Your Future

Chapter 2

Kate ended up with a mixed bag. She had groups heading out looking for fresh water even if they didn't have anything to put it in. She had other groups headed out looking for potential food sources.

Right now she had Castle helping her get these crates open so they could find out what they had. They both soon learned that getting crates that had been nailed shut open without a hammer, no matter how small or large they were, was a lot harder than it sounded.

"STOP! Stop, stop!" Kate saw a pair of kids using rocks to just pound away at a crate.

"We're trying to get it open, bitch, so what's your problem?" One of them tried to stare her down.

"First, I'm not your damn bitch. Second, what's in there might be breakable and if you break it while hammering away at it means we lose something. Something we don't have and can't get back. Or are you too dense to understand that?" Kate saw these two kids were going to be trouble.

"Whatever, bitch." He threw his rock at the crate and stormed off with his friend.

"Trouble?" Rick had caught up to her in case she needed help. Without weapons or maybe even with weapons, he was betting Kate could take those two idiots.

"Not yet, but those two have bad news written all over them," Kate commented. It was a pity she'd been flying a commercial plane without her police ID to get Royce's killer. It meant she wasn't traveling with her weapon.

"Weapon! What have you got in your pockets, Castle?" She had literally nothing on her. Everything she'd had was in her carry-on and she didn't see any of those.

Rick went through his pockets. He actually came up with a few things. His fob for his car, his wallet with everything that it had in it, a few coins, his cell phone that had a very dead battery, and that was about it.

"We were flying commercial and probably everyone else was as well. That means no knives of any kind. Maybe not even nail clippers. No weapons of any kind. Nothing even useful to get these crates open," Kate huffed in annoyance.

Much to her surprise Kate found a small group of about twenty-five people standing around her. "How can we help?"

"Start with this crate here. Ask the men to empty their pockets and put anything that isn't money or credit cards on it. Everything else goes on this crate. Coins, phones, everything. We only have what's in these crates and what we have on us. We're going to need a lot of things so let's see what we have to work with.

"And if somehow you manage to get this crate open before that, more power to you." The men immediately began searching their pockets as did the women.

Rick and Kate had managed to get their first crate open just as someone came up to them. "Where are they going?" She pointed at a group of black men and a couple of black women walking away.

Kate ran to get closer but didn't try to catch up to them. "Where do you think you're going?" Kate yelled at them only to see most of the men give her the bird. "We need to stick together. We don't even know where we are," Kate yelled again.

"We don't take orders from white bitches. Especially white pigs," one of them yelled back at her and they all kept walking.

As usual Kate found Rick standing right next to her. "Idiots." Kate couldn't believe them.

"If what we were told was the truth those people are as good as dead. No weapons, no clothes besides what they're wearing, no idea where they're going. One hungry cougar will rip them open with no trouble. Let alone a starving bear." Rick shook his head.

"If?" Kate grinned at him.

"Until we figure out where we are and what's in the area, Kate. For all I know what we went through was a Star Trek transporter and not a time machine. However…" Rick raised a finger to silence her. "Do you see any smoke?" That had Kate looking around. "How about contrails from high flying planes? Do you smell any trash? Any pollution of any kind?" he asked and watched as she looked and inhaled deeply.

"Nothing but clean nothingness. All of us were frozen and standing there looking and listening that guy talk to us. No matter how hard I tried I couldn't move a finger. Then we're walking through a tunnel surrounded by air that had more in common with the inside of a fireplace than clean air. And people were in there breathing that crap! Don't believe as usual, but don't discount it," Rick said to her.

"I'm not. Until I can prove otherwise it's all we've got. …Just say you're right. DON'T!" Kate held up a hand to stop him. "We're going to have more trouble than just food, water, and a place to sleep tonight. Unless those crates hold things like tampons it's going to get ugly around here soon." Kate knew when her period was going to be if what she knew as timing still held. But it was going to show up soon.

Rick looked around at all the women. He was guessing maybe a quarter had already reached menopause but that left all the others. "Baby food, diapers." He saw more than one baby being held now that they were short a few people since they were out looking around.

"How many planes do you think?" Rick questioned her.

Kate looked at everyone. "Four to six, maybe, depending on the size. Maybe one or more was a small commuter plane. I haven't heard much about planes crashing lately. Or what even happened to ours."

"Speaking of which, where are the pilots? If they took us why didn't they take the pilots?" Rick wondered.

"There, Castle." She saw some uniforms that looked like pilots and even flight attendants. "Let's see what they remember." Along the way she picked out a few volunteers to help open crates without breaking what was inside them.

[)(] o [)(] o [)(] o [)(] o [)(]

Kate and Castle caught up to each of the planes' flight crews that were here.

One was a small commuter plane that held twelve people and two flight crew. They had no idea what had happened to their plane. It had suddenly just went out of control during an approach to a landing.

Two were also commuter planes, however they were jets. Each held twenty-four and twenty-six people respectively and had one crew member and two flight crews. One had a series of system errors while the other had an engine failure.

The final three were standard commercial flights. One had two hundred twenty-three people with six crew members. One had one hundred twenty-six people with four flight crew while their own plane had one hundred twenty-two people with four crew members. In each case they had two flight crew.

One plane had one of three flight computers fail that lead to two more system failures. One plane crashed into a sea wall just short of the runway. Their own plane had a bird strike that had one engine fail on them. However that failure caused wing damage and they plummeted to the ground uncontrolled.

It meant they had 561 people minus 14 black kids that didn't want to be led by a woman and even worse a woman that was a cop. That brought them down to 547 people.

"Thanks." Kate knew enough from them and walked back toward the majority of the crates that were all different sizes. "They were all crashing and yet here we all are."

"They got us all off crashing planes then put us all in a room," Rick commented.

"I could use a crazy theory about now, Castle." You couldn't just get people off of a plane while the plane was crashing.

"If they can send us forward in time because Earth was dead then maybe they have a way to get us off a plane. Suspend the crash and take us off the plane," Rick suggested.

Kate narrowed her eyes. "But I don't remember anything except being forced into my seat because we were crashing."

"If they can control time maybe they can freeze it as well. Step in, stun us so we're unconscious, and carry us out one at a time. Freezing time means they have all the time they need to move us and hold us," Rick proposed.

Kate was interrupted when a man ran up to them. "We think we've found something." Then he led them to one of the larger crates they had. "We found a stick that was thin enough on one end and a rock to hit the other. Took some time but…" He showed them the open crate.

Kate reached in to pull up a piece of cloth that was white and it was thick and heavy. "Castle?" Kate wasn't above asking his opinion for this.

He fingered the fabric. "I think it's a tent. It might be one of those big event tents. Hopefully there are poles."

"Event tent?" Kate wasn't following.

"I think he means one of those tents for special outdoor sales. Furniture stores and others," the man that had helped open the large crate said.

"If we're careful, these might be big enough for all of us or at least most of us," Rick commented.

"We're going to need a large flat space then. Preferably after we find out where the closest fresh water's located and before it decides to rain." Kate looked at the sky that looked clear at the moment. "Keep it in the crate for now. Easier to move it."

"We need to get the rest of them open," Rick mentioned. He began to pick up what they had used to open this one to use it again.

"Leave it, I have another job for you." Kate pulled him away but didn't go far.

"If we're all the humans there are and yet this place looks nice that means there should be wildlife," Kate said. Rick was following easily enough but wasn't sure what she wanted.

"Unless there are weapons in any of these crates that means we're all unarmed. How are you at making weapons? To defend with and go hunting with. Five hundred forty-seven people are going to need a lot of food. The more weapons we have the more hunting groups we can have." Kate paused and waited for his reply.

"You came to the right guy then. I'll be in those trees looking for what I want. Don't disappear on me," Rick told her.

"I don't think that will be a problem," Kate muttered and watched Rick walk away. She knew she'd asked him for something, however watching him leave left her feeling naked; it wasn't a feeling she liked. She'd done just fine alone before he had shown up in her life and now she wasn't sure what her life would be like without him.

The only thing she still had on her was Royce's letter that she felt for and pulled out and looked at. She already knew what he had written by heart. Royce was right, she was fighting it. She sighed and put it back. She became the kickass detective and walked around to see how they were all coming with the crates.

[)(] o [)(] o [)(] o [)(] o [)(]

Rick was just walking up to her when she stood up on an open crate and tried to balance herself. Putting two fingers in her mouth she let out two loud whistles to get everyone's attention.

"Two teams have found what might be the same stream so there's fresh water that way," Kate pointed. "Food is still a problem that needs to be solved. We've got all of the crates open and we have a variety of things. All of which are useful but we're going to have to figure out just how useful.

"Right now we have two big tents and a few small ones of different sizes so we at least have cover. Right now I need people to pick up the crates and take them all closer to the stream. Then we need to find the largest flat spot we can find to put up the biggest tent. Based on how big this tent might be we're going to need a lot of people to set it up." Kate saw a hand go up.

"Yes?" Kate had only made herself the leader for now since she was betting she was the best person for it.

"Cell phones maybe? Ours are all dead." She even held up her dead iPhone to prove it.

"No, nothing electrical was found in any of the crates. My cell phone is just as dead as yours. Keep in mind if what we were told was the truth we're very far into the future. I don't know about any of you but I haven't seen anything that says anyone lives here," Kate said.

"We did." A man held up a piece of plastic. Kate got off her crate, hurried over to him, and took it from him. "Definitely plastic of some kind." She looked it over. "I don't see any words."

"There was more," he said.

"Show me. Castle?" She saw him standing next to her with a big stick in his hand.

"Right behind you." Rick followed the group that had found the piece of plastic.

It was a little ways away but they reached it without trouble. "Looks like an illegal dumpsite to me. It's been here a really long time from the look of it," Rick observed.

"Yeah," Kate agreed and waded out into the mess. Then she stopped when she saw something. "I think it's a tire." She found a stick to help her uncover it a little more. "Michelin."

"Plastics and various rubbers will be around for hundreds of years. The Pyramids in Egypt are in a dry area where it doesn't rain much. They should still exist. Any radioactive items will also still be here and still very dangerous," Rick said then looked at Kate. "I don't suppose you still have your radiation detector on you?"

Kate shook her head. She didn't have any of her equipment. Not even her cuffs or even her badge.

"There may be trash here but I'm not sure what we can use it for. But never say never," Rick advised.

Kate had seen enough. "We need to get back and get that tent set up before it gets dark."

"We need to start fires soon also," Rick reminded her.

"I hope someone in this group smokes or starting that fire is gong to be a challenge." Kate had no real clue how to start a fire without matches. It might be done in the movies, but that was movies.

[)(] o [)(] o [)(] o [)(] o [)(]

Kate was back on her crate and blew her whistle again twice. "Where did you learn to do that?" Rick was impressed.

"Just another layer to my onion, Castle." Kate smiled at him.

"This is a good spot for those big tents. Take them out and let's figure out how to set it up. I also need teams to collect dead wood so we can start a fire. To start that fire, please tell me someone here smokes and has matches or a lighter," Kate yelled.

She saw a few hands go up after they checked to make sure they still had lighters on them.

"Great, don't get lost we're going to need you later. Once we get a few fires going we're going to need to keep them going, and yes, I know it causes pollution. Right now it's a small amount and we don't even know where we are yet." Finished talking, Kate got down off her crate.

[)(] o [)(] o [)(] o [)(] o [)(]

The tent they soon found out was 10' x 30' and was complete with steel poles, guylines to support the poles, and eighteen inch steel stakes to secure the walls to the ground and they didn't have just one but two of them.

They tried to put them up as close to end to end as they could in the flattest spot they could find.

"I know we have two little hand shovels in crates somewhere. We need teams to start digging a small trench all the way around the high side. When it starts raining we want the water to go around the tent, not in under the walls. That will keep the ground under the tent from getting wet unless everyone likes sleeping in mud," Kate called out.

"What's with the big stick, Castle?" He'd been walking around with it ever since he had come back with it.

"It's a nice straight piece of oak with no knots, no twists, and no limbs. It's dead but not too dead. I don't suppose you found knives in any of those crates." He was going to need two different ones for what he had in mind.

"Several actually. This way." Kate showed him and let him have fun.

Kate watched two men trying to dig a trench around the tent with each going opposite directions.

Next she found volunteers to go looking for firewood. Then she overheard a wife asking her husband where she was supposed to poop. That gave Kate a new problem and it was a big one. If they didn't handle this properly diseases could make them all sick and maybe kill a few.

She saw a man dressed in all camo. "Military, I'm guessing?" Kate asked him.

"Yes, ma'am, Private Malcolm Prudhomme, 326th Maintenance Battalion based out of Owings Mills, Maryland at your service."

"We're going to need a place or two for us all to use the bathroom or we're all going to end up sick," Kate said.

"Yes, ma'am. Cholera, diarrhea, dysentery, hepatitis A just to name a few." He was very familiar with needing proper sanitary conditions.

"Great, I need a volunteer to spot where to dig then find the men to do the digging just as soon as they are done digging a trench around the tents. What I don't know is what we're going to use in place of toilet paper that we don't have." Kate was a little in over her head for this one.

"I know what to do, ma'am. Just keep in mind none of us are going to have any privacy for this," Malcolm warned her.

"I don't care. We don't have any penicillin or any other antibiotics for any diseases. If that means we do it in public, so be it. As for what to use in place of toilet paper I'll leave it to your imagination," Kate told him.

"Yes, ma'am." He wasn't interested in getting sick, either, so two big slip trenches with a downed tree to sit on over said hole, it was. He just had to find a place to put them that was away from the water and away from the tents but not too far that they couldn't find it in the dark.

[)(] o [)(] o [)(] o [)(] o [)(]

"Ladies?" She had four of them coming up to her.

"Clothes, tampons, hopefully," one of them asked.

"Don't I wish. Mine, if I'm still on schedule, is in a couple of weeks. I feel for you and I have no idea what I'm going to do about it." Kate wasn't looking forward to not having anything to use. And with all these women around it was only going to get worse. "I'm open to ideas so ask around. Maybe someone knows something we don't."

"You really think we're far in the future on Earth?" one of them asked her.

Kate turned to look at Rick who was busy using something on his big stick. She wasn't really sure just what he was doing.

"Until we find out differently I'm going to assume the answer is yes. If someone flies over us in a helicopter I'll be the first to dance for joy. For now we live like it's the truth," Kate told them.

"Water, food?" someone else asked.

"Water's at the stream that I haven't even seen yet. As for food," Kate turned to look at Rick again, "we're working on it. As soon as we have something to kill wild game with we'll send out hunting parties. Which reminds me, I need one of the fire pits ready to roast anything we kill.

"Ask around, that's the best I can tell you. Just don't expect someone to offer up her lone tampon or pad. I sure as hell wouldn't." Kate left them to go see about those fire pits.