Rise From the Ashes: Lena's Story (13 page)

“Oh my god – look!” Lena pointed in excitement.

They were clopping along some quaint cobblestones in front of the aquarium. The science and aquarium building was ringed around with the bumpy stones and the horse’s hooves were striking them and letting off a really old-fashioned sound. The cobbles circled the whole building. To the right ran a road parallel to the lake and the sidewalk they had been traveling up since passing the marina. Right at Echo Aquarium another road came down a huge hill, hitting the area in a 90° angle. Following this road with their eyes, they watched as it led straight away from the lake and up an incline lined with old, historic homes.

This view was not what had grabbed Lena’s attention. North of them, further along the lake there was no sidewalk anymore, but a cobblestone walkway along the lake. It was wide, like a boardwalk along the sea, only it was just a block long. To the right of the boardwalk were adult sized swing sets. Behind them was park, and forward just after the boardwalk was more park. This is where Lena was looking. About 3 blocks ahead in the open park land, close to the lake’s shore, was a spot that was obviously set up for an open air fire.

The bonfire of their visions; on the beach of a huge lake.

Chapter Twelve

Major Brent Morna turned out to be even better than Lena had hoped for. He was tall, slim and muscular. He had black hair. A strong face with hazel eyes. Even though it had been well over a month since the dirty bombs hit, he had kept his hair in a buzz cut. He was in a tight-fitting army uniform. He had those colored bars people called ribbons over one pocket. Lena had no idea why anyone would call a bar shaped decoration a ribbon, but whatever. She certainly didn’t have a doubt that Major Morna earned those ribbons by some kind of brave act. He had keen, sharp eyes and with a brisk motion commanded Mick to stand in front of him. They snapped a salute to each other almost at the same time.

Lena was waiting for the Major to start right in badgering Mick about his hair, which was now well longer than any buzz cut.

“I’m glad you made it son. I was expecting you about a week ago, so we were getting worried around here. Mills radioed in to tell me you were headed up here with a group.” He turned to Lena and the others who were all just standing there holding their horses. “Nice to see you all here. If you want to start walking your horses up the hill a way, there is a spot midway up there that we turned into our stables. Up and off to the left. I’d like to debrief Private Buckner in private if you don’t mind. We will be down for lunch and we can all get to know each other then.”

He turned and marched away, disappearing inside Echo. Like a true leader, he had not waited for discussion or agreement. Mick gave a small nod to Lena and followed after his superior officer. Lena felt like she had just been dismissed. But along with that feeling she felt safe. It was as if Major Morna was a gruff father figure. She felt she could count on him if any danger threatened. So she didn’t hesitate for more than a second before she started up the hill and she already saw some guys heading down toward them. They had a few hours until lunch so they may as well learn all the ins and outs of the stable and where things were kept and get their horses all settled in. She didn’t know about the others, but she knew that she had grown to really like Clint and she also knew for sure that Mick adored Lady. So she would make sure they were tucked away safe with full bellies.

Major Brent Morna was no slacker. Mick had been sitting across from him for two hours now, and was pretty sure every bit of information about the towns, people and criminals they had passed had been picked out of him. So far nothing had come up to give him a hint about the enhanced abilities that Mick and Lena had discovered, nor of the visions. Major Morna had not asked any questions about this. That was good, because until he knew this guy better, Mick was not going to share that and he instinctively really liked Major Morna. He did not want to have to lie to him.

Lunch was set up in a little cafeteria on the lower floor of Echo, it had a deck and it really was fantastic to eat and watch the water and look out at the autumn trees while being sheltered from the cool wind. A few other soldiers joined them for lunch. Lena looked around but didn’t see Sergeant Mills. After lunch Mick filled his group in on the basics.

For right now he was to be on watch duty for ½ a day and to train at drills and skills for the other ½ a day. The military group had complete control of most of Burlington and Williston. Major Morna was the highest ranking soldier there, and therefore was the commander. At least until someone who outranked him showed up.

They really had a sweet set up in the city. Because Vermont had been on the cutting edge of solar and wind power, it seemed like at least 20% of the homes and businesses still had power! The rest of the world may be dark, but
they
still had energy. This was why they had working radios. They could easily recharge the batteries and keep other necessities of communication going. Lena was going to enjoy checking into all that was available. It was going to be awesome to have lights at night, but right now they were being told to keep to a blackout schedule, no lights once it really got dark out – for safety’s sake and to keep from being a big beacon if there were enemies flying overhead. One bonfire would look natural, a city all aglow with light like cities used to be was just a target for a bomb. Still, Lena was looking forward to finding a way to set up a Movie Night. That and a hot bubble bath.

In the meantime, they could all go looking for homes that were vacant and set up a house for the winter. They were supposed to look for houses that had a woodstove; a fireplace would not work for a bigger house, just a small cottage type of place. Then they could report back to the base secretary the address they were going to settle in. They were to mark their front door with a red ribbon, or paint the whole thing red, so any others looking would know that house was taken.

Every so often, if they had the man power, they would take back more of the city from the little gangs that were claiming areas to the south and east. It seemed that people were giving up their homes and sneaking into the military zone daily to get away from the gangs. The gangs didn’t kill for fun, but they were mean and it was dangerous if a glorified gang leader started to think any person in ‘their’ area was not a part of them or connected to them in some way. So it certainly wasn’t a place for families or people who just wanted to live a normal or peaceful life.

Any people that did manage to come to the military zone were kept separate and given an orientation by specialists, these were men trained to train soldiers and also psychiatrists. They were vetting the people to see if they were spies or something along that line before they let them free inside their safety zone. Mick had vouched for the people with him. Since he had been traveling with them for a long time and seen them under stress, he knew for sure they were reliable and his opinion seemed to be enough.

Any athletic types that passed the orientation were encouraged, but not forced, to join the military in order to help rotate lookout positions and keep the zone safe. For the most part, the gangs knew the military zone was armed with good weapons and people who knew how to use them. They were not interested in busting in so long as they could be boss over their little piece of the world.

The other task the soldiers had was to winterize Burlington: the colony so to speak. They were setting up a few warehouses with non-perishable food stuffs. They were putting enough hay in watertight garages and sheds to feed not only the many horses they now had, but also cattle. They said there were a few dairy barns on the outskirts of town that they were going to include in their circle soon. That everyone there would have fresh milk and cheese throughout the winter but everyone had to do their part as far as work went. All skills were expected to be used. It was lucky that the dirty bombs hit toward the end of the year because any farmers out there not killed by Taliban or criminals would have already put up hay for the year and stocked up woodpiles. Major Morna was in high hopes that come spring they would be meeting many of these farmers and filling them in on what was going on and expanding the safety zone as they moved on south. Most farmers may not have had solar panels or wind turbines but they were closer to the rhythm of the earth. They knew what was important to have stocked up and how to live out a winter storm. This may be a long and hard winter for them, but most farmers would make it with most of their animals alive as long as they were not attacked by people.

Lena had listened to most of this as Mick had been talking. She noticed Major Morna come strolling up. He had caught just the last part of the talk about the farms.

“So what do you call yourself?”

“Major Morna.” He looked right into her eyes. She hadn’t been clear with her question, but the edge in her voice had been clear enough.

“I mean, your position here in Burlington. What would you call that?”

“Right now I would call that the Commanding Officer, what the soldiers call The CO.”

He left his words hanging. Seeing if she would continue her challenge.

“Isn’t there a mayor here?”

“No.”

“Is the President of the United States alive?”

“Not that I know of.”

“Have you talked to anyone higher up in the army than you are?”

“No.”

“So you are the highest ranking person in the whole United States?”

“It seems so at this time.”

So far Major Morna had not broken eye contact with Lena, and she in turn was locked onto him with her piercing green eyes.

“I think it is very important that the military be directed by a civilian in power.”

“I do too.”

Lena was pleasantly surprised at that answer, given so quickly and honestly.

“Really? So if we elected a new President you would follow his orders?”

“That’s fair to say. We would need a checks and balances system so that this future President wouldn’t turn into a power hungry loon.” He finally allowed a smile to play over his lips.

Lena grinned at him.

“So, did I pass?”

“Yes, Major, you did. I guess you could have been calling yourself the President of the United States. Then we would have had a problem. But I’m going to hold you to what you just said when we get a good President again.”

“I hope you do.”

Mick had gone from tense to relaxed back to tense during this exchange. He was smart enough to know this was an important issue. Military commanders had a history of going rogue and becoming dictators stretching back more than 2,000 years. So he was glad about this answer too. He also knew this was really what Lena was going to be good at – finding the ways to get a new, solid, safe society set up again.

At their first bonfire that night Lena picked up the thread with Sergeant Mills now part of their group. “You know, I bet there are lots of little places with gangs. Each one with a leader. Lots of little towns like Ferrisburg with a strong Sheriff or local cop or whatever type of leader. Each one of these places is surviving and creating their own little network of relationships. Each one is going to like how they helped to form things. They are going to like how they have recreated their little piece of the world.”

“Sounds about right to me,” mumbled Ed.

Mick gave her a ‘go ahead’ look.

“The thing is, they won’t be wrong. They will have created a little micro-country where they all agree to the rules. They will be happy with the ways things are. The problem will be if the Taliban is still around, or China or some freaky drug lord is still around who may come in and try to take over. They may have tanks, and will for sure have automatic guns and stuff like that. Don’t you think?”

“Yeah.”

“Yes, I’d thought a little about that already.”

“You guys are depressing,” Doug complained. “But I think you are right, this is a real danger and we should have some sort of plan and way to keep fighting them back.”

“Right, but just us here in Burlington? Or keep the whole Eastern United States safe? Right now we can barely keep one decent sized city safe. I think we need a Republic System. I set up the ground work when we were in Ferrisburg. I’ve been thinking about this even more the last few days. We have to have a basic set of laws – our new constitution. Then each of the other places can make their own laws as long as they don’t go against the few Federal laws. Each place, so far I’ve been calling them Republic Towns, each R-Town will have to support the Federal Army with people, supplies or some kind of contribution to make sure we are all safe. It will be very similar to the old United States, but we won’t have money or taxes. I’m still working out the details, but we have to be united in some form in order to make sure we are
all
defended.”