Chapter 62

Roma was south of Tondc searching around the old areas of Fort Belvoir and Fort Belvoir North. Roma thought it was stupid to have two names for areas separated by another town, in this case, Newington. She was searching for areas they could farm. They would have to be near the river so they could have short irrigation ditches. Monty had told her about them. She had assumed that they planted and then left it to be rained on. Monty had set her right about the need for enough water to grow and that rain was unreliable in that regard. In any case, Roma was searching, though it was still low ground. She was thinking that if the old buildings had been built near the water, then they probably didn't flood. She still wanted to find higher ground for building houses, though. They could live on hunted food and find winter greens if necessary, but getting flooded out, that was something she didn't want to happen.

She looked at the map again. She decided to check out Fort Belvoir - the one by the water - first. She turned when Bruno whispered that he had heard something. They all stopped and dropped to the ground where they were. The next minute, Atom came walking into where they were.

"Hi, guys," he said.

"Atom," Roma said with a relieved sigh. "Thank goodness you're here!" Roma was happy to lead, but she preferred to be one of the team and not to make too many of the decisions. She went over to him.

"Monty found some tablets and he downloaded maps of the areas from before the bombs. We can see what it looked like," Atom said, smiling.

"Yes!" Roma said. I've found out that this place was a Fort. I think it was a military place. If we can see what it looked like, then we can work it out and figure out where we are." Atom nodded. He handed the tablet to Roma.

"Go for it," he said.

"You don't want to take charge again?"

"Yes, I do, but you were exploring this place. I'll take charge again AFTER you've checked this place out." Roma nodded and turned the tablet on. She checked the map again and searched for the area. Fort Belvoir. She found it and had a look at the layout. There was a hospital and other places for medical and fitness. It seemed that the place was a military base, but there was housing to the south of the hospital. It looked like there was a civilian area and then went on to more military places.

"We could put our houses in roughly the same area as these houses, and use the other areas for farming. At the bottom end, there's even a small harbour. We could fish from there. Maybe Luna could come up the river and park her boat there. Is park the right word?" Atom shrugged.

"Not a clue. No boats on the Ark." Roma nodded and continued looking for areas to farm and build.

"There's also Fort Belvoir North," she said. "No, that area's too close to Tondc's hunting range. Let's try Newington." Atom nodded and they checked that area. After looking at it, Roma turned the tablet off. "Nope. No river near it. We need to be near a river or creek and we need flat ground to build on and farm on. Problem with this area is it's low land. Easily flooding when the river's up. I think we need to move further south or east."

Roma turned the tablet back on and scrolled down further south of Tondc.

"Look at this area. Colchester and Woodbridge. If we go across to Woodbridge, it gives us plenty of places to build and farm. It's right next to the river and leads to this huge bay. I'd bet there's plenty of fish in there."

Roma stared at the map. She saw that there was no farm land nearby.

"No, there's no real place to farm here, it's all trees or buildings. I don't fancy having to dig through the foundations of houses until we have nice soil to plant in. Any farming done over buildings is going to bring up a lot of rubble," she said. Atom nodded and then pointed to another place.

"What about this area called Lake Ridge? If those bridges are still in place or repairable, then we have access to the other side of the river. See, this area here," he said, pointing to the area directly opposite on the other side of the river, "this Sandy Run Training facility. It looks like it isn't used for anything. We could plant there. We put the village on this side, farm on the other and have plenty of space to spread out in a few generations."

"Yeah, look, there's three schools in one area down here. We could give the big one to the scientists and engineers to work in - well that area anyway. We could set up a school and hospital in this area too. We just have to figure out where the best place is." Atom looked at her.

"You know, I bet Adara would like to come out here and have a look around. She could do that second sight thing of hers and help us figure out where to put things."

"Great idea!" said Roma. "You got your mic and earwig with you?"

"Yep,"

"Well, fire them up and get our illustrious leader down here - if she's not too busy. I bet a little time away from the responsibility of keeping us in line will do her the world of good," Roma said, happy at the thought of finally finding their own patch of earth to call home.

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Adara came down a week later and was looking at the areas Roma had pointed out. She saw potential, but was worried about the training facility across the river. This was a military area and the training facility may be where they used ammunition and explosives. She didn't know, but she was going to search every inch of the place before any building or farming happened over there. On this side, she turned her second sight on the houses and looked down. She saw that even though the dirt wasn't very deep, the buildings underneath them were mostly destroyed. She moved off to another housing plot. This one had one level housing and they were intact under the dirt! If they could dig them out, maybe they could be used as housing and they wouldn't have to build so many houses. She checked around. Yes, if they moved the housing towards the bottom end, near the schools, the housing there was all one level and each house was separated from each other by small yards. It was perfect!

Adara and Atom started by probing the areas she saw a group of houses. They started at one end and probed until they hit something solid - and hollow sounding. It was only two feet under them. They grinned to each other and grabbed the shovels they had finally taken from the dropship and started to dig. When they reached the hard area, they slowed down and gently removed the soil. The whole team worked in shifts until finally they had the whole roof uncovered. Adara checked where the door was located and started to dig out that part of the walls. Soon a sloping hole was dug out and they could reach the old ground level.

Adara and Roma got out hand lights and they approached the door. Atom was behind them. They looked through the glass in the door. They were amazed that the glass was still intact. It was dark, so they shone their lights inside. They could see furniture still in its original position and not fallen down. There was another door at the far end of the corridor and several more down the walls. Adara tried the door, but it wouldn't move. She put her shoulder to the door and pushed hard. It gave way and Adara nearly fell in but for the quick reactions of Roma and Atom keeping her upright. She nodded in thanks and then turned towards the house.

They moved inside, marvelling at the furniture they found. All made from wood and had doors and drawers. They opened one of the draws and found keys and small hand lights that were made in tube form with a wider head. Small bits of metal that they recognised from history classes as coins, an old form of currency. Gloves and wooly hats were also in the drawer. They closed it up and moved to the first door.

Atom opened the door and it opened with no problem. It was like the owners had just left for the day. Furniture was all laid out, there was no sense of urgency about a departure, no scattered possessions, no clothing on the floor, it all looked neat and tidy. Chairs neatly tucked under a table with a vase of dead flowers on it, more of those storage units lined the walls on two sides, a sofa was on another and two small tables stood either side of the door they came in. Another door led to the kitchen. No-one wanted to open the cupboards or the refrigerator - they remembered what happened when the kitchen staff opened the one in the bunker. The smell had been horrific and hung around for a few days. They didn't want that to happen again just yet.

They moved on, back into the corridor and down to the next room. It was the other entrance to the kitchen. They backed out and tried the door on the opposite wall. It opened to a living area, not unlike the areas on the Ark where people met and sat for a relaxing chat. This was was designed for a small family though, there were toys on the floor near a box that was overflowing with them, two sofas that met at the corner with a table in between, two more chairs sat opposite one of the sofas and they all seemed to be around a small flat screen on the wall. They assumed it was a communication monitor, much like the ones on the Ark. Maybe they watched entertainment or sports programmes like they had on the Ark? Who knew.

Moving on, they went to the last door at the far end and went through. They were in a small corridor with three doors. Adara walked to the last room, Roma to the second room and Atom took the first room. They all entered at the same time. Adara had found a bathroom, Roma found a children's room and Atom had found the parents room.

Atom yelled for them to come to him. They both entered the room and stopped dead. There on the bed were the skeletons of two adults and two children. They knew the world was ending and had decided to let fate decide for them. They died together as a family. Adara, Roma and Atom left the room and the house sobered by the fact that each house could contain the same. Now the question was; do they clear out the houses and cremate those who stayed behind, or leave them as a memorial to them? Leaving them to rest in peace in the place they felt safest.

Adara felt like everyone should have a vote, after all those people who would be living there, would have to deal with the deaths themselves if they wanted to live in their houses. Adara was adamant about that. If they wanted to live there, they would be the ones to dig the house out and deal with the remains inside. It should put some people off from disturbing the final resting places of those left behind. Adara knew that if it was her, she hoped she was never disturbed from the place she had chosen to die. Adara had already made her choice - leave them be.

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It was two weeks later and everyone had voted and over 80% had voted to leave the houses alone and built their own. They knew that there was a good chance they were building their houses on top of the old world ones, but as long as they didn't disturb the houses themselves, they felt that was good enough. Several Skaikru, Trikru and Arkers were at the new site, cutting down some trees for building. They had decided to put most of the housing on the sites of the three schools, with farms to the south of them. There were less houses there and farming meant that they didn't have to dig so deep. There was also a lake near there so they could use that for irrigation. All in all, things were finally looking up.