Dark Coup (17 page)

“Let’s GO!”  Kyle hollered as he rounded the front of his SUV.

…

“And here we are,” Kyle said as he pulled onto the grounds of the abandoned Benton County Airport.  This was one of the areas that had been scouted out a couple of weeks after they’d arrived at the park, and then checked on periodically thereafter.  Remarkably, it had remained deserted…until now.  Kyle was surprised that Mallory hadn’t moved at least some of the Black Hawks up here, but she hadn’t, and as far as he was concerned this was now home.

Kyle pulled around the runway and then stopped before driving out into the fields of grass surrounding the airport.  The grass wasn’t quite knee-high at this point in the summer, but Kyle had visions of hot catalytic converters starting a hundred fires and burning everyone out of their new home, and their trailers, within minutes of parking.

Once everyone was stopped and out of their vehicles, he pulled them all together for a quick pow-wow.

“This was a bit of a lucky break,” Kyle started, “but we’re still going to have to do some work before we can drop the trailers.  After we cut down this grass, we’re going to set up in the fields around the runway.”  Kyle pointed to the overgrown areas to the northwest, north, and northeast of the runway.

…

“So, what’re the plans for tomorrow,” Amanda asked.

Kyle shrugged, more in resignation than because he didn’t know.  “More of the same,” he said.  “We have a pretty good head start because we have food and a warm, dry place to sleep.  The one thing this location lacks is a really good water supply.  There’s some, but not a lot.  We need to work on a way to maximize what there is and minimize waste.”

“You keep saying
we
,” one of the members of the group that came out with them said.  Kyle hadn’t even come close to learning who everyone was yet and was just now realizing how much he relied on someone’s name being front and center on their chest.

“Clint said we,” they continued, “sometimes.  It sounds different when you say it, though.”

Kyle didn’t know where this was headed, but the comment had made him a little uncomfortable.  “I’m sorry, I’m horrible with names.  I’m used to everyone having their last name sewn on their shirt.  What was your name,” Kyle asked, keeping his voice casual.

“James,” he said.  “James Dalton, but everyone calls me Jim.”

“Well, Jim,” Kyle said, “I can’t speak for how things were run where Clint was involved, because I wasn’t there.  I can tell you that when I say we, I mean
we
.  I also really don’t mean to be in charge.  Eric and I knew about this place and figured it was big enough to hold us all so we would head this direction and see if it was still free.  We saw that some things needed to be done and…”

Kyle shrugged his shoulders again and this time he realized why he was uncomfortable.  He really was in charge of this group, at least for the time being, and nobody was questioning it.  Eric hadn’t pulled rank and nobody in the group had stepped up since there didn’t seem to be a need.

“And there isn’t someone else above me giving orders for me to carry out,”
Kyle thought.  He wasn’t just in charge of a squad or a platoon and reporting back up.  He was well and truly in charge.

Kyle took a deep breath before he continued.  “I guess I
am
also a little used to being in charge,” Kyle finally said, “If I see something that needs to get done, I try to take care of it.  As a Sergeant in the Army, I also wouldn’t ask my men to do something I wasn’t capable of and willing to do right alongside them.”

Kyle shook his head slightly.  “Not everyone is like that,” he said, “but that’s how I worked and, well, I’ve only been out of the Army for about five hours so, bear with me.  Old habits die hard.”

That got a chuckle from the group and a smile from Amanda.

…

“Forty-one trailers,” Eric said.  “I say we break it up into three groups of seventeen.  Not so many in one spot that they’ll be crowded, but enough people that any one group should be able to protect itself for a short time or provide support for the others.”

“How do we break them up,” Amanda asked.

“Funny you should ask that,” Eric said.  “You know everyone here–some better than others–but you know everyone that came with us.  I think we need a fair mix in each group; don’t put all of the families together, or all the single people or couples in one group, that sort of thing.”

Amanda nodded and bit the corner of her lip–her thinking face.  “Give me an hour or so,” she said, “and I think I can have a list for you of each group.”

“Sounds good,” Eric said, and turned to leave.

“Eric,” Amanda said, before he had gotten more than a couple of steps away.  “I know it’s soon, really soon, but is there anyone I should…avoid, or, uhm,
not
avoid putting you in a group with?”

Eric was a bit surprised by the question but realized that Kyle must have talked to her about Karen.

“Thank you,” Eric said.  “I appreciate the concern, but I’m not looking for anyone right now.  I’ll be fine wherever you put me.”

Chapter Eighteen

July 2, 2013 - Promised Land Army Base, Natchez Trace State Park, Tennessee

“Are you sure,” Joel asked, for what was probably the fiftieth time.

“No, Joel,” Ty said, “I’m not sure, but at this point I don’t see any harm.  The quarantine has held, nobody else has gotten sick in two weeks, and you haven’t shown any signs of illness the entire time.”

Rachael had been virtually isolated with less than half-a-dozen people for almost five weeks, and though they had been able to talk to each other every day by radio, they hadn’t seen each other since the quarantine began.  The kids seemed to be weathering the separation just fine, but he just didn’t do well when they were apart for long stretches.  It was one of the reasons he used to hate going on business trips.

“Go,” Ty said.

As much as Joel wanted to drive to Redemption, he couldn’t justify the fuel and was forced to walk.

…

Rachael was in the middle of cleaning up from lunch when there was a knock on the door.  For the last, almost six weeks now, hardly anyone had knocked.  The isolation zone around the four cabins they were using had held, and everyone had taken to simply announcing their presence a few seconds before they opened the front door–Rachael included.

Millie looked up, but didn’t growl or head over to the door–so it was someone that she knew and didn’t have a problem with.

Rachael’s heart was in her throat as she slowly walked to the front door.  There wasn’t a peephole, nor were there windows on either side of the door.  She hadn’t talked to Joel or the kids since yesterday afternoon.  What if something had happened?

“Who,” Rachael started to ask, when her voice cracked and she had to clear her throat.  “Who is it?”

“It’s me,” Joel said from the other side.

Rachael closed her eyes, put her hand to her mouth and whispered, “Thank you, God.”

“Uh,” Joel started, “can I come in?”

Rachael threw open the door, but stopped just short of letting it bang against the wall.  Aurora was asleep, and the last thing she wanted to do was wake up a napping baby.  She did throw her arms around her husband in a choking embrace.

“I. missed. you. so. much.” she said.

Joel buried his face in his wife’s hair and started to weep.  “I missed you too,” he said.

Behind them, a small crowd had gathered at the arrival of the Hummer that had picked Joel up about a mile out of town and they erupted into cheers and applause.  This meant that the women and one family that had chosen to go into isolation with Rachael were finally free to move about, they hoped.

“The kids,” Rachael asked, as she finally pulled back far enough to look at Joel.

“They’ll be here later this afternoon,” Joel said.  “They’ve missed their friends, too, so they’re getting caught up before they come home.  Is Aurora sleeping?”

Rachael nodded.

“Good,” Joel said with a wink.

Rachael laughed and then saw Dan walking down the road and waved.

“I see Joel beat me to it,” Dan yelled and jogged the rest of the way to the cabins.

Cheers erupted from the crowd again.

“The quarantine and isolation are officially lifted,” Dan said and held up his hands to keep the cheering from starting again.  “I see Rachael isn’t holding Aurora, so that means she’s taking a nap.  Let’s keep the celebrating to a dull roar.”

There were sheepish chuckles from the crowd, and a few blushes, but most everyone cheered again…quietly.

“I’m really glad that’s over,” Dan said, “and it’s good to see you again.”

“It’s good to be seen,” Joel said and looked at Rachael.  “By everybody.”

“By the way,” Dan said.  “Do you know why we had the volunteers for isolation that we did?”

“No,” Joel said, after a second, with a quizzical look on his face.

Dan smiled.  “Most of the women are pregnant,” he said, “and they wanted to give themselves and their babies the best chance with this,” Dan waved his arms, “going on.”

Joel took a deep breath.  “How many,” he asked.

“Seven,” Dan said.

“Wow,” Joel said and shook his head, slightly stunned.  “I knew it would happen eventually, but, wow.”

“It’s an affirmation of life,” Dan said.  “People get married and, even in tough times, they want to start a family.”

Joel nodded and looked at Rachael again, “That’s pretty much what we did,” he said.  “We really had no right having kids as early as we did but that didn’t stop us.”

“Same,” Dan said with a smile.  “Poor as church mice and living in a basement apartment, and Marissa and I did the same thing.  Anyway, I’ll leave you two alone.  Good to have you back, though.”

…

“Do you think I can ride it today,” Bekah asked.

The girls were excited because it was the first time they were going to visit the horses in almost two months.  Their last visit had been pretty spectacular since they had been there for the birth of a foal.  By now, the foal would be almost eight-weeks old.

“No, honey,” Marissa said.  “He won’t be ready to ride for quite awhile.  He’s probably grown a lot since you saw him last, but he’s not strong enough to carry you yet.”

“How ‘bout me,” Jessie asked.

“No,” Marissa said, “not you either.  I’ll see if you can ride one of the other horses, though.  But no promises, and no pouting if I say no.”

Jessie and Bekah nodded in unison.

Marissa was looking forward to the break in routine and, just like the kids, getting away from town for even a few hours.  Dan was stuck working out some medical stuff, but she was going to take any chance that presented itself.

“Got your backpacks,” Marissa asked.  Bekah nodded and Jessie turned around to show that she was wearing hers.  Seeing the backpacks was a bittersweet reminder of everything they’d endured to get here in the first place, and the almost crushing loss when they’d been robbed in the middle of the night on the side of the road.  When some of the items that had been taken were returned, including the girls’ backpacks, it had brought a lot of the emotions from their trek back to the surface.

“Water bottles full,” Bekah said and Jessie nodded.

“Let’s go then,” Marissa said.  “It’s a couple of miles and it’s going to be warm today.”

…

Travis Gibson had started out with a couple dozen horses when the power went out and had taken on another ten within a week or so when people realized it wasn’t coming back on.  Over the last year, through breeding and acquisition, he’d increased the size of his herd to just over a hundred.  He’d realized fairly early on that people would most likely need horses for everything from transportation to working the fields and he’d seized the opportunity.

Keeping them all fed was Travis’s biggest problem now, but a recent agreement with some of the local farmers to plant their fallow fields with alfalfa for the winter should hopefully take care of that.  The ranch was up to three-hundred acres now–broken into three hundred-acre paddocks–and it seemed like he was building new stables all the time.

When the Army base that had sprung up in the middle of Natchez Trace approached him about purchasing some of his horses, he’d been open to the possibility but didn’t really have enough of them to make it worth his–or their–while.  They had, however, been willing to let him use one of their portable saw mills in return for being first in line for some horses once his herd was large enough.  They were also supplying a fair amount of labor, since almost ninety of the horses needed to be ridden, curried, combed and otherwise taken care of, just about every day.

Travis saw the girls and Marissa heading to the stables and met them part way.

“Looks like the quarantine’s lifted,” he said.

“Finally,” Marissa said, with only a touch of feigned melodrama.  “I honestly don’t know how people did it back before long distance travel was easier and communication to just about anywhere was as simple as picking up a phone.”

Travis chuckled.  “I’m guessing,” he said, “it’s because they just didn’t know any different.”

Travis squatted down to be at eye level with the girls.  “So, you girls want to see J.B.,” he asked.

“Who,” Bekah asked.

“The foal that was born the last time you were here,” Travis said.  “You were the only ones from the town that were here, and we were running out of names.  ‘Horse’ was already taken and we couldn’t call
him
Bekah now, could we?”

Bekah and Jessie both giggled.

“We figured we’d name him after both of you,” Travis continued, “and one of the ranch hands came up with J.B.”

“You didn’t have to do that,” Marissa said.

Travis shrugged.  “We really did need a name,” he said and then dropped to a whisper, “and it could just as easily stand for ‘just barely’ since we almost lost him later that night.  Besides, look at them.”

The girls were grinning from ear to ear and obviously excited to go see ‘their’ horse.

“Let’s go,” Travis said.  “He should be back in his stall with his mother.  Now, just like always, you need to be careful and listen and do exactly as I say.  He’s still a baby and his mother can be very protective of him, just like your mom.”