The Journal: Crimson Skies: (The Journal Book 3) (20 page)

“Yeah. Eric tests it every day, calling
Rayn.” He poked his brother in the ribs.

Eric shrugged. “What can I say? I really like
her.”

“Jason, stop teasing your brother!” I had to
smile. I dialed the private number Colonel Andrews had given
me.

“What a pleasant surprise, Allexa. What can I
do for you?”

“We’ve been invited out to Mathers Lake for
dinner tomorrow and I was wondering if you and a few of your men
would like to go with us? Oh, and Rayn, too,” I added when I got a
panicked look from Eric.

“I think we can use the break. This storm is
still sitting on top of us and creating all kinds of havoc.”

“I’m still hearing distant thunder and seeing
flashes of lightning, though I thought it would have moved off by
now. What kind of problems?”

“Fires mainly, and isolated flooding. The
rain isn’t hitting us directly, or it might help put out the fires.
Seems it’s raining inland, but moving downriver right at us.” Jim
sighed on the other end of the line. “What few firefighters that
are left are being hampered by flooded streets, so whenever the
lightning starts a new blaze, they can’t get to it. They’ve managed
to contain most of it, though that’s about it. What time is dinner
and how many men do you want me to bring?”

“Dinner is at two o’clock, and I think six
personnel will be sufficient, but,” I hesitated, “can you bring
some new faces? Besides Rayn, of course.”

“Ah, you want to keep Collins thinking there
are more of you than there are, right?”

“I can’t fool you,” I laughed and hung
up.

~~~

“Fires? From the lightning? Wow, I guess we
really lucked out that this storm passed us with no real damage,”
Jason said.

We all sat around their kitchen table
discussing tomorrow’s events.

“Well, the Colonel did say they had them
mostly contained, so maybe it isn’t all that bad,” I said.

“Fire can get out of hand in a heartbeat,”
Mark commented. “And then no matter how many people are fighting
it, the fire will win.”

“Let’s get back to our situation, okay?
Besides the Colonel, there will be five new faces, plus Rayn.
Jason, do you and Amanda want to come with us this time? And what
about the kids?”

“Yes, I’d like to go,” Amanda was quick to
say. “It would be nice to meet someone new.”

“I think we should leave the kids here. I
don’t like the idea of possibly putting them into danger or maybe
in the midst of a hostage situation,” Eric said. “Once we feel
these people out in a social setting, maybe next time.”

We all agreed the children would stay home,
with Ken, Karen, Joshua, and one of Jim’s soldiers.

October 12

“I’m glad you could make it, Allexa, Doctor,”
Art Collins greeted us, balancing on the crutches Eric had loaned
him, his casted arm resting in a sling attached to the crutch.

“Thank you for the invitation, Mr. Collins,”
I said looking around at his spacious house. “Nice place you have
here.”

“Thank you, I designed it myself ten years
ago.”

“Ten years ago? You mean this is
your
house?” Mark asked.

Collins ignored the implied accusation. I
think we all assumed he was a squatter and had taken over the
nicest house.

“Please, have a seat and allow me to explain
our situation here,” he said, being a polite host.

“Before we do,” Mark interrupted, “would you
mind if I checked over Claire’s incision? Somewhere private of
course.” I helped Claire stand and she led us to one of the guest
rooms.

“That’s starting to heal quite nicely,
Claire,” Mark observed, when she lifted her baggy shirt. “The
swelling is already much less. Come to the clinic in another week
and I’ll take the stitches out.”

“Thank you again, Dr. Robbins. I actually
feel better. I didn’t realize I was feeling bad, sick-like, until I
started to feel better. Could the tumor have been poisoning me or
something?”

“Anything’s possible, Claire. I am quite
pleased that your health is improving.” Mark flashed her a sincere
smile.

When we rejoined the group, Collins was
passing out mugs of warmed cider.

“I should probably start from the beginning,”
he began.

We all sat on the comfortable furniture. The
overstuffed couch was a pleasant plaid pattern of greens, blues,
and beige, with the side chairs in a matching deep hunter green.
The end tables were a sturdy heavy dark oak. It was all nicely
appealing.

“I know you think I just showed up and took
over here, grabbing the nicest house on the block,” he smiled
ruefully. “My grandfather was Anthony Mathers, hence Mathers Lake.
He purchased this land a hundred years ago. He was young, but he
had great vision. There is a cabin on the other side of the lake
that is the original homestead. When my mother Lilly married Abe
Collins, Gramps gave her this side of the lake and half of the
land, three hundred and twenty acres. When he died, she inherited
the rest.”

“Your grandfather bought a whole section of
land? Wow,” Jason remarked.

“She and my father sold much of it to the
Resort at a good profit, and kept the lake and a hundred acres
around it. I grew up here, roaming the woods as a child.” He smiled
as some pleasant memories seemed to intrude on his dissertation. He
took a sip of his cider before going on. “When Claire and I married
fifteen years ago, they gave it to me, and retired to Florida. I
was fresh out of graduate school with a degree in architecture.
What better way to practice my new profession than to build our own
home?”

Just then we were interrupted by a young man
whispering something to Collins.

“Ah, dinner is ready. I will continue as we
eat.” He stood, leading us into a formal dining room. “With so many
of you attending I’m afraid most of my extended family will be
dining in the kitchen. There isn’t enough room at this table, big
as it is. My mother loved to entertain and often had this table
filled with friends every weekend. I’m not as gracious of a host as
she was. I never have been - I like my privacy. But I love this
table so I brought it here after she passed. It reminds me of
her.”

The table was set with a simple setting, and
did include cloth napkins. Although it was a lovely touch, there
were few paper products available, and many of us had fallen back
on the old ways out of necessity. There was a platter filled with
sliced turkey, and another with what I found out was smoked goose.
A basket of corn muffins sat on either end of the table. We have
bread, they have cornbread, and I found it to be a treat. There was
a bowl full of corn on the cob, cut into thirds to stretch the
servings, and a bowl of steaming stewed apples.

“I certainly hope the rest of your family is
eating this well, Mr. Collins. It looks and smells wonderful,” Mark
commented, spearing a slice of goose.

“No one here goes hungry, though we certainly
don’t eat this elaborately every day,” he answered. “I understand
you have children, Allexa. May I ask why you didn’t bring them? We
have four here under the age of fourteen; they were looking forward
to some new playmates.”

I heard a few snickers around the table, and
Mark coughed, trying to suppress his laugh.

“Oh, I did bring them, Mr. Collins,” I said
with a straight face. “The two young men sitting to your left are
my sons. However, we did leave the two grandchildren at home, well
protected. They’re ten and twelve and we didn’t know if they would
have anything to do here during our visit. Perhaps another time
they can come too.” I smiled and made eye contact, letting him know
there were more adults back in our community, and that our
children’s safety was of high priority.

“You wear your age well,” he said. He munched
on some cornbread and then set it aside. “I won’t bore you with all
the details of our lives over the past five years, but this is an
intentional community. Over the years I kept building small homes
here as a retreat of sorts, and carefully selecting those I felt
would fit in. My group is of the beans and bullets mentality,
though I should have listened more to my wife and stored more
beans, not to mention rice. That was a real treat, by the way.

“This spring we did plant an extensive
garden. We realized we were really short on certain supplies, so we
raided the Resort and took every bit of food we could find. I think
raid is a harsh term – there wasn’t anyone there, and hasn’t been
since the first quake.

“My friends are all of the survivalist
mindset, though I prefer to call ourselves isolationists. We only
want to be left alone, although we are well prepared to defend what
we have.”

“Well, I can understand that. We want to be
left alone too, but we also understand there are times when that
isn’t practical, like when someone gets injured,” I replied.

“That has been made abundantly clear,”
Collins laughed. “And I now agree, which is why I invited all of
you here today. I would like to make amends for my rude treatment
before, and see what we can do about setting up some kind of
trade.”

“I’d like that,” I said, smiling warmly, as
the same young man came by and quickly removed our empty
plates.

“Doctor, have you thought more about your
‘terms’ for medical treatment?” Collins asked.

“I’ve been working on it. I think one of the
terms for an overnight stay at the hospital of more than one night
is food. It needs to be either replaced or furnished,” Mark
stated.

“That’s more than reasonable. If you like, I
can make up a box to replace what Claire and I ate,” Collins
offered.

“Not necessary. I would say this meal more
than took care of what we provided. And personally speaking, the
smoked goose was excellent,” Mark complimented. “I think too, that
I’m going to limit my services to mainly injuries or other physical
issues, like maternity care. If someone gets a cold or comes down
with the measles, there’s nothing I can do to help anyway, so that
person would need to be cared for at home, also to limit exposure
to others.”

“Another reasonable term. What about
payment?” Collins got right to the point.

“I was thinking of service for service. What
you might have to offer, I don’t know, so we can let it coast for
now,” Mark answered.

“Mr. Collins, if you don’t mind, I’d like to
know how you rode out the ash fall. Did you even know about it?” I
asked.

“Oh, yes, we knew. One of the members here,
Nathan, is a Ham operator. His set up is quite impressive and
because we considered all possibilities, his equipment has its own
solar array for power. From the first rumblings, he monitored
several channels collecting information. We grouped all of our
members into three housing units to ride out the ash. I feel
incredibly fortunate that we were spared. Barely, but spared,”
Collins paused. “I understand Moose Creek didn’t fare as well.”

“I think I’ve thought of a service that you
could provide for us that will pay your debt to me,” Mark smiled.
“We have a Ham radio and tower set up at one of the houses in our
compound, and no one knows how to use it. Will this Nathan be
willing to teach one of us?”

“I can guarantee he would do that! I think
I’m going to like this barter system,” Collins laughed. “Now, what
can I trade you for some of that rice?”

~~~

“I must admit that all went better than I
expected,” Jim Andrews commented over a finger of iced vodka once
we arrived back home.

We didn’t stay much longer at Mathers Lake
once we arranged a time for Nathan to come here, with Lenny, to
begin teaching Joshua how to use the Ham radio.

“Yes, it did. I was fairly certain that all
we needed to do was to appeal to fairness in trade, and he would
come around. Art Collins is not stupid and he does have the best
interest of his people in mind. Now we need to work out what we can
barter and what we won’t.”

“Well, thank you again for including me in
this, Allexa, Mark. Now it’s time for me to collect my people and
get back to Marquette. I can hear the thunder still going on from
here, and it has me concerned.” Jim sighed, downing the remnants of
his drink.

October 14

“Mark, will you come outside with me for a
few minutes?” I called into the house. I had finished closing up
the chickens for the night when I noticed something very odd.

“What is it, Allex?” he asked joining me out
on the lawn as he slipped a jacket on.

I took him by the hand and led him out on to
the quiet street, walking north away from the houses. We turned,
looking south.

“Look at the sky,” I said, pointing.

“It looks… reddish,” he said, perplexed. “The
setting sun?”

“Red, yes, but it’s over the area where
Marquette is, and that’s southeast, not west. I wonder if that’s
from the fires Jim was talking about.” There was another flash of
lightning in the crimson colored sky and a rumble of thunder
followed less than a minute later. Suddenly there was a rapid
succession of lightning bolts and flashes and the rumbles seemed to
be non-stop.

“Wow, I wonder if that’s what we looked like
when the storm hit us that hard,” I commented. “I don’t want to
call it impressive, but it sure is a sight to behold!”

October 15

The four hours of clinic time were
uneventful, but we stayed the entire time since Mark had promised.
Around one o’clock, Lenny and Nathan stopped by when they saw our
car in the parking area.

“There was no way to let you know we’d be by
today. Mr. Collins thought it best if we got your radio up and
running as soon as possible so we could have a means of
communication,” Nathan said. He was a plain man, perhaps forty
years old, sandy hair and brown eyes, the kind that blended into a
crowd.