Mountain Home

[DirtPirate]

any thoughts on what they're doing?

yep...sooner or later...with that many people...there's GONNA be trouble!

But that doesn't change the fact that it may be the right thing to do...

[Superman]

I think it's terrific but still moves very fast in certain parts. It seems a couple months (if not more) spans a very short length of the book...it almost needs more 'filler' in some areas.

BUT as this has gone thus far...I can see CFI blasting us with another problem soon. It's been too quiet for too long! :shock:

Still though...AWESOME work. I have even begun re-reading it from the beginning so I remember everything.

[Christian for Israel]

any thoughts on what they're doing?

yep...sooner or later...with that many people...there's GONNA be trouble!

But that doesn't change the fact that it may be the right thing to do...

ok, stop reading ahead! :lol:

[Christian for Israel]

Chapter 27

During the month of October Jack helped the new town get things set up and running. Among the new projects that needed to be handled was the need to arm so many new people. There had been guns in the houses, and a local pawn shop had a few rifles and shotguns as well, but not nearly enough for everybody.

The town council was comprised of two older men and one woman. They were well aware that they weren’t capable of providing for the needs of the growing community like the old US Government had, so they pretty much left everyone alone and only got involved when the people asked their opinion. Still, they weren’t very knowledgeable in this whole ‘running of a community of survivors’ thing, and consulted Jack often. For his part, even though Jack had said he didn’t want to be a politician and run for office, he was more than willing to give advice and help out in any way that he could. Without his being aware of it, the council had put him in the position of leader, only without the title.

When the question of arming the community came up, soon after they had stopped bringing new people in for the year, Jack was quick to come up with a solution. He explained to the council about the several armories in Boise, and mentioned that there were many gun stores and pawn shops there as well. They were already making runs there for food, and with their blessing, he put together a team to acquire the needed weapons. As he was about to leave one of the council members spoke up and said they might as well inventory other things in the town, and that he may want to consult with one of the medical people that had arrived to determine what was needed to outfit the new clinic they’d set up. Thinking that a good idea, he agreed and left to get things set up.

Two days later a group of twenty six people headed out towards Boise. In the lead were Jack and Don in the Mog, to provide protection for the group with the Browning machine gun. Following them were two tractor trailers they’d gotten running, along with three straight frame box trucks. Overhead Mel was providing cover in the Huey gunship, scouting ahead of the group and alerting them to any potential problems with their planned route. The convoy traveled the short distance quickly, even though their top speed was only twenty-five miles an hour. Along the way they saw no signs of life, but as they neared the airport Jack again got an uneasy feeling that someone was watching them.

When they arrived at the airport he asked Mel to scout around, explaining his feeling to her. A few minutes later, as she was circling over the interstate to their north, she reported that she thought she saw movement in a building about a block from the highway. Asking her to return and pick him up, he asked Don and two other men, both armed, to accompany him.

As they boarded the helicopter he said “every time I’ve come here, I’ve gotten the feeling we were being watched. We’ve never had any trouble, and I don’t want to go in guns blazing, but I’d like to resolve this today if possible.”

Nodding their understanding, the men got settled for the short hop over to the building where Mel had seen movement. Landing in front of the building, they got out and carefully made their way inside. It was an old three story brick business, apparently a carpet store and warehouse. There were no signs of life downstairs, except for a path through the dust that led to a staircase. As they slowly mounted the stairs they called out, not wanting to startle any resident and cause them to shoot out of fear. When no one responded to their hails, they proceeded. As they neared the top they could hear the sound of scuffling feet, and a moment later that of a door slamming.

Gaining the second floor they caught a glimpse of a lone figure running away from the structure. Apparently he had gone down the fire escape when he realized they were coming up. From what Jack could see it was an older man, and he seemed to be dressed in rags. That in itself was strange, as the stores were full of clothing for the taking, if anyone were simply willing. Looking around the room, they saw that it was apparently the home of a vagrant. There were empty wine and booze bottles around, along with old food containers and a few ratty blankets. There were no signs of weapons of any kind, and the figure hadn’t been carrying a rifle, so they decided the guy likely wasn’t any sort of threat to them.

“Well, I don’t think we need to worry about this guy. Why don’t we leave some of our blankets and some food here, in case he returns, and a note or something offering help if he wants it, then just leave him be?” Jack said.

“Are you sure that’s wise?” one of the others, a young man in his mid twenty’s who went by the name of butch, asked. “What if he wants to cause trouble?”

“I’m afraid we have no right to bother anyone based on what they might do sometime in the future.” Jack said seriously. “So far, although he’s obviously watched us every time we’ve come here, he’s never given us any grief. As far as I can see, we have no cause to bother him, we need to simply be willing to live and let live.”

Agreeing, the group went back out to the helicopter. After getting some food and supplies from the group, they returned, being just as cautious as before, and placed the items in the main room downstairs, along with a note that said they’d leave him alone from now on as long as he didn’t attack them, but that he could contact them by flying a white flag from the top of the building, if he ever needed anything.



The first order of business after their little excursion was to establish a permanent base of operations. The inventorying of the city would likely take a good portion of the winter to complete, and they’d need a comfortable and secure place to live while it was being done. The first place they tried was the National Guard Armory, but they decided quickly that, while it was a great place to house weapons, it lacked a little in providing creature comforts.

“Well I sure don’t want to live here for months.” Don said to Jack as the two walked along the wire cages looking at weapons. “Bare walls and concrete floors just don’t do it for me.” He said, grinning.

“Nope, this would be the pits. But while we’re here we can load up the rifles and ammo and send it back to town. Also, I want our mechanics to check out some of those Hummers and see if they can get them running, they’ll help us get around without people having to ride in the back of the panel truck anymore.”

Walking back outside he told the group what he wanted, and while most of them pitched in to load the truck, several who had mechanical experience from before the sickness went to work on the vehicles. Within an hour both jobs were accomplished, and they had six more vehicles at their disposal. Five of the hummers had Browning machine guns, and one had a TOW anti-tank missile launcher. When they finally got the TOW equipped Hummer going, Butch let out a yell. Calling out to him, Don asked “what are you so excited about?”

“Man, I used to drive one of these during the Gulf war…they’re great!”

“I take it then,” Jack called back, “that you know how to operate that weapon?”

“Yes sir! No problem. Now we have a weapon to be reckoned with, for sure!”

Smiling at his enthusiasm, Jack said “just make sure it doesn’t go off while pointing at any of us.” Seeing the look that appeared on the young man’s face, he laughed out loud, then told everyone to get ready to go, they were going to check out the terminal building next.

Boise was a good sized town, and their new terminal reflected that. Jack knew the building had just been completed a couple of years earlier, and everything was nice and new inside. After exploring the structure, the group decided the third floor conference area would be perfect for their base. The building was fairly defensible after the ground floor had been sealed off, with the only access then being the raised roadway to the passenger drop-off area. They parked Browning equipped Hummers at either end of the building on that elevated section of road, posting personnel in them to act as sentries and provide defense if necessary. The Huey was parked on the roof, and a pilot would be available at all times if heavier firepower was needed.

With that accomplished, Jack sent the truck of weapons back to Mayfield with two Hummers to provide an escort. They returned a couple of hours later with a message from the council that weapons training would begin the next day. Jack was aware that they were still several hundred rifles short, not to mention having virtually no pistols or heavier weapons. He decided to spend the rest of the day with a crew of eight and one of the trucks looking for more while the others got the conference area set up for long term occupancy.

Their first stop was the army reserve armory where they’d gotten the SAW’s. Searching the building they counted two hundred thirty M-16’s, and eighty-one M-249’s. Loading these up, along with several hundred cases of ammunition, the group decided to try one of the large gun stores in town to look for pistols and shotguns.

Heading into town, they made their way to ‘Shooting World’, a dealer Jack had visited before the sickness. Arriving at the store they saw that the front windows had been smashed out, but when they got inside they saw that although the glass cases were also broken into, most of the guns seemed to still be in place. Looking through the mess, they found that exposure to the elements hadn’t been kind to most of the weapons. The Glocks looked to be in the best shape, although Jack was loathe to carry one, as they had always felt like power tools in his hand due to the plastic outer construction. Still, they were better than nothing.

Thinking about it, they decided to simply collect everything left in the store. It would have been nice if they could have stuck to one caliber and make of pistol, but they needed so many that this was impossible. They also took every box of ammunition, no matter the caliber. Among the rifles, they selected personal guns, each according to his taste. Butch walked out with a SPAS-12, an Italian made combat shotgun that held nine-twelve gauge shells and had a sling that had twenty-five more. It was a heavy, mean looking thing, all black and with a folding stock, but the grin on the young man’s face as he walked out made everyone chuckle.

Heading back to the terminal for the night, they knew that at least one shop in town didn’t need to be inventoried now, but there were still many more that did.



After the town of Mayfield had been armed, the next thing on Jack’s list was medical supplies. One of the people he’d hand picked for this trip was a middle aged registered nurse named Louise. Out of the people they’d brought in over the summer, they had five paramedics, a handful of EMT’s, one man who’d been a first year intern in an emergency room, and Louise. Talking with her, Jack had learned that most of her experience lay in pediatric medicine and she’d spent three years in the maternity ward as well. This was good news to him, as Pam was due to give birth in the next few weeks, and having someone with experience there was a great reassurance.

Making their way to the nearest hospital one morning, the group was overcome by the sight of so many decomposed corpses. Bodies lay everywhere, some on gurney’s and beds, others on the floor. From the remains of clothing they could tell that a few were medical personnel but the vast majority were ordinary people who had come seeking help as the plague swept through the area. Some of the people who had come with Jack and Louise weren’t able to take it and had to return to the vehicles, but most were able to ignore the sight after a fashion, and help conduct the search for useful items. They took instruments from the emergency room and surgery, and portable equipment of all kinds, including X-ray machines. Finding the pharmacy they discovered that, while some of the drugs had gone bad, the majority were still useful. They also were able to get lab equipment that Louise said she thought they might be able to use to make their own penicillin, as well as use for running tests and such.

When they were finished they’d loaded both tractor trailers and one of the panel trucks, and Jack sent them back to Mayfield, along with an escort.

After the experience at the hospital, nowhere they went bothered them anymore, and the group made quick work of identifying useful items and recording their locations. After two weeks of this, Jack got a call from Robin at the complex, saying that Pam had gone into labor. Quickly gathering Louise, he had Mike fly them back immediately. After checking to see if she were all right and to assure her that he was there, Jack again took up position in the dining room to wait while Louise and Mel attended to his wife.

As he waited, Jack got down on his knees to praise God and thank Him for the blessings He had given him. His first marriage had been childless, which was the main reason it had failed. His wife blamed their inability to have children on him, and eventually left him for another man she hoped would be better able to produce. As he prayed, Jack asked God to help him be a good father to his children, as well as help him lead them well by loving their mother. He was aware that actions spoke louder than words to one’s children, and resolved to always walk his words, whether they could see him or not.

Finally, after what seemed years of waiting, Louise came out and announced to everyone present that he was the father of a healthy baby girl. Grinning like a fool, Jack rushed to Pam’s side and looked upon perhaps the most beautiful sight in the world, his beautiful wife holding their precious daughter in her arms. Leaning over to kiss Pam he told her how much he loved her, and how proud she’d made him. He then gently kissed his daughter, and was overcome as joy filled his heart.

[DocOutlands]

Our Fearless Leader made a major mistake, imo. He ran two convoys (of guns) from Boise back to the complex. If the vehicles were minimally crewed - 1 in the cargo truck, and one driver and one gunner in the Hummvee's - he just shorted his onsite security by 5 trigger-pullers. Now, assuming that loadout on the trucks, he is then shorting his gun-trucks on assistant gunners for handling passing up ammo to the gunners. Effectively, with this assumption, he sent an entire Natl Guard armory's worth of weapons off with only TWO TRIGGER-PULLERS for protection! Anyone with a modicum of training, commo, and mobility would be able to take out the convoy. Since he already KNEW about the Reserves armory, why did he not keep the first group close in until they finished looting that one, as well? Send everything home in one train that way - save two hummvee's from the second group for scouting town. Covering two trucks isn't going to be any measurably more difficult than covering one is.


Another question - what is the mortality rate you are using for the plague?

Another thing - they really need to run into a group of marauders put together of people who have that modicum of training, commo, and mobility - a la Ravenwood. You realize that group is a push-over for a petty dictator with a God-complex, yes? (said group should mainly use horses rather than motorized vehicles, what with a lack of traffic now - after all, sound carries)

Heck, maybe I'll just start a parallel story in another part of the country that uses such a group of bad guys... :D

[Christian for Israel]

go for it, with my blessings. if you're serious i'll help out in any way possible. as i mentioned in the story they're only contacting people with radios and only taking in those who want to join. there's plenty of room in the world to have kingdoms, dictatorships, communes, etc.

mortality was 99.997%...basically the premise is there's around 50,000 people left worldwide after the plague, all the fighting, starvation, suicides, etc.

as for op-sec, you're right. in my defense i wasn't thinking about that when i was writing (all safe in my apartment). were i REALLY in that position i'm sure i would do things differently.

[DocOutlands]

Well, and you gotta consider too that a lot of folks NEVER think that way because they don't HAVE TO. Until you NEED to know something, you likely won;t learn it - from algebra to small-unit tactics.

I happen to enjoy small-unit tactics. :lol:

On mortality rate - is it pretty much completely random in picking those who die? I mean you'd think genetically speaking some families would survive due to just pure genetic hardiness. So - 3 people per 100,000 (more or less). Guess what our local population is? Just over 100,000. That means, post-plague, 3-5 people in this whole freekin area live thru it. And, odds are, they DON'T know each other.

Wow.

Just.....

Wow.


Talk about making you feel like a pimple on the backside of the universe.

But what if the survivors *were* all in one family, hm? Talk about the "Why *us,* God?" questions! THat and the "Who will our kids marry?" conundrum. I mean, right off the bat, they'd have the issue of ...

Well, there I go, starting the story with seeds of conflict.
Hmmmmmmmm.......

[Christian for Israel]

well, you could always have a family that was off hiking in the mountains for a month when it struck...instead of being immune they simply avoided catching it. of course, the question is...did the virus die off after it killed it's last victum, or is it still active somewhere.....

[Christian for Israel]

Chapter 28

The team completed the inventory of Boise by the middle of January. In all they’d found three food warehouses and several grocery stores. Most of the non-perishable food was still good, and even after Jack siphoned off enough to completely restock the complex, there was more than enough food to feed thousands for at least two more years. They’d gone through agricultural warehouses and had enough seed and fertilizer to plant close to half a million acres, along with brand new tractors and farming equipment at farmers co-ops. As there was plenty of arable land around Mayfield, all of this would be useful in getting crops in the ground as soon as winter was over.

The group had also been able to find several hundred new diesel vehicles, mostly trucks and pick-ups, along with many that were used but serviceable. The tanks of stabilized jet fuel at Gowen field were down to fifty thousand gallons, but Jack believed those at Mountain Home AFB would hold a considerable amount as well. This meant the new residents of Mayfield would have transportation and fuel until the enlarging of the garbage converter was completed. That converter was producing around five thousand gallons of oil a week now, which provided just over three thousand gallons of usable diesel fuel after refining. But that was already being used up as the community expanded, and they all knew it would never handle all their fuel needs at its current size. The community was also considering building another converter plant in town, partially to reduce the distance they had to haul the garbage.

Every one living in town now had at least a combat rifle and pistol, but few felt the need to carry guns anymore. This was due in part to the fact that crime was non-existent, and in part to the perceived lack of an outside threat. As most people saw it, the security teams were armed, and people were, for the most part, used to looking to others to keep them safe. In fact, many in the town had not been exposed to guns much before, and if they were asked, would likely say that they didn’t see the need for anyone to have them now.

The next project that the council had approved was the moving of flight operations and training to Gowen field. Jack’s team, along with construction volunteers from town, spent a month building permanent apartment style housing on the second floor of the Boise terminal. These apartments would house flight crews as well as students, and provide a place for incoming refugees to get cleaned up before moving on to town. Jack had been aware during the previous summer that the constant take-offs and landings by the big transports had killed the grass and torn up the ground above his buried landing strip. Worse, the heavy planes had started to break up the runway itself, as it had never been designed for so large a craft in the first place. Moving everything to Gowen would greatly relieve the problems at the shelter, not to mention the constant flow of people through what was essentially his home.

The three flight teams they had going had been run ragged the year before, and as radio contact with other groups had increased, the prospects for the new year looked even worse. They simply needed more pilots and flight teams to keep up. When the council announced that flight training would begin in February, and volunteers were needed, they got more than they knew what to do with. Realizing that this could easily become a full time operation, Jack proposed that his pilots become instructors, and that they be the ones to run the school and train pilots. This was met with enthusiasm, and he was told to go ahead.

With that problem taken care of, the salvage team proceeded to Mountain Home AFB. Primarily looking for aircraft to expand their fleet along with fuel and maintenance facilities, they were startled to find such a modern hospital on the base. Inside, as with the hospitals in Boise, they found the remains of many people, but by now had grown so used to the sight they hardly noticed. The supplies and equipment available there far surpassed anything available elsewhere, and after careful consideration they decided to set up operations there instead of trying to move everything back to town. For one thing most of the best equipment was permanently mounted, and for another the bed space and building infrastructure would be welcome. Setting aside two Black Hawks as air ambulances, the ER intern and several paramedics moved to the base to clean it up and get it set-up, leaving Louise and the EMT’s to handle non-emergency cases at the clinic.

Moving on, the salvage team did find aircraft, but mostly they were F-16 fighters and B-1B bombers. The planes were nice to look at and fun to fly, but not very useful for moving people around. They did find some transports however, including two C-17 Globemasters, and quickly got them running and transferred to the operation in Boise. They also found several mid-air refuelers and toyed with the idea of trying to refuel aircraft in flight. Deciding for the moment that this was simply too risky, and of no real benefit to them right then, they put the idea on the back burner, concentrating on more pressing problems.

At the tank farm they discovered the base had approximately half a million gallons of treated jet fuel, enough to keep them supplied for years. It would probably be usable for three to four years before going bad, which would give them time to get their additional garbage converter up and running. Also by that time, everyone who wanted to join them should already be there, greatly reducing their need for fuel.

Completing their work at the base, the crew spent a couple of days in the town of Mountain Home, but found little that interested them. With the job done, Jack disbanded the salvage crew, and returned to the complex. Several of the crew, led by Butch, requested his permission to move into the shelter permanently. This pleased Jack since he had developed friendships with many of them. Giving his permission as there was now plenty of room, eleven of them moved in, increasing the total in the shelter to forty-one. The rest returned to town, with a few going on to the flight school to try and become pilots.

By the first of May the exodus flights had resumed. Anywhere from twenty to a hundred people a week were arriving. One of the first groups to arrive was from Long Island, NY. Among the three adults and two teenagers was a woman in her mid forties named Sylvia. When the town representative had asked if she were a Christian, the woman had looked down her nose at him and said in an arrogant tone “of course I’m a Christian, I’ve been involved in the church my whole life. Why, right before the sickness I was leading the church in forcing the pastor to resign, as his old style preaching was bothering some of our new members. Can’t have someone running a church who scares off people, just because they’re different, can we?”

Hearing the arrogant tones, the young man just kept his mouth shut. After the woman passed on he looked at her, shaking his head.



Back in Long Island, Sylvia and her group had been slowly starving to death. The others had found her locked inside her home earlier that year, hoarding the little bit of half spoiled food she’d been able to collect. Together they’d managed to find enough to get by on, but just barely.

This was a completely new experience for Sylvia, she’d grown up the daughter of a wealthy Christian family. They’d gone to church since she was little, but never seemed to have any time for her or her brothers and sisters. Desperate for recognition she’d eloped at age sixteen with a guy who was close to thirty. He’d been a small time businessman who was able to grow over the years to be fairly prosperous. Prosperous enough to allow them to move to Long Island, but nowhere near as wealthy as her family. Seeking any way she could find to prove to everyone that she was important too, she’d joined the local Episcopal Church. There she’d found the ground fertile and the congregation open to influence. This was one of the more traditional branches of the church, and Sylvia soon realized that there was a growing movement to modernize it. Getting involved, she discovered she had a surprising ability to sway others to her point of view and used that to establish a base of supporters who would vote her way. That was how she was able to get enough leverage to oust the current pastor.

The pastor had been a very traditional Christian. He didn’t accept the churches new view that unrepentant homosexuals should be accepted into the church, and was even against allowing women to preach. Using his values against him, she had convinced most of the congregation to get rid of him in favor of a more ‘progressive’ leader. What many at the church weren’t aware of however, was that the man she had in mind to fulfill this role was also having an affair with her, which would give her a position of power ‘behind the throne’ as it were, if he was selected.

But then the plague had come, killing her lover and the rest of the church. Amazingly she seemed to be immune, and at first that made her feel superior to the rest of them. But within weeks of their deaths she’d realized that surviving was more torture than anything. Food was scarce, and there was no one around for her to control. Feeling worse than at any time in her life, she had almost given up entirely when Steve and his friends found her.

Now, thanks to Steve’s goofy old friend who’d always been wasting time with those silly radios, they were again among people. Looking about herself as she arrived in the town, she felt there was something here she could work with, and that maybe life would be worth living again soon.



As the summer progressed the number of people in town swelled. Surprisingly, many of the newcomers were young people, most were still teenagers. The reason for this soon became clear however, as they all seemed to have stories of older folks getting into fights over dwindling resources, and killing each other off. Many had also survived as slaves and sexual objects of larger groups, before they’d died attacking each other. Often the younger people were held in secured areas, effectively protecting them from most of the fighting. These young people, once they arrived at Mayfield, had quickly taken advantage of their new status as adults, arming themselves and taking positions in security and among the pilots, intent on never allowing anyone to enslave them again. Many of these new people had gotten to know the instructor pilots as well as the earlier security people. These people were more friendly with Jack and his bunch than many others in town, and the newer youth were able to get to know them as well. They often went to the complex and associated with the people there, having picnics and parties, and simply hanging out.

The pilots had taken a long time to get familiar with the huge C-17 cargo planes, but by early August they announced that they were ready to attempt trans-Atlantic rescue flights. One of the first places they traveled to was England, where they were able to pick up close to five hundred survivors. They were also able to use the island nation as a fueling stop, and from there proceed deep into Europe. By the end of flight operations for the year they’d added close to four thousand people to the town, mostly from Europe.

During the summer and fall, Sylvia had made a tremendous effort to get to know as many people as she could. The younger people from the continental United States hadn’t cared for her and her ideas too much, but those from Europe were much more willing to listen. She had volunteered early on to help get newcomers settled, often meeting them at the airport, and in this way became a representative of sorts, as she was the first person most people met as they arrived. She had bent over backwards to be gracious to them, offering every bit of help she could, ingratiating them to herself. By the time they were done for the winter, she had met nearly half of the people currently residing in the town, and had most of them convinced that she had their best interests at heart.

Getting together with several of the new arrivals, along with some of her older acquaintances, Sylvia commented “what is the deal with that Jack?” she said the name as if it were distasteful.

“What do you mean?” April, an older woman asked.

Sylvia had found she had much in common with April in the past few weeks, they’d both been church matrons and both felt that changes were needed in the town. “Well, for one thing, he’s living with that child. You know, the one that had his baby?”

“Oh, you mean Pam. She’s his wife Syl, there’s nothing going on there.”

“Who says she’s his wife? There isn’t even a proper pastor here. I’ll bet he just shacked up with her and told everyone they were married so no one would say anything.” Sylvia said, with a look of disgust. “And what about that other one, the one with the twins…oh, I know people SAY she was married, but she’s so young. I’d be willing to bet he knocked her up as well. After all, they WERE living all alone in that…that dungeon he likes to stay buried in, for a whole year. Not only that, but have you ever noticed all the young girls living down there with him? I’ll just bet he’s sleeping with all of them.”

April had been living in town for more than a year now, and had never personally seen Jack doing anything inappropriate, but that didn’t mean anything. What Sylvia said made sense, and she DID wonder about a man who’d want to live underground in that old army base…it just didn’t seem right to her. “Do you really think so?” she asked her friend. “You don’t suppose he thinks of them as a harem, do you?”

“Well, I know one thing for sure, no one would make such an effort to bring so many kids here unless he had some unusual reason for it.” Sylvia said, sure that she had the attention of everyone now. She also knew that the things said here would spread rapidly, and before you knew it, rumor would become ‘what everybody knew’.

One of the new people spoke up, “I heard he brought everyone here for some sort of breeding thing, something about needing thousands of breeding age people or something.”

“That’s just what I’m talking about,” Syl said, “he’s bringing all the young girls here to sleep with him. Having ten or twenty wasn’t good enough for him, he wanted as many as he could get. Probably wants to fill the world with his children…like he was God or something…what a pervert!”

The others nodded their heads, surely there must be something to what this woman had said. After all, she was practically a representative of the whole community and all, having greeted each of them personally when they arrived. If she believed something strange was going on here, then likely there was…she was in a position to know, after all.

As the gathering broke up, Sylvia considered the evening’s events with satisfaction. The seeds were planted now, all she had to do was water them and they would grow strong, and soon enough they’d all beg HER to take over the town and run things right. Happily, she made her way home.

Over the next weeks Sylvia heard more and more bizarre stories about Jack and everyone who lived in the complex as the rumors she’d started mutated like she knew they would. As things progressed she started mentioning to all who would listen, which was most people, that it was such a shame that someone like that was in charge of what likely was the last civilized place on earth. The fact that it was Jack who had started gathering everyone together didn’t matter, as long as ‘that pervert’, as people were beginning to refer to him in whispers, was going to act like that with young girls. Some of the rumors had gotten so strong that it was difficult for her to believe there wasn’t some grain of truth there as well. After all, if there weren’t, wouldn’t they simply die out? At least this was the way she reasoned things, and how she justified herself.




Near the end of September, at one of the town meetings that was becoming increasingly popular among the older residents of the town, Sylvia stood and addressed the crowd “ladies and gentlemen, it has come to my attention that the current leaders, both the town council and the position of Mayor, were appointed by a very small minority of our current population. This flies in the face of the way we do things in America, and I propose that we take action to correct the situation.”

“What do you propose we do?” April spoke up from the crowd.

“I propose we hold an election, let everyone have a vote and let their decision stand.”

Immediately April seconded the proposal, and most everyone in the room agreed. The attending council members conferred, then announced that they’d hold elections on October first.

Not being satisfied with that, and acutely aware that most of the young people seemed to have some misplaced loyalty towards Jack, Sylvia continued. “One more thing, when you say everyone should have a vote, surely you don’t mean those children as well?”

One of the council members spoke up, “well, no one below the age of twelve I should think, but for the rest, if they act like adults then we treat them like adults, so yes.”

Looking at the man as if he were obviously either senile or crazy, she said “oh come on now, where did you get such a foolish notion? I mean, it’s obvious that those children can’t vote, they don’t take anything seriously. Look around you, there aren’t any here, and this is where all the decisions are made, right?”

At this, several people looked around themselves. There weren’t any young people there, which seemed to confirm what this woman was saying.

“We are older, and that makes us wiser. We understand the needs of this community far better than children are capable of, and they obviously feel the same way, as they are willing to leave the decisions up to us even now. I propose that no one under the age of twenty-one be allowed to vote. They can be adults if they want, but voting is a serious matter, and takes wisdom to get right.”

Several of those attending spoke up to say “I agree”, or “Hear hear”, or “She has a point”. A few weren’t so sure, but mostly these were new arrivals, and the whole idea of children being equal to them was strange to begin with. After more than an hour of debate, a vote was called for. When hands were raised it was obvious that three quarters of those in attendance were in favor of the measure, and it passed as well.

Finally satisfied with the results of her efforts, Sylvia sat down, smiling smugly to herself.

[DocOutlands]

We have a solution to snakes and other venomous creatures out here on the farm...