We Go On (THE DELL) (12 page)

We determined the cottage to be a two bedroom home with a
kitchen, living room, and bathroom that would be perfect for the two of us. I
could tell Kat loved the place as much as I did and determined then and there
that this would be our new home once we moved to The Dell. There was plenty of
room in the village for all of our people, and then some. I only felt a small
amount of guilt as I took a page from the note pad I carried and wrote,
'Property of Scott and Kat Williams’ and stuck it in the crack between the door
and jamb.

After a last glance at our happy little cottage we made our
way back to the main road and arrived just in time for the appearance of the
first three loads of T-Walls. John Hendricks had maneuvered the crane to a
point where he could start unloading the huge concrete barriers. I got my first
look and I had to agree they were formidable. Two feet thick reinforced
concrete, twenty-foot tall. I could understand now how they withstood car bomb
blasts. I couldn't suppress the smile that spread across my face just looking
at them. I was sure we would be safe behind a wall of those things.

Jim and L.B. were both overseeing the setting of the first
of the barriers. They had decided it would be best to start at what would be
the gate and work their way around. The backhoe would level the ground and a
T-wall would be placed. Then the next, and so on, until they met back at the
gate, trying to keep four equal sides as much as possible. It appeared that
they had the situation well in hand and I asked Jim if he intended to spend the
night here, to which he replied yes. I told him with that being the case, I’d
take one of the gun trucks and head back to the Lebanon compound and get
started organizing his big shopping trip. I also told him about the little
house in the trees and that I had laid claim to it. Just in case someone else
had the same idea. He handed me his completed shopping list and I gathered Kat
and the security guys and we loaded in the truck and left.

I had been concerned about driving back to Lebanon by
ourselves but the trip turned out to be uneventful and we were soon inside the
fenced in compound. Once back, I found Dave as quick as I could. He had been
making his rounds of the perimeter, talking with the guards, and checking that
everything was in order. I caught up to him as he came back from the gate. He
said he had seen the single truck come in and wondered who it was. I told him
that we needed to organize the foraging trips into Lebanon and showed him the
shopping list given me by Jim.

"Wow! There's a lot of stuff on here. What do we do
with it?"

I told him the trucks, once loaded would go straight to The
Dell and unload. We didn't have any more Humvee's so we would have to use
pickups and a few of the remaining security people to watch over the trips. He
agreed with my plan and said he'd get it set up. I told him that in addition to
what he had on the shopping list, I wanted to start stocking up on anything and
everything we might need once we made the move to the Dell. He said okay and
asked if I could give him an idea of what I meant. I told him we would need all
the same household-type items we had used before with the exception of a lot of
electronic stuff. We would need dishes, pots and pans, cleaning supplies,
clothes, hand tools, nails, screws, and wood for building. I also told him to
find wood burning stoves. Most of the houses we checked had fireplaces and some
already had wood burning stoves for heat, but not all. The houses that didn't
would need them if we were going to survive the winter. He nodded in
understanding. "In short, if I think it can be used you want me to take
it?" he asked.

"Right on. Take any vehicles you think you might need
and as many people as you think prudent. Take the stuff straight to The Dell.
Jim will show you where to unload it,” I answered.

"How many trips a day?"

I thought a minute. I wanted to get as much done fast and
safe as possible but I didn't want to push the time factor to much either. If
they started early and worked hard I figured they could do two loads a day and
still make it back before dark. That was, of course, if they didn't run into
trouble. "I think two trips a day max is good. What do you think?"

"I think we can do two a day. We'll try it tomorrow and
see. We can always adjust if it's not working." I agreed and told him to
make it happen. He gave me a jaunty salute and headed off to get the trips
organized. I headed into the warehouse to see Doc. I wanted to talk to him
about a real doctor’s office at The Dell. There was a house on the main road a
short way from the General Store that I thought would do nicely. A two-story
with a big living room up front that could be used as a waiting room and three
decent size bedrooms down stairs that would make great exam rooms or surgery
rooms. There’s also a room that I thought might have been a big pantry off the
kitchen that would be perfect for an office and there was still plenty of space
on the second floor for him to have a study and bedroom. Doc was single and I
didn't see much chance of him ever having a wife again. He had lost his wife to
illness before the Event and told me during one of our many conversations that
he had no interest in ever marrying again. He said Linda, his wife, was his one
and only love and could never be replaced. Any woman he would ever be with
would be judged by Linda's standard and that just wasn't fair. I knew how he
felt. I couldn't imagine myself without Kat. She was one of a kind.

I found Doc where I always find Doc, in the Aid Station
sitting at his desk. He looked genuinely happy to see me when I came in and I
filled him in on my idea. He seemed as excited as I was. I asked him about
medical supplies and he told me he would like to arrange with Dave to take him
to the University Medical Center on West Baddour Parkway. He reminded me that
he had already been there. That's where he got most of the medical equipment he
already used. He said he knew there were lots of useful items still there and
he could get everything he needed in one trip. Of course, the Event had set
back medicine about a hundred years or more.

Along with the fact that there would be no more
pharmaceuticals produced and anybody with a medication dependent condition had
already died, there was a lot of diagnostic equipment that we would never use
again. We didn't have the electrical power to support X-ray machines or to store
film. The more high tech equipment just wasn't supportable in anyway. Doc had
to resort to the old ways, a stethoscope and touch to make most of his
diagnoses. I knew he had asked for books on herbal medicine and other home
remedies. Of course, some medical problems were just out of his reach and this
bothered him more than anything. A simple infection that could have been cured
with an antibiotic now meant an almost certain death sentence. That would try
any doctor’s patience.

Doc felt this loss intensely and hated losing any patient
but he especially hated losing one that he knew he could have saved if he'd had
a piece of equipment or a drug that was common before the Event. I knew we had
to take extra good care of Doc Groves; he was possibly the last real doctor
left. Anybody that decided to become a physician from now on would learn on the
job. No more medical schools. We had a long way to go before we got to that
stage again, if ever.

As I stood to leave, I pointed this out to Doc and suggested
that he pick someone to start teaching, you know, just in case. He said he
thought that was a good idea. Then I pointed out the fact that he wasn't
getting any younger to which he flipped me off and went back to his reading. I
left knowing that our relationship was just fine.

Over the next three weeks, we moved tons of supplies to the
Dell. Jim and L.B. were getting things organized and Jim's wife Gwen had joined
him out there. She left their two children at the compound in Lebanon and went
at Jim's request to set up the General Store and inventory the supplies being
brought in by Dave's crews. The store now looked like a real store and the
small stock room in back became filled to overflowing. I had sent word to Jim
about the house to be used by Doc and he had gotten it set up and all the
supplies that Doc had been able to scavenge at University Med. were inside and
waiting for Doc to arrive. L.B. had even started using the single barn in the
village to store some of the bigger items. Thanks to Dave, we now had two huge
generators capable of providing power on a limited basis to the whole town.
Dave had also found two forty-foot long, ten-inch wide steel I-beams that would
be used to support the gate into the Dell and John Hendricks went to work
getting them set in huge concrete filled holes on either side of the road
coming in.

Along with the generators and everything else, the four fuel
tanker trailers had been moved and we had a serviceable fuel farm that would
supply our needs for at least a year. Longer if we used conservation and
limited our driving. To this end, Dave had brought several ATVs that the
security guys could use to accomplish a roving patrol around the inside of the
perimeter and to move guards to the distant guard towers. This would keep us
from having to use the less fuel efficient larger vehicles.

Pressure treated six-inch by six-inch posts had been brought
in and set in the dirt filled Hesco containers at the gate to be made into
guard towers and the same would be used at intervals around the inside of the
wall to provide complete observation along the outside perimeter. About half of
the front side of the T-wall barrier had been placed and we were moving at a
pace that I hoped we could sustain. If we could, The Dell would be ready to
move into in about two months.

In his spare time, and I told him I couldn't figure out when
that would have been, Hendricks had dug a pond in a low muddy area in the field
to the east of town. He'd used the backhoe and the natural spring had already
started to fill it. He told me he knew the animals would need a water source
and this would keep people from having to carry water to them. I congratulated
him on a brilliant idea and he told me he couldn't take credit for it. It had
been Judy Aikens, our agriculturist, who had suggested it. I told him I'd thank
her the next time I saw her.

One of the most important finds we had made had been by
Jenny Moss and Bob Thompson again. They were spending most of their days out on
I-40 at the convoy site providing security for the truck drivers hauling the
heavy T-walls to the valley. They found two MRAPs that had been used as convoy
escorts for the T-wall convoy. I had to ask what MRAPs were and Dave explained
they were large, as it turns out enormous, armored trucks and the acronym
stands for Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicle. These monsters take a crew
of three, driver, commander, and turret gunner, and can carry four to six
passengers. Jenny and Bob had spent their time getting the trucks running and
were now using them to cover the convoy. This freed up the two Humvee’s they
had been using to help with the big shopping trips.

The MRAPs would be a great addition to our security vehicle
fleet and the added fire power would come in handy. I now had a Humvee to use
for my daily trips out to The Dell to inspect progress and I couldn’t have been
more pleased with what I saw. On my last trip out, I found the highest point I
could find and spent an hour up there just site seeing. I could see the
Cumberland River Valley snaking its way through the hills and I could see the
entire valley that we would soon be calling home. We had been lucky so far. No
problems with either the Stinkies or the Road Gangs. We had not been plagued
with injuries or accidents either. I just hoped our luck would hold out.

I knew our good luck would have to run out at some point but
I had certainly hoped it would last longer. The month of June passed and we
were making steady progress. July in the south is usually a hot and humid month
with little rain and this July was no exception. Temperatures reached well over
one hundred degrees and we suffered our first loss because of the heat. John
Hendricks had been an incredible worker and tireless in trying to get things
done. He and some other men were working on the gate that would be the entrance
to The Dell when he suffered a heat stroke and died before we could get him
cooled down.

The gate’s very heavily being made from more of the pressure
treated six-by-six posts banded with steel channel front and back. John had
been hard at work all morning and determined to have the gate finished by night
fall. Some of the other guys had tried to get him to rest but John worked like
a machine drilling and bolting the heavy timbers to the steel frame work. And,
like all machines, sometimes they break down, sometimes for good.

John will be missed, not only for his energy and work but he
was a part of the family that is now our group. His wife, Donna, was
inconsolable when she was told and never said a word during his funeral. John
is the second person and first from our group to be interred in the little
cemetery beside the church. I found it ironic that he had dug the first grave
and we put him in the second. His loss has been devastating to the crews
working on the project and we took a day off for remembrance and to give
everyone time to rest. I reminded them all that we wanted to get things done
but it did no one any good if they died as a result of pushing too hard. This
was another expensive lesson and I didn't want any more.

Hendricks died on July fifth and our second, third, and
fourth deaths occurred on the twelfth. If Johns death wasn't enough to let me
know our good fortune had run out the incident on the twelfth brought the fact
home in glaring detail. One of the semi-tractor crews while connecting to a flatbed
trailer loaded with two T-walls were jumped by a group of Stinkies. The truck
driver, a mechanic, and his helper had already disconnected the old tractor and
towed it out of the way and were in the process of reconnecting their truck
when the rotten, smelly sons of bitches jumped them. The security crew never
saw them and two of our people were down before anybody even knew something was
wrong.

Brian Bracket, Kevin Worthy, and Manny Gonzales lost their
fight to survive on the side of Interstate 40. Brian and Manny were lucky; they
were killed outright during the attack. Kevin wasn't so lucky. He was the one
that passed the alarm and the security crew moved in and killed the Stinkies
but it was too late to help Kevin. During his attempt to help save his two
friends he received a small, otherwise insignificant bite on his left hand, but
it was enough. Jenny Moss was the security crew leader that day and she told me
later what happened.

Jenny said that Kevin was shaken up and hadn't realized he'd
been bitten until a few minutes later. She said as soon as he noticed the bite
he became calm and sat down on the steps that led up into the back of one of
the MRAPs. He looked at her and shook his head. I have to hand it to Jenny,
she's one tough girl. She told him she'd stay with him and sent the rest of her
crew to make sure that Brian and Manny were truly and finally dead. Kevin asked
for some paper and a pen and, after she handed it to him, he wrote a quick note
to his wife and little girl. Jenny said he never complained but seemed resigned
to the fact that he was experiencing his last few minutes on Earth. She stayed
with him until the end and then did what he'd asked her to do.

They brought all three bodies to the Dell and they became
the third, fourth, and fifth bodies to be added to the plot of ground beside
the church. The little cemetery was filling up quick, much, much too quick. At
this rate there would be no one to move in when our protected village was
finished.

I held a review of our procedures to find out how this
catastrophe had occurred. Jenny had the security vehicles positioned to provide
observation both east and west along the Interstate. What they hadn't taken
into consideration was the fact they couldn't see between the vehicles up
close. Somehow, the group of Stinkies had managed to get close enough that
their presence had been obscured by the trucks we were trying to move. Because
of his budding romance with Jenny, Dave asked to be excused from the inquest
and it was left up to me to determine if they had made mistakes that resulted
in the loss of three of our people.

Initially, I was convinced that someone had made a mistake.
I couldn't see how it was possible for eight alert security people to miss a
group of seven walking corpses. Jenny and the rest of her crew answered all of
my questions and even drew their positions on a sketch so I could see how they
had been deployed. I then accompanied them back to the scene so I could experience
firsthand what it had been like that day. They repositioned the vehicles and
showed me the pile of rotting corpses lying beside the now abandoned semi-truck.
During my examination of the scene, I found a trail of body fluids left by the Stinkies
as they advanced on our people. I followed it to an overturned box van lying in
the median between the east and west bound lanes. It appeared that all seven of
the creatures had been either in or around that overturned van and had come out
after being attracted by the noise made by the truck crew.

As I walked from the van back to where the attack occurred,
I became amazed that I never could see the turret of the MRAP that covered this
direction. The most amazing part was I was never more than twenty-five yards
from the security vehicle. I had climbed up in the turret and was convinced I
would have been able to see anybody approaching but the position of the other
vehicles gave a false impression and I could now see how it was possible.

I determined that Jenny and her people were not at fault. I
didn't like the fact that three of our people were dead but it was obvious that
she had performed in accordance with the guidelines Dave had developed to keep
us safe when we were out. It was just bad luck and another indicator that no
matter what we did, we couldn't cover every situation. Sometimes, it's just not
your day and there's nothing you can do about it.

I knew Jenny was shaken by her crew's failure to protect
Brian, Kevin, and Manny but I assured her that I still had faith in her and
told Dave to get her back out there as soon as he could. I don't think he liked
my decision but he knew why I made it. I didn't want to give her too much time
to think about it. Otherwise, she might never go back out. It was obvious that
Dave thought that would be okay but I depended on Jenny. We'd lost three
already, I wasn't about to let it become four.

The next incident occurred four days later and, while it
didn't result in any deaths, it did underscore the fact that we were running
pretty low on the luck we had depended on so much. The Stinkies aren't affected
by much. They are dead after all. Cold, rain, daylight or dark, they just
wander around trying to find something to eat. They don't get tired; they
aren't affected by the elements. That's one of the reasons we have twenty-four
hour a day security regardless of the weather.

Sometime during the night of the fifteenth or early morning
of the sixteenth, a Stinky wandered into the Dell. We were about two thirds
finished with the wall and this rotten bastard wandered out of the woods and
right into the middle of the village. Again, she was likely attracted by the
noise of our construction. When the workers woke up that morning they were
greeted by the sight of what had been a middle aged woman in the remains of a
stylish dress standing in front of the General Store. She had no shoes and her
hose were in shreds. Large chunks of flesh were missing and denuded bone showed
on her arms, neck, and right shoulder. She was in an advanced state of
decomposition and smelled to high heaven. Some of the guys said they smelled
her before they ever saw her. Now you know why we call them Stinkies.

A sentry put her down without endangering anybody but it was
obvious our secret was out. We had been found, our sense of security gone. We
would not be safe until the wall and gate were finished and we were ensconced
behind it. If one of these things could find us, then it was only a matter of
time before others did. The pressure to get the wall finished now went into
overdrive. I continued to caution the workers that rushing led to accidents and
we had already had our share for the month. I couldn't remember a month in the
recent past that we had suffered this many deaths. I prayed for July to hurry
and end. I hoped August would be better.

August came to The Dell finally and we had experienced no
more incidents. Work was back on track and while we had not forgotten the bad
luck of July, we were concentrating on moving ahead. Construction on the wall
was proceeding, although at a much slower pace. With two and a half sides
completed, we were now working on the south wall that ran along the high ground
south of the village. There were many more trees along this slope and they had
to be cleared to make way for the wall. The felled trees were then cut up to
provide some of the wood I knew we would need to survive this winter but it
made progress on the wall more time consuming.

Once we got past this wooded area, progress should speed up
and I hoped to be finished with the wall by the end of August. The foraging
trips had been a major success and we now had a stock pile of building material
and sundries that should last us a couple years. We were also concentrating on
the stock piling of food stuff. This got harder and harder to do. The canned
goods and most other packaged food products were way past their shelf life and
we were taking the risk of food poisoning every time we ate some of it, but
it’s better than starving.

The remaining supplies at the Lebanon compound had been
moved to The Dell with the exception of what they needed to live on until the
final move was made. We had traveled as far away as Fort Campbell in western
Tennessee to get more of the meals, ready to eat. It looked like we would be
depending on them to see us through the winter.

We had to get food production up and running by spring or we
wouldn't last the summer. We were on the verge, right on the edge. If we
survived the winter and could get crops to grow in the spring we just might
make it. If the weather didn't cooperate and the crops didn't grow, we were
finished. It was just that simple.

Dave had a discussion with L.B. and together they decided to
abandon the wall on the south end for the time being. This would give the crew
clearing the trees time to get their job done. L.B. would start on the wall at
the south gate post and work back toward where the wall construction had
stalled due to the tree clearing. By the time he got back to that area the
trees would be clear and the wall could be completed. We had left a gap in the
eastern wall to allow the trucks bringing the barriers to still enter from that
direction instead of having to drive all the way around. Those would be the
last barriers placed.

In the meantime, Dave began work on the rest of the outer
defense. With the help of the backhoe he had an anti-vehicle ditch about four
feet deep and four feet wide dug the entire width of the valley fifty yards out
from the west wall. Between the ditch and the wall were two rows of barbed wire
fence with more barbed wire crisscrossed between them. The fence itself
continued on around the perimeter of the wall and would make it quite difficult,
indeed, for anyone or anything to make it as far as the base of the wall. He
planned to do the same on the eastern side once all the T-wall traffic was
completed.

These additions to our defenses would give added security
and would make our home that much more secure. The gate was now hung and I was
impressed with the design. Although it had cost him his life, John Hendricks
gate was a work of art. The six-by-six beams banded with steel and reinforced
across the front and back was an extremely heavy affair. The barrel hinges were
large and sturdy. They had to be to support the weight. A small wheel under the
latch side helped to support the weight and made opening and closing the gate
easier. The latch was made of steel and fit into a slot cut into the I-beam on
the latch side. The gate had been intentionally kept close to the ground to
prevent a human from being able to crawl under it. This was further aided by
rebar welded to the bottom band and came within a couple of inches of the
ground. It impressed me, but I still had concerns that it wouldn't hold up to
ramming by a heavy vehicle, such as a semi-tractor.

Dave assured me that no vehicle with the mass or speed to
break through the gate would ever get that close. I asked how he intended to
prevent it and he replied that we would use a serpentine. I asked for an
explanation. "We'll use the smaller concrete Jersey barriers with Hesco
containers to add support and place them in a staggered fashion on the road in
front of the gate,” Dave said. I knew the Jersey barriers, just like their
bigger cousins, the T wall, is constructed of concrete and designed to support
itself. It looks like an upside down Y.

Dave continued with his explanation. “We will set the
spacing using one of our own semi rigs. Anyway, the design forces any vehicle
approaching the gate to slow to a crawl in order to navigate through the slalom
style barriers. We’ll start with the serpentine out at the anti-vehicle ditch
and run it all the way back to the gate. That way any vehicle large enough will
not be able to get the speed necessary to ram its way through the gate. Of
course, it won't stop people but the vehicle problem will be solved."