes, and when it's in the middle of the summer and hot, you'll be wondering 'why we're cutting so much hay' or 'god, that's enough firewood for ten years', just wait. Once you've been through one winter, you'll know why we prepare like we do."
"So how did the rest of the people get here?" Jed asked. "Did they come west like we did?"
"Yeah." Wendy answered. "After the first winter, when it looked like we could make this work, we decided to send a few people back to Boston to see if anybody else wanted to come west. Mike and Jim volunteered. They found people, some Fireflies that wanted to leave and families that wanted a new start. It took them longer to get here than us, because they had kids. I think Eli, Audrey and Charlotte were the youngest. They would have been about six, then. But they made the trip."
"I remember hearing talk about people leaving and going west." Beth said. "The hard part for us was just making it outside the QZ. If they caught you outside after curfew or without any proper business, they'd just as likely shoot you. That was what we were worried about when we left. But once we made it outside the Boston area, that was about as far as the army patrolled. But that was just us two. I can't imagine a big group - families with children - getting out without any trouble."
"Mike used to be army and some of the ex-Fireflies used to be army people, too. So they had a few tricks up their sleeve. He said they stole a truck and drove it as far as they could."
Jed and Beth started laughing. "What? What's so funny?" Wendy asked.
"We stole a jeep." Jed said, smiling. "If many more people left Boston, the army wouldn't have any vehicles left."
"Well, we did it the old-fashioned way." Wendy said. "We walked and rode."
"I hope this guy they're looking to bring here is everything they say he is as far as working on cars." Claire said.
"That guy, Joel, seems to think so." Jed said.
After they finished with the elk and the fish, they carried the meat and filets to Joanie and Stuart, who were in the large kitchen. Stuart was peeling potatoes and Joanie was getting turnip greens ready to boil.
"I heard you caught a lot of fish." Joanie said, walking over and looking at the filets. "There's enough here for lunch and supper today, and we can freeze the rest."
Beth took a long look at the kitchen. She had only seen it briefly from the dining room in the few days they'd been here, but this was the first time she'd actually been inside. It had two refrigerators and two freezers, and a large range and oven, modified so they used heat from burning wood. Pots, pans and utensils hung on hooks or were neatly stacked on the metal tables around the room.
"This looks like restaurant kitchens I remember growing up." Beth marveled. "That must have been awesome, getting electricity to run the refrigerator and freezer."
"It helped a lot." Joanie said. "We didn't have power until about a year ago, and before then we'd just eat what we killed and dry the rest. The first couple of winters the only thing we had besides the canned and freeze-dried stuff was dried meat. After a while it got to where you didn't even taste it, but if it keeps us alive, who's to quibble about taste."
"The oven still uses wood?" Jed asked, seeing the wood stacked besides the two ovens.
"Uh-huh. It takes too much electricity to run a stove. Keeping the refrigerator and freezer running is more important. There's no gas or propane, but wood works pretty well. We've got this long pit here," Joanie said, pointing at the long, brick-lined pit, "where we can put grates on to boil water or cook stuff in a pot."
Joanie separated the fillets to use for the meals that day and put them in the refrigerator. She pulled down a large roll of plastic wrap and set it on the table with the meat and the rest of the fish.
"I remember back when, everybody was worried about pollution and ruining the world, they said 'don't throw away plastic, it lasts for hundreds of years'. Well, in some sort of weird way, that turned out to be good. We found these rolls some of the food joints in Jackson, and after you brushed the dust off, they're still good." Joanie commented as she unrolled lengths of the plastic to wrap the meat and fish in.
"Did you and Stuart come from Boston, too?" Beth asked.
"No, we were in western Pennsylvania, up by Erie. We had a roadhouse in Erie, close to the lake."
"How did you end up here? You came out here with Maria and Tommy, right?" Jed asked.
Joanie shook her head. "Maria was with us. She worked as a waitress for us while she was going to school. The infection hit so quick, we didn't have time to close or make preparations. One moment, we're just starting to serve dinner, then the next, there's crazy people running in the streets. Maria just started her shift, and when all hell broke loose, I barricaded the place up while Stuart took Maria home to look for her parents." Joanie paused, a gray pallor set in on her face. "They found them, dead. It took all the strength Stuart had to get her back here. Even then, she was losing it, like any one of us would do, much less a seventeen-year-old girl. She finally calmed down enough to listen to Stuart. He said, 'Make them proud of you, Maria. Stay alive. That's the best gift you could give them.'"
Stuart continued. "After a few months, the people died, got infected, or evacuated. We had a good stockpile of food, so we were going to wait it out. When it seemed things calmed down, one night, I heard someone in the kitchen. I got my gun, and for some reason, didn't just shoot. I used a flashlight to find out what was making the sound. It was a little girl, about six years old. From the dark, I heard another voice, a child's voice say 'you shoot her dead I'll shoot you dead.' I looked over; it was another little girl, holding a gun almost as big as she was." Stuart glanced up at Claire and Wendy.
"You?" Beth said. "Those little girls were you two?"
Claire nodded. "The infected killed our parents on the first night. We'd been scrounging until we found Joanie and Stuart."
"By then, Maria took to heart what I told her. She made it her life's work to make sure that we all survived. That insecure seventeen-year-old-girl died and was reborn into a true leader. She kept us going all of those years. We managed to make the food last for a long time, but when we ran out, we drifted south," Stuart said, carrying the plastic-wrapped meat to one of the freezers. "That was about fourteen or fifteen years after the infection started. It was then we ran into Tommy, Mike and Jim. They were going west from Boston. So, we traveled together and ended up here."
"It's remarkable." Beth said. "Come on," she said to Jed. "We need to get rid of the rest of the fish." She looked to Wendy and Claire. "Do want us to get rid of the rest of the elk, too? Maria said to dump it in the river downstream from the plant. Is that the place to get rid of the elk carcass?
"We'll help." Wendy said. "There's hand cart in the last building. We can use that."
After they disposed of the waste, Jed and Beth saw Maria at lunch.
"You guys caught this?" Maria asked, pointing at the trout.
Beth nodded. "They're bigger than back home in Maine, but easier to catch. Probably something to do with the fact that we're the only ones fishing."
Maria smiled at that. "That's something about living through an apocalypse. There's a lot more stuff to go around. You two haven't been to the plant, yet, have you?"
"Nope," Jed said. "I figured we shouldn't go around there without someone to show us around first."
"I'll stick around until you finish. Give you the grand tour." Maria said. "We need to take lunch over to the crew there, anyway."
Later, Jed and Beth were walking with Tommy and Maria down the trial to the hydroelectric plant. Tommy and Jed carried two boxes with five covered plates. The plant was about a mile away from where they lived, down a narrow trail that paralleled the river. The trail was fenced on both sides, and connected the housing compound with the hydroelectric plant.
The trail ended abruptly where the river made a ninety degree turn to the right. To their right was a long grey building that spanned the river.
"This is the plant." Tommy said. "It goes across the river to the other side, where that other building is. The turbines sit right below that part," he said, pointing to where the building crossed the river. The river spins the turbines, and that makes electricity. If you want to know anything more, you'll have to ask someone else. That's about all I know." Tommy said, smiling.
They walked over to the building and entered through a side door. In the first room, a bank of monitors and switches lined the far wall, and a two-way radio sat on the counter. A man and woman were sitting on chairs at a small table in front of the monitors. The man was drawing on a sketch pad and the woman was sharpening a large hunting knife. They put down the pad and knife and stood up as the group entered the room.
"Rachel, Luke, you remember Jed and Beth?" Maria said.
"Sure. You came here about a week ago, right?" Luke asked.
"Yeah. Maria and Tommy are giving us the grand tour of the plant."
"Good deal. It's our shift here to be watching things."
"Whatcha drawing?" Maria asked Luke.
He held up the sketch pad, which was a pencil drawing of a wooded canyon.
"Is that Yellowstone?" Maria asked.
Luke nodded. "I guess I must be getting good, if you can recognize it."
"Yellowstone? The national park north of here?" Beth asked.
"Uh, huh. It's pretty country. A lot of the cabins and houses up there have a good stock of freeze dried food and military rations we use for our emergency supply. We'll take you the next time we go. Even if we don't find anything, it's worth it to see the park." Maria said.
"You can put us on the list to start pulling shifts here, too." Beth said.
"We can do that, but you better not forget how to fish." Maria said. She looked at Luke and Rachel. "These guys pulled in forty-seven trout this morning. Lunch is about as fresh as it comes." She opened one of the boxes and handed out two plates.
"Damn, forty-seven! Sure has hell better not forget how to fish." Luke said. "Thanks for the lunch."
Tommy and Maria led them through the first room to the turbine room. Jed and Beth could see through a window that they were now above the river. Tommy waved at a man with a clipboard, who was looking at one of the turbines on the far side.
They passed through another door into the back control room, where a man and a woman sat in front of another bank of readouts and gauges. They stood up.
"I wondered when you'd come by and see our little operation." Simon said.
"Simon and Olivia, right? " Beth said.
"Yep. Adam's making the rounds."
The door opened and Adam came in. "Speak of the devil," Simon said.
"I thought I smelled food." Adam said. "What's for lunch?"
"Fresh trout these guys caught this morning." Maria said.
"Good deal. Thanks for bringing us the food."
As they sat down to eat, Maria spoke. "These guys were the masterminds behind getting us power."
"We're just glad you didn't give up on us." Adam said. He looked at Jed and Beth. "It took us about three years after we came here to get things running."
"But you got it running again. That's what mattered." Jed said.
"As near as we can figure, when the infection hit here, and they evacuated, they didn't shut things down properly. So a lot of parts needed to be replaced. The nearest power station is across the pass by Idaho Falls, and it took a lot of trips to get what we needed."
"Just my opinion, but I think it was worth it." Maria said. She looked at Jed and Beth. "Before we leave, we wanted to make sure you know about the emergency shutdown." Maria said. "Usually, these guys shut things down gradually when we need to go offline for some reason. But if there's an emergency, we can cut everything off right away." She walked over to two large pull-type switches on the left side of the panel. "The top one, when it's pulled down, disengages the turbines. Pull that one first, that's important. After that one's off, count ten seconds to give it time to disengage, and then pull the bottom one. That bleeds off whatever power is in the system. Whenever the emergency's passed, the engineers get things powered up again." She looked at the three engineers. "See you back in town."
On the way back to Jackson, Jed spoke. "Has there been any problem with bandits?"
"A few. The last big one was about eight or nine months ago. We killed thirty-one and chased the rest off. We haven't seen any since then." Tommy said. "If the ones that lived had any sense, they'll tell anyone who'll listen to leave us the hell alone."
"We've worked too hard for all of this." Maria said. "This is our little town. Nobody's going to take it away."