ASYLUM: Chapters 14 & 15

 

Chapter 14

   “No, no, that can’t be true,” she started to get up from my lap, but I held her firmly there.

   “I could be wrong,” I said. “But I don’t think so.” She put her arm back around my neck and seemed to settle back down and relax.

   “It does explain some of the feelings I’ve had, but we haven’t gone crazy like those people on the first day, the ones that killed, or tried to kill others.”

   “Well,” I slowly said. “There is the way I killed Becker. When I did it, if I look back at it, I had a distinct disassociation with what I did. Almost like I was watching me do it instead of actually doing it.”

   She nodded, “Yeah, some of the things I said to you, I felt the same way.” She shivered and then said, “Are we going to become like those others? Are we dangerous? Are we going to get worse?”

   “I don’t think so, it’s been months since we were exposed and we probably received a very small, maybe infinitesimal exposure. Is it affecting us? Yes, to a degree, but a very small degree.”

   “I want to have children, for us to have children, will I be a danger to them? If I still go and help at the Child Care Center, am I putting the children there, in danger?” She was starting to panic, “What if…do you think it will be genetic, will we pass it on to our kids?”

   “Stop it, Baby, don’t start conjuring up demons. If that were possible, we would already be aware of it, okay?” I caressed her back and then pulled her back tightly to me, “I’ve seen you with the kids at the center, there’s nothing to worry about.”

   “But, they’re helpless.”

   “No,” I said. “They’re not, they have you to protect them. Babe, think about this a moment, when you were so angry you were pulling your own hair, did you want to hurt me?”

   “No, I mean, you needed me to help you, and I love you, and I need you.”

   “Then I think you can put that worry to rest. We, you and I, are not a danger to anyone, except those who would harm us, or harm those we love.”

   She nodded and said, “Okay,” I felt some of the tenseness leave her. “I think you’re right; I believe you, but what do we do now?”

   “We go to the Major and tell him our suspicions. Then, we go to the source and find out the truth.”

   “Who is the source? Who would know…Aw shit! Please don’t tell me you are thinking of Gupta?”

   “Who else would know?”

   “No! Absolutely not! I don’t want that bitch anywhere near you! I will kill her before I ever…” She trailed off. “I’m doing it, aren’t I?”

   “There,” I said. “See? You recognized what was happening and shut it down. That alone, right there, tells me there is nothing to be concerned about. We are not going to become homicidal maniacs.”

   She pulled back and looked into my eyes as she frowned, “Did you do that on purpose? Bring her up to see how I would react? To test me?”

   “No, I don’t need to test you, I know who you are, I know how you think.”

   She smiled and kissed me, “Yeah? If you think you know me so well, what am I thinking right now?”

   “I know what you are thinking, and if my leg wasn’t so weak, I know, what I would be doing right now.”

   “Oh, yeah, and what is that?”

   “I’d be carrying that hot ass of yours to the bedroom.”

   She stood and started walking backwards toward the bedroom, “How about you chase me instead?”

   I stood up as she spun around and scrambled towards the bedroom laughing, “You’re laughing now,” I said. “But you won’t be when I’m done with you!”

   She shouted from the bedroom, “Oh yeah? Prove it!”

 

   Afterwards, we didn’t go back to sleep, we just lay together and talked and then showered for the day, dressed, went to the cafeteria, and then Packer’s office. The Major was sitting behind his desk and listening to Sergeant Banner as we stood outside and watched through the window. He saw us and held up a finger, Banner looked out and then smiled and waved to us before finishing what he was saying to Packer. Finally, he saluted and walked out.

   “Hey guys,” he said. “The Major just gave me permission to start a Tracker’s School, either of you interested?”

   “Can you wait until my leg is good to go?” I asked.

   “I’m starting right away, but I’ll be running the course every three weeks and I’m only going to train five at a time so I can give a more personal and intensive experience.”

   “Okay”, I said. “As soon as I’m back in shape, I’ll be there.”

   Banner looked at Debra and she answered, “Can I take it the same time as Daniel?”

   “No reason not to,” he answered.

   “Then, yeah, it sounds like it will be interesting.”

   “Okay, I’ll be seeing you,” he said, and then jogged away.

   I asked Debra, “Does he ever walk?”

   “Of course, he does, but only when he has to. He says it keeps him in shape.”

   I nodded and then pointed to Packer’s door, “Ready?”

   She looked a little nervous, but nodded and said, “Yeah, let’s do it.”

   I reached the door first, but waited as Debra walked in first and then I followed. Debra went to attention, but I didn’t, she had informed me, though I should address the Major by his rank, or by his rank and name, I didn’t have to stand at attention like I had in the past. Weirdly, it was hard not to do it when she was. She saluted and Packer returned it in a relaxed manner, “At ease, Tarn, and have a seat.”

   “Thank you, Sir.” She sat in the chair Banner had been in and I pulled a second over beside her. “Permission to speak freely, Sir?”

   “Granted,” he said, but he looked puzzled.

   “Major, Daniel and I were speaking last night over dinner and we came to a rather startling conclusion.”

   “Oh, man,” he said as he shifted his attention to me. “Is this trouble I smell?”

   “Possibly, Sir, but not necessarily. I looked to Debra and then continued. “I have a renewed interest in getting to know Sara Gupta better than I do.”

   “Why?”

   “I now believe, that both Debra and I were contaminated by the people we had to kill during the containment breach.”

   He immediately straightened from the almost relaxed slouch he had assumed and asked, “Why? Explain.”

   I spoke for almost ten minutes as I explained why we thought so. Debra joined in on occasion and pointed out her own observations. When we finished, he sat there quietly and finally asked, in a gentle voice, “Debra, so you believe your exposure to the contaminant was responsible for your outburst when you discovered Daniel had been shot?”

   “Yes, Sir, that incident and others.”

   “I’m going to be honest with you, Tarn, up until that outburst I was seriously considering advancing you to the rank of Sergeant, but I put that on hold. Do you believe this exposure you are speaking of would hamper your ability to perform in a leadership role?”

   “Undiagnosed? Yes, Sir, but early this morning when Daniel told me he wanted to talk to Gupta about the effects of the contaminate and I realized I was becoming inordinately angry, I immediately tempered my response.”

   “What about you, Daniel, has it affected you in any manner?”

   I nodded, “Yes, Sir. As I told you, I believe the particular violence I exhibited when I killed Becker may be directly attributed to my contamination. You should understand, that Debra’s encounter with the person we believe infected her was briefer than my own. He was in the process of strangling me when Debra shot him.”

   “I see, has this supposed exposure resulted in a degradation of your reasoning skills?”

   “I don’t believe so, Sir, but there is really no way to be sure,” I answered.

   Debra said, “No, Sir, I firmly believe Daniel is in full possession of his faculties. As always, he was the one who realized what had happened to us.”

   “Good, we need that ability of yours to weave things together and tie them off.” Packer sat there for a few moments and then said to me, “Morgan has requested I send a team down and visit all of the nearby materials providers to see if there are supplies we could salvage for the Family Barracks project. He has requested that you accompany the team I send. I know you just had your cast removed and you are not 100% healthy, could you do it? Or should I put it off for a while until you are?”

   “I’m a bit slow, Sir, but with an escort, I’m sure I could do it.”

   Debra instantly spoke up, “I’d like to volunteer to accompany the team sent to support Daniel, Sir.”

   “That would be a negative, Tarn, I may be reluctant to put you in command of a squad, but I still need your expertise. I’m going to reassign you to EXSEC 4^th Squad as a Team Leader with the rank of Corporal, until I can assess your emotional stability.”

   “Yes, Sir, thank you, Sir, I appreciate the chance to prove myself.”

   He smiled and said, “You just passed the first test, Debra, I know full well you don’t want Daniel out of your sight and you didn’t argue my decision. Well done.”

   I looked at her and could tell she was a little flushed with pride, so was I, for her. All she said was, “Sir.”

   “Why don’t you head on over to 4^th Squad’s bay and introduce yourself to Sergeant Thomas, he’s an ex-Marine Raider and knows his shit. Tell him I am sending you over tomorrow morning to begin your duty.”

   “Yes, Sir. Should I come back here once I’ve finished?”

   “Yes, I need to talk to Daniel and then the two of you can leave until this afternoon. I’m having a meeting with all the Squad Leaders and Assistants to discuss some changes we’re going to make.”

   “Yes, Sir.” She stood up and started walking out, but she traced my shoulder with her fingertips as she walked by.

   Once she was gone, Packer said, “She’s a good soldier and an even better Human Being.”

   “Yes, Sir.”

   “Okay,” he said. “Off the record and as friends, why do you want to talk to Gupta?”

   “Who else? She probably knows more about how the shit they made affects people than anyone. I firmly believe she was the lead designer of whatever they made.”

   “I agree, the FA had her off-limits, but they’re not around anymore. Do you think you can bring her around?”

   “Maybe, maybe not, it’s going to depend on how strong her sense of self-preservation is. Frankly, I think she has an overdeveloped sense of her own self-worth and I might be able to turn that on her. She demonstrated an intense unawareness, the last time we spoke, of the fact others might disagree with her belief system.”

   “I hope you are going to explain this in a way I can understand?”

   “Packer, you may be able to fool a lot of people with that dumb old soldier routine, but I know how sharp you are.” I smiled as I said it and he laughed.

   From the doorway of his office, I heard, “He’s got your number, Jerry.” I turned around as Gilly walked in and sat in the chair Debra had been in. “We all know about the stringent prerequisites Global had for everyone employed here.”

   “Come on, Daniel,” he said, “Spit it out.”

   “Group think,” I said.

   “What?”

   “Group think, it is a manner of thinking among a small group, that reinforces a perceived solution to a shared problem. A psychologist by the name of, Janis, first presented his theory of group think in a book he published in 1972. He stated that…”

   “Hold it, hold it right there, is this going to be one of those, Occam’s Razor lectures?”

   “Uh, well, I guess it was, sort of.” I thought for a moment and then said, “Okay, let’s avoid theory and replace it with historical fact.” When Packer frowned, I added, “I’ll keep it as brief as I can.” He nodded, and I started, “Let’s look at the Wannsee Conference as an example of Group Think. In 1942, a small group of NAZI officials gathered in Wannsee, Germany to discuss a method of solving the “Jewish Question.” These men were all Nazi party members, they were all hardliners, they were mostly, all highly educated, they all blamed the Jews for World War One and, the then current, World War Two. They had no dissenting voices to moderate their decisions, as a result, the only answer they could come up with was exterminating the Jews. Their only question was the speed required to carry out the Final Solution. They decided to create a fleet of gas vans that would drive from one location to the next, pack Jews inside and gas them with the exhaust of the trucks. They hoped each truck would be able to kill 1,000 Jews per day. Later it was decided to concentrate the Jews in work camps so they could provide cheap labor. When the new people were brought to the work camps, those physically able were put to work, those who couldn’t work, went straight to the gas chambers. That is an example of Group Think. They were so collective in their thought processes; they could recognize no solution except mass murder. Anything else, was simply outside the paradigm of their hardline beliefs.”

   “So, you think Gupta and her cronies suffer from this same group think thing?”

   “Yes, for them, their actions may have been the only method they could recognize to quickly end the problem of too many people. You concentrate the intelligent ones you consider salvageable, in safe zones and remove the rest. They don’t see their selves as mass murderers, they see their selves as liberators, they liberated the over-taxed planet from the disease of too many people. They were like the Nazis at Wannsee who were highly educated, they had a common enemy, people, and they had a desire for a quick fix. They, like the Nazis, dehumanized huge swaths of the human population so it would be easier to rationalize their actions and see their selves as the good people, the ones who truly cared about their fellow man, if, that fellow man was worth their caring.”

   Packer nodded, “They couldn’t think outside the box they themselves created, because they all thought the same.”

   “Group Think, you limit your own options because you all think alike.”

   “Geez.”

   “So, I would like to talk with Gupta, and see if I can weasel my way into her good graces and become her intellectual friend.” I leaned forward as I looked closely at Packer, “What do you think?”

   He studied me and finally said, “To tell the truth, Daniel, we’re already working that angle.”

   I leaned back and said, “You are? Good, how is it going?”

   “It could be going better, and it might go better if you became involved; let me think on it a bit and I’ll get back to you, okay?”

   “Okay, if you don’t mind, I’m going to hang out here in the Ready Room until Debra comes back.”

   “No problem, she shouldn’t be long.”

   I sat down at one of the tables, propped my right leg up, which was more out of habit than need, and got comfortable. I must have dozed off, because I jolted awake when my chin slipped out of my cupped palm. I wasn’t surprised I fell asleep, after all, I only slept about three hours the previous night. I looked around and saw Debra in Packer’s office talking to him and Gilly, so I watched and finally Gilly noticed I was awake and pointed it out to Debra. She stood up, listened to something Packer said and then saluted before leaving and joining me in the Ready Room.

   “Hey, Honey,” She seemed a little withdrawn.

   “What’s wrong?” I asked.

   “Nothing, I mean, well, I guess Sergeant Thomas was in the saferoom when I lost it and said he wasn’t sure a woman like me was a good fit for his squad. He said he wanted someone more composed.”

   “What? What did Packer have to say about that?”

   “He said he would talk to him about it, but in the meantime, I should stay assigned to 3d Squad and he would look for someone else for Thomas.”

   “That’s bull shit!” I said as I stood up and headed for Packer’s office, but she grabbed my arm and held me back.

   “Don’t!” She angrily stated. “I don’t need you to fight my battles!” She calmed down and said, “Please, Thomas is basing his decision on what he saw with his own eyes, and I guess I can’t blame him. He doesn’t know about the contamination.”

   I looked up at Packer’s windows and he and Gilly were watching us. I gave my head a slight shake and then turned back to Debra, “How about we go get an early lunch and then hangout until time for the meeting tonight?”

   “The meeting is for squad leaders and their assistants; the Major says we don’t need to stick around for it.”

   “Really? Well maybe I’ll be too busy to go and find the stuff he needs for the Family Barracks.”

   “Don’t be that way, Hon, it will work out, we just have to wait for it to develop.” She kept looking at me and finally I nodded in agreement, then she added, “I trust Major Packer to do the right thing because I know, he will do the right thing.”

   I took a couple of breaths and then looked back up at the Packers and gave them a short nod. Gilly smiled and Packer nodded back. I slid my arm around Debra’s shoulders and said, “So, do I have my little amazon all to myself today, or are you back on duty with 3d?”

   “3^rd Squad has the day off, what do you want to do?”

   “I need to go out to the parking lot and start the truck, check tire pressure and general things like that, oh, and while we’re at it, I want to dig around in the stuff I packed up when we left California, and find my cell phone and the charger for it.”

   She laughed, “What for? It’s not like you can call anyone, or order pizza.”

   I laughed as we sat down in the cart and I started to drive us to the parking lot, “No, but I’m thinking its capability to take pictures could be beneficial in a lot of different circumstances.”

   “Yeah, I can see that, plus I don’t have a single picture of you. I’m going to see if mine is still around too.”

   I started the truck, checked the tires, and checked the oil, I don’t know why, it’s been driven zero miles since I parked it. Finally, I went through some of my boxes until I found the cell phone and charger, dropped it into a sock and brought it back with us. I started to lock the truck back up, but saw John’s rifle case; Eugene Henderson had been after me to bring my bullpup carbine by so he could check the fit of the sheet metal stock he had made for it, but I hadn’t got around to it. I wondered if he could use John’s and maybe modify it the way he had mine. I took it out and had Debra hang onto it until we got back to the facilities building.

   Parking out front, I asked Debra, “I’m going to run in and talk to Henderson for a few minutes, do you want to wait here, or come in with me and meet him?”

   “That’s the guy that modified your carbine?”

   “Yes.”

   “Yeah, I’ll come with you.”

    I had my cane, so she tossed the rifle case up onto her shoulder and we entered. I checked around and saw him working on a lathe, so we walked over and stood there until he finished measuring the item he was working on. “Hey, Eugene,” I said.

   He looked up and smiled, “Hey, Dan.” He saw the rifle case and asked, “Is that your carbine?”

   “Actually, no. This is a different rifle, but the same type as my old one before you modified it.”

   Debra carried the case to a nearby table, set it down and opened it. Eugene followed and then said, “I assume this is the girl you talked about incessantly?”

   “Yeah, Debra, this is Eugene, my machinist, Eugene, this is Debra, my fiancée.”

   They both smiled and said hello, then Eugene said, “You said she was hotter than hot, but you didn’t say she was beautiful too.”

   Debra started blushing and Eugene looked as though he was thoroughly pleased with himself. “Hey,” I said. “Eyes on the rifle and not my lady!”

   Debra popped me in the arm and said, “You actually brag about me to other guys?”

   Eugene chuckled and said, “Debbie, he doesn’t brag, he gloats, and now I can see why.” He opened the case and examined the rifle. “Identical alright, but it has a longer barrel.”

   “Yeah, it has a twenty-inch barrel instead of the sixteen my carbine has.”

   “So, you want me to see if the sheet metal stock will work on this one?”

   “Yeah, what do you think?”

   “You remember we couldn’t just drop in your receiver, right? I had to make some custom parts for yours in order for the stock to fit and work correctly.”

   “Oh, yeah, I forgot about that. Alright, I’ll bring my carbine by tomorrow and…”

   “Not necessary,” he said. “When I made the parts for your carbine, I made a few extras also.”

   “You did?”

   “Hang on,” he said, as he walked away and then returned with a box about four-by-six-by-two inches in size. Within seconds he had the rifle field stripped and then started replacing components. A few minutes later, he began dropping the receiver into the sheet metal stock. The components that comprised the butt stock portion fit perfectly, but the foregrip section was too narrow.  “Damn it,” he said. “I’d fix this right now, but I need to finish another project for the Biochemistry Lab right away. Can I keep the rifle until tomorrow?”

   “Sure,” I said. “What is it you’re making for the Biochemistry Lab?”

   “It’s an air rifle they want for putting down lab animals. They say the original barrel I put on it seems to jam about every third time they use it; the syringe darts get hung up.”

   “Really, how many of these darts guns do they want?” Debra asked.

   “The project specs call for six of them, I told them I could make a new one whenever one wears out, but they said Accounting wanted all the rifles made at the same time because it would be cheaper to build all six at once instead of one at a time.”

   “Is it?” I asked. “Cheaper, to build all of them at the same time?”

   “Marginally, yeah, but not really. Most of the cost of any new product is in the production of the initial prototypes, after that, the cost factor drops with every additional item produced.”

   “Interesting,” I said. “Listen, do you mind if I have Major Packer come over and take a look at the finished air rifle before you send it back to Biochemistry?”

   “Do you think maybe he could use something like this?”

   “Maybe,” Debra said. “If they are quiet enough, it could come in handy for removing sentries, or capturing a high value target.”

   “Okay, yeah, have him come over in the morning and after he checks it out, I’ll call the lab and tell them it’s ready for pickup.”

   “Good enough,” I said. “I’ll be by tomorrow and see what you’ve got for me.”

   Debra and I returned to the Ready Room and spoke briefly with Packer about the air rifles and then we took off for home. We showered and took a nap, then we were off to the cafeteria for a light lunch. All I had was a couple of slices of fresh bread with gravy, and Debra ate some canned fruit in a cup. I could tell that even though she wanted to wait and see how the thing with Thomas worked out, she was still a little tense about it. It really rankled her that Thomas had said she wasn’t good enough to serve in his squad. She took a great deal of pride in how capable she was and I knew for a fact she outshined many of the EXSEC males.

   We decided to eat the left-over casserole early and then put on a DVD, but just as it was starting, Danni and Dan dropped by, so we played a few hands of Canasta, guys against the girls; the girls kicked our asses soundly. While we were playing cards, Debra asked them about the meeting Packer had with the squad leaders because we knew both of them had attended. They said Packer was considering changing around the composition of the squads and going from the typical ten man squad the army used and using the Marine Corps count of twelve. Also, he was thinking of forming a new unit that would be responsible for searching for salvage materials we might need and wanted everyone to consider a name for it. Daniel said he was leaning towards calling the new unit Rangers, but not because so many of EXSEC were ex-Rangers, but because the unit would be ranging about searching for what was needed. It sounded reasonable to me.

   They brought two six packs of Colorado Koolaide to drink and when I asked why, Daniel informed us there wasn’t any Shiners left in the Facility Exchange. I figured we’d probably never see it again. That was unfortunate. Then Danni posed an interesting idea.

   “Daniel, remember the beer we had in California? The homebrew made by your friend, John?”

   “Of course,” I said.

   “Did you ever help him brew his beer?”

   “Yeah, but I didn’t pay a lot of attention to the process, that was always his thing and he really enjoyed doing it. I just enjoyed drinking it.”

   Then Debra said, “Yeah, but we loaded all of his recipe books, his mixing pots, all that stuff, remember? Even a bunch of cases of empty bottles. Do you think we could figure out how to do it?”

   “Well,” I said. “I guess we could, but it takes a lot of work and patience. John always said patience was more important than anything else.”

   “Patience I have,” Danni said. “A desire to drink this panther piss, not so much.”

   Dan smiled and said, “Why don’t we get the stuff out of the truck tomorrow and see where we can set up at?”

   “Are you two serious?” I asked. “Are you off tomorrow?”

   “Hell, yes.”

   “Okay, I’ll drop Debra off in the morning, pick you guys up, and we’ll see what we can get going.”

  

   In order to use the liftgate, it was necessary to unhitch the trailer and then pull the truck forward. Unfortunately, we had to move a great deal of stuff in the back of my truck before we finally reached what we were looking for. John’s brew kit was pretty extensive, plus we had taken all of his supplies as well. Once we had everything out that we needed, then we had to repack the back of the truck. I also wanted to leave the truck in a manner that would allow us to repack the brew kit if we decided to leave the facility for some reason. I guess I was a bit attached to it because of who it had belonged to.

   Once we had the brew kit, bottles, supplies, flavorings and John’s notes loaded onto a cart and one of the work trailers, we took a break. We all had bottled water, so we sipped at them as we talked.

   “Okay,” I said. “The day we went after Becker and I saw the two of you kiss the first time, I was ecstatic. I finally discovered I had been right about the two of you being interested in one another. I’ve asked Debra, but she says I should get the story from you two, straight from the horse’s mouth, so give it up. Danni, why did you tell everyone, including Daniel, that you were a lesbian, when you weren’t?”

   She snorted, glanced at Daniel and finally said, “When I was in the Navy, I was a dental hygienist. The dentist I was working for started hitting on me about a month into my first deployment. I wasn’t interested in him because he was married and the Navy really frowns on married personnel having affairs during deployment. I told him no, he said I would come around and that he knew I found him attractive, which I didn’t by the way. Anyway, about six months at sea, we docked in Japan and I went on shore leave with some other girls from the ship. We ended up at a bar that served American sailors and started to party a bit. Then he shows up at the bar, the dentist. He starts asking me to dance, I tell him no, he keeps badgering me, I keep saying no…”

   “Wait,” I said. “I thought fraternization between ranks was seriously frowned upon?”

   “It is,” she said. “Very seriously frowned upon. So, he finally walks away and stands at the bar, I relax and tell the girls I’m going to visit the head. I leave and when I come back, my friends are gone. I figure they’re just screwing with me and sit back down at our table. A Japanese waitress walks up and says my friends asked her to give me a double shot and tell me they would be right back and I should hold our table. The next thing I know, I’m waking up in some shitty motel, with Japanese cops all around and I’m being arrested for prostitution. Finally, the Shore Patrol shows up after I was taken to jail and the cops turn me over to them. They take me back to the Jerry Ford and into the brig I go. I ask for a rape kit, I get examined. The doctor tells our superiors the prostitution charges were bogus, because I was bleeding from a broken hymen; I was a virgin up until then. They run blood tests and discover I had been drugged. My friends show up and say they were given a private room to drink in and the waitress told them she would tell me where they were when I came out of the head. They had no idea what had happened to me. Anyway, the dentist is questioned, he denied doing anything to me even though he was identified by the waitress as the man who provided the double shot of tequila for her to give me. We set sail and all of a sudden, the investigation is dropped, and I get sent back to be the son-of-a-bitches’ hygienist again.”

   I was stunned, “You’re shitting me.”

   “I shit you not. Anyway, he starts hitting on me again, I tell him to fuck off, I tell him if he comes close to me, I’m going cut off his cock and shove it down his throat. He keeps it up though and finally, one of my friends, who was a lesbian, gives me a small recorder and I start recording the things he says to me. When I had two full recordings of the vile shit he was saying, I take it to the Chief Petty Officer and play the tapes for him. He says he’ll take care of it and confiscates the tapes. We pull into port in Manila and the dentist gets transferred off and a new dentist is brought onboard as his replacement. I’m informed by the new dentist, if I try to sabotage his career the way I tried to sabotage the last dentist’s, he is going to make sure I suffer. Most of the guys onboard left me alone, but there are always a few who think because of the rape allegations I must be a whore and I’m getting nasty remarks made to me constantly. Finally, I start telling people I’m a lesbian so they will leave me alone and I just kept doing it. When my enlistment was up, I joined the Marines and volunteered for the Female Engagement Teams. Because I was a dental hygienist and I was a volunteer, I was a shoe-in. I found I loved the job, so long as the guys left me alone, so I kept right on doing what I had been doing and stayed a lesbian. Even after I came here.”

   “Holy shit,” I said. “I don’t know how you did it, for all this time.”

   “At first, it was easy because I didn’t want the same thing to happen again. Then, it was just easier to keep on, keeping on. It didn’t get hard until I came here and Daniel came onboard. I was crazy about him after working with him the first week and then I did everything I could to get his attention and be close to him. I don’t mean I threw myself at him, but yeah, he was definitely the one.”

   “I wish I would have suspected something sooner,” Daniel said. “I kind of thought something was odd with our relationship, but then I knew she was lying to me and everyone else.”

   “When did you think you knew?” I asked.

   “Oh, come on, Danny, don’t…”

   He laughed, “She doesn’t like talking about it, but it was when she dislocated my shoulder. The way she reacted when it made that sucking popping noise when it pulled apart. She was running in circles crying and saying she was never going to train with me again.”

   I laughed and said, “Man, I’m sure glad I didn’t find out how Debra felt about me, that way.”

   “I kept hoping she would finally say something, but then the night we went after Becker…”

   Danni interrupted him, “I didn’t want to go into a fight and not tell him. I thought of the things Debra said, about how she was so afraid something would happen to her, or you, and she would never have the chance to tell you she still loved you. I sort of panicked and after he finished my face camo, I told him I always hoped someday I would find someone that I wanted to say this to, and I told him I wasn’t a lesbian.”

   “And?” I asked.

   “He got this smile on his face and said, I know.” She turned to Dan and said, “Asshole, why didn’t you say something sooner!”

   “I figured you’d get around to it when you were ready.” Then he looked at me, “Debra said the night she first met you, that you thought we were a couple. I started paying attention, read up on nonverbal communication and realized you were probably right. At least I was hoping you were right, I was already head over heels, but I didn’t want to scare her off by jumping before she was ready.”

   “Well,” I said. “Like Debra, I’m sure she is worth the wait, congratulations to both of you.”

   Danni tucked herself under Dan’s arm and we sat there a little while longer in silence and then Dan tilted his face towards the sky, “Do you guys hear that?”

   “What?” I asked.

   “I swear I can hear a Predator.” He stood up and scanned the sky. “We used to see them every once in a while, overseas, you know? They’re usually too high to hear, but…now it’s gone,” he said.

   “What would a Predator be doing all the way out here?” I asked.

   “Maybe it was the wind in the trees, or something,” Danni said as she continued to look up.

   “Maybe,” Dan said, then he pulled Danni to her feet and said, “Let’s finish this up and get back inside. I’m feeling a little exposed out here.”

 I shrugged and stood up also. Pretty soon we were on our way back, but Dan wanted to talk to Packer before we figured out where we were going to put John’s beer gear. Packer was intrigued with the idea of brewing beer and wondered if a still could be created also, but none of us had the slightest idea on how to do that. When Dan told him about hearing what he believed may have been a Predator, he was even more intrigued.

   “Tell everyone and pass the word around to keep an ear out. We haven’t seen very many contrails lately and it’s starting to be something to get excited about when somebody does see one. I wish I could send a crew over to Holloman and see if anyone is there. It might be to our advantage to know, especially if it’s regular military in control.”

   It wasn’t until later in the afternoon of the following day that I was able to get back to Eugene Henderson. I walked in and he stopped what he was doing and waved me over to a cabinet. Unlocking it, he pulled out the rifle case with the bullpup and set it down on a work table. “Okay, I fixed the foregrip on the stock, so it’s fitting the way it was supposed to.” He handed the rifle to me and I started looking it over. “I also took it out to the rifle range and checked it out. It’s a fairly accurate weapon, but I noticed the point of impact starts drifting off from the point of aim as the barrel begins to heat up. Were you aware of that?”

   “Yeah, I was. The man who owned the rifle before it was bequeathed to me said the same thing.”

   “Well, I was looking it over and the pencil thin barrel is probably the cause. They went light on the OD of the barrel to cut down on weight, but a heavier, medium profile, or heavy profile barrel would probably fix that and increase the accuracy of the system as a whole. How would you feel about letting me work up a heavier barrel, maybe with fluting to keep some of the weight down; I’m almost sure I could give it a tighter and more consistent pattern.”

   “Can you do that? I mean keep the same rifling and everything?”

   “We’re short on material for machining barrels, but I have enough for at least one. I’d love to work on it because I can see a weapon like this getting real popular because it’s so short and handy.”

   “Okay, go ahead and see what you can do. If it falls through, we can always put the original barrel back on, right?”

   “Absolutely, oh, one other thing. What’s the twist rate of the rifling?”

   “If I remember correctly. It was one in seven, why?’

   “From what I was able to learn, most of the ammo you guys use is 62 grains, right?

   “Yeah.”

   “Using one in seven is okay for a carbine, I guess, but if you’re looking for a tighter grouping, you’re going to want something closer to maybe one in eight rifling to stabilize the bullet better. It’s not a bad set up for using different weights of bullets. Changing the rifling would make a more interesting build, if you don’t mind?”

   “Okay, have fun with it.” I said. “Let me know when it’s ready.”

  

   I kept working at strengthening my leg, and whenever possible, Debra was working out with me. We paid attention to our diet, and eventually the results began to show. First, we both lost weight and then we both gained, I actually felt better than when I was working hard full-time. Debra had always been in very good shape and we both were convinced the frequency of our sexual interactions helped with our General good health and stamina. Yeah, we had sex that often. The next time Banner ran a group through his tracking class, I was unavailable, but Debra was, so I told her to take the class even if I couldn’t; I still planned on doing it. She enjoyed the hell out of the class and Banner said she was one of the best he had ever trained. Debra told me to be careful if I ever left her because she could now track me to the end of the world. I’m not going anywhere; I don’t want to.

   Henderson finally finished the barrel for John’s bullpup and Debra and I met him at the rifle range. Debra brought some Israeli Military Industry ammunition and we used that to try out the reworked rifle. Debra was stunned with how accurate the bullpup was. Using the mass-produced IMI ammo, she could consistently shoot one minute of angle with it. She was convinced if she used some of her own special ammunition it would shoot even tighter. I think I may have to keep that rifle locked away so it doesn’t end up in Debra’s rifle case. Hell, if she really likes it, I’ll give it to her. Henderson was really excited that it performed so well and wants to try making several models using mine and John’s weapons to work off of. Sounds good to me.

   The trip down out of the mountains, for construction supplies, kept being put off for various reasons and the weather started turning cool. Because of the approaching winter the need for those supplies began to become very important. So, Packer organized the effort and down we went. I didn’t think it was that critical anymore, especially when a full twenty per cent of the population decided to leave for greener pastures. Most of those who left were people who whole heartedly agreed with the Zero Population movement. Friction had been developing between them and the rest of the community ever since the Final Authority and the Board of Directors had been deposed and there were a great many who were glad to see them go. They probably would have stayed if their faction had won the facility elections, but they didn’t. Then they tried to evict everyone else saying the facility belonged to the United Nations and the WHO, yeah, right. Governor Ortiz, yeah, as in Felicia, allowed the 800 people who left to take a thirty-day supply of food, their personal vehicles with a full tank of gas, and one of the eighteen wheelers the facility possessed. That dropped our population to under 3200 and opened up a lot of the now empty residential areas for the rest of us to spread out.

   Debra and I retained our old apartment and the emptied residences were allocated according to need. I thought there would be a degradation in morale after the ZPG folks left, but actually there was a renewal of purpose. People seemed more upbeat and livelier. Then Ortiz announced that with the next Spring, we would be planting fields for food crops and we would begin looking for cattle that roamed the Federal lands around us. She also wanted to start actively searching for others that might have survived the previous year’s turmoil with the intent of possibly infusing more numbers into the facility. That last point was the reason we were sent to find construction materials.

   I was going, along with one representative from each of the Facilities divisions plus one squad of EXSEC, which were now known as Rangers. Dan’s idea of calling the group Rangers went over well with everyone in EXSEC and Felicia decided the Auxiliary would be known as The Militia from then on. Over time, members of the Auxiliary had come to be known as Oxen, and a single member was referred to as an Ox. Simply an evolution of the reducing of the term Auxiliary to a more abbreviated term. Even after the name of the Auxiliary was changed to the Militia, the militia members continued to refer to themselves as Oxen. I was a member, so I went along with everyone else and used the terms myself.

   The time had finally arrived for the foraging team to leave and I was going over some last-minute additions to our want list when Debra came jogging over to say goodbye. She had been on duty during the night and I think Packer allowed her to leave early so she could see me before I left.

   Her eyes were looking a bit moist when she grabbed me and she held on for a moment before reaching into the pocket of her shirt and pulled out what I recognized as my old cell phone. “Hon, I added a couple of pictures to the ones you already have of me and us together. I’m really starting to feel this crap of you leaving, you know?”

   I nodded, “I know, we haven’t been apart from one another for a very long time. I’m kind of feeling a little anxious myself.”

   “You’re going to be careful, right? You won’t go and get hurt, right?”

   “Of course, Babe, I’m already looking forward to coming home.”

   Sergeant Bellows shouted for everyone to mount up and I gave her a long kiss goodbye before I held her shoulders and stepped back, “A week, Babe, maybe a little more and we’ll be back, I promise.”

   She nodded as tears began to trickle down her face, “Okay, you promised! You know how I feel about promises.”

   “I do,” I said. “And you’ll be right here, won’t you? Waiting for me to come home, right?”

   “Always.”

   I climbed into the truck I was assigned to and shut the door, Bellows, in the first of four trucks, pulled forward and out the main gate. The rest of us followed in a spaced-out manner, so we couldn’t all be caught within a small ambush zone. Once on the road, we widened the distance between vehicles and picked up speed. The posted speed limit was 45mph, but we traveled at a slower speed that would allow us to respond to poor road conditions, or an attack.

   All four vehicles had radios installed and they were kept on constantly as the radio operators kept up a steady stream of chatter until Bellows ordered everyone to simply monitor their radios unless they had something to report. There were five of us in the first truck, a Sergeant Kitson, myself, two other Rangers and a plumber from Facilities. In the second truck, a car hauler with a crew cab, were three Rangers, an electrician, an HVAC guy, and a guy from Janitorial Services. The third truck was the eighteen-wheeler with two flatbed trailers, two Rangers and three additional guys from Facilities, a lather, a carpenter, and another electrician. The final truck, another crew cab, had four more Rangers, and a mechanic from the motor pool. That truck also carried enough supplies to last us ten days, three days longer than we figured we might need.

   In addition to the group supplies, each man had a Get Home Bag with five days of food for one man, a water purification filter, the ability to carry at least one-and-half gallons of water, a sleep system, and one set of clean, dry clothing. Instead of my Medium ALICE pack, I had brought my MOLLE 2 large ruck. It wasn’t full of get home gear, because if I had the time, I intended to pick up some items for Debra if I could. Like everyone else, I was well armed and equipped for a fight; Debra made sure of that before I left. I was wearing my FLC with six spare magazines attached to it, the P-89, two spare mags for the pistol, my sheath knife, an IFAK, a single one-quart canteen with cup, and a possibles pouch. Attached to the FLC above the carbine mags, were four additional pistol mag pouches, one held a high intensity handheld flashlight, one, a multi-tool, one held a water-proof plastic bottle containing a bic lighter and five or six fire sticks, and the last held a tourniquet. I learned my lesson about the importance of a tourniquet when I used one on Mark Wilson.

   By my feet, was my combat sustainment belt and harness. Mounted to the PALS webbing from right to left was first, a grenade pouch with a headlamp, then a flapped pistol holster mounted low below anything else, holding two magazines for my bullpup. Next was an old school machete, then a one-quart canteen. Then an M-240 machine-gun pouch in the center of the back, that held two additional mags for the carbine, three MRE sandwiches and a Coast Guard Lifeboat Ration Bar. Next was another one-quart canteen with a cup. A general-purpose pouch with a multitude of assorted items including packets of water flavorings, tea and coffee. A two-mag pouch for my carbine, and finally a pouch holding two more magazines for my handgun. It was a lot of gear to carry, but I was used to it from training and duty as an Ox.

   The trip to Las Cruces, where we started, was fairly uneventful. Between Bayard and Deming, we saw a truck pulling a stock trailer a good half mile from the road we were on, but there was no response to our arm waving or attempts to raise them on a radio. We continued on. In Deming, we transitioned to the Interstate 10 and finished the drive to Las Cruces. Our first stop was Home Depot, but it was a burned-out hulk. We went on to Lowes and discovered it was stripped of a lot of items, but still had a great deal of building supplies left inside. We spent what little light there was left loading what we could, then left the town and camped on a road that led out into the desert. We posted guards, ate our dinner and then went to bed.

   In the morning, we returned to Lowes and continued loading up supplies. When we were sure we had most of what was available and we could use, we returned to Home Depot and poked through the ruins to see if there was anything we could salvage. Surprisingly, there was. We were able to add to the Redi mix concrete we collected from Lowes, though some of the bags had been rained on and were useless to us. We collected pipe of several types, fittings, hangers, screws, a few unburned battery powered tools, electric tools, two small concrete mixers and even a few toolbelts that had survived. Under some of the rubble, we discovered sheetrock that was scorched but was still usable. Boxes of joint compound, finishing tools that though the handles were melted or burned off, we figured we could repair and use. Door knobs, hinges, the list kept growing. By evening, we finally gave up and headed back out into the desert to camp again, but in a different location. Bellows didn’t want to establish a habit that someone unfriendly could recognize.

   That night, I was missing Debra pretty badly. As long as I was busy, I didn’t notice her absence, but as soon as things slowed down, I began to ache inside. Finally, I pulled the cell phone from my pocket and began to scroll through the pictures of her and the ones of us together. Then, I came to the new pictures she had added. Holy shit! That little vixen had included pictures of her partially nude in seductive poses. Nothing was exposed, but wow! She could have easily been a centerfold. The second to last one was her kneeling on our bed from the side, knees open, sitting on her heels with one hand and arm covering her breasts, the other hand in her long wavy hair, and staring into the camera with an almost aloof expression on her face. God above, she was beautiful. Somehow, she had added a written message to the bottom of the picture in her distinctive writing style. It simply said, “I’m going to be so naughty with you when you come home.” Those pictures carried me through the next three days, but the last day was…different.

   We were in the wrap up phase of the operation, tying things down and covering the loads in the open with tarps. One of our lookouts on the roof of Lowes called down by way of a radio. “Ox Four, to Ranger One, there are three people approaching from West with a white flag. Over”

   “Roger that, Ox Four, are they armed?” Bellows immediately sent three members of the Rangers to find cover and watch the stranger’s approach.

   “Ranger One, that’s affirmative, but long arms are slung.”

   “All sentries, maintain your positions and keep watching your areas of responsibility. All personnel, hold your fire unless fired upon.” Bellows motioned for the rest of us to continue preparing to leave as he walked out about fifty yards and waited for the people to reach him. After they arrived, they spoke quietly for several minutes and then Bellows returned and asked me, “We’re done here, right?”

   “Yeah, but we’ll probably have to come back for more supplies. Are they upset we’re taking what we are?”

   “Maybe, it depends on whether we allow them to join up with us, or not. They say if not, they would prefer we didn’t take anything because they may need it, but they won’t try to stop us.”

   “Well, that’s a promising start to negotiations. Why do they want to come with us?” I asked.

   “It seems Las Cruces is a dangerous place to be right now. They seem to think the reason we haven’t been attacked yet, is we appear trained, organized, and alert. I told them we were all three and there was more where we came from.”

   “Good, are they offering anything?”

   “Numbers, some combat veterans, a doctor, several registered nurses, several teachers, a pretty long list to tell the truth. The negotiator says they have around 150 people, give or take, and they need a safe place to provide for their children.”

   I nodded and then asked, “Any farmers? Construction workers? Oh, and ask them if they have anyone that can brew beer or distill alcohol.”

   Bellows returned and spoke for a while and then motioned me forward. I checked my gear and then walked forward to meet them. The man negotiating was older, maybe in his early sixties and said his name was Jesse Aquilar. The other two were Anglo, Rich and Stella Morrison. “Sergeant Bellows says you want to join up with us?” I asked.

   “If possible,” Jesse said. “There are several armed groups here that are fighting over what’s left in the city, and we are a lot smaller than the others. Most of the other groups don’t even have women unless they’re used for sex against their will and no children at all. We found a woman about a month back that escaped from Los Negros, and she was in extremely poor shape. When they grabbed her and her family, they immediately killed her husband and threatened to kill each of her four children if she refused to work for them.”

   “Los Negros, are they a Black gang?”

   “No, but I can see where you’re coming from. These guys and some of the women with them were members of ANTIFA. You know how they always wore black? They still do and that’s why we call them Los Negros. They came here to protest and riot when the Governor visited, but got stuck when everything started falling apart. The night of the Locos, they went into hiding and didn’t come out until most of the trouble was over. They were fairly well organized and tried to take over the city, but a lot of us fought back. Unfortunately, there were too many and they were well-armed too. Then there’s the other groups, but most of them are loosely organized and most of the individuals are Locos. I know one of their leaders, I went to NMSU Las Cruces with him, but he’s different now, whatever happened the night of the Locos, it got him. He’s crazy violent and likes to torture people he captures.”

   I glanced at Bellows and then back to Aguilar, “The woman you mentioned, you found her, but not her children?”

   “No,” Stella said, “They murdered them in front of her. She died of her own injuries a few days after we found her.”

   “Jesus,” Bellows said.

   “The Night of the Locos, you mentioned, what happened?”

   He shrugged, “Some people say a plane flew over and sprayed something early in the evening that caused people to go crazy. Another guy I know, and trust, said it was a drone because it wasn’t big enough for there to be a pilot. If that’s the case, it may have come from the UCAV site West from Las Cruces.”

   “We saw that as we were driving in,” Bellows said, and I nodded in agreement.

   “Whatever it was,” Stella added. “It was very effective and lingered until the sun rose the next day. People who went out after the spray had settled that night became disoriented and mentally unbalanced also, but after a full 24 hours, it didn’t seem to affect anyone anymore. I’m thinking whatever it was, was designed to deteriorate over time or it was rendered ineffective by sunlight, maybe the UV spectrum.”

   I nodded, “It sounds as though you’ve put some thought into it.”

   ‘I have, I was an Adjunct Professor at NMSU and taught science classes to the Arts Majors. Nothing heavy-duty, just enough to meet the requirements for a Bachelor of Arts degree.”

   “Ah,” I said. “I have a few of those under my belt.”

   “You’re a college graduate?” She asked.

   “Unfortunately, no. I was working full-time and taking classes at night and on-line.”

   “How close were you?”

   “I needed nine more credits for my BA.” I answered.

   “Oh, no, you were so close!”

   “Not close enough though. Okay,” I said. “How long will it take to organize your people and have them ready to move?”

   Jesse answered, “We’ve been preparing to move out for a long time, but had no idea where to go. We sent small groups to Deming and Lordsburg, but they were attacked and we lost folks in both towns. We even considered Silver City, but the guys that went to check it out were shot at more than once. We have enough school buses and trucks to move everyone and a lot of our belongings as well, we even scavenged fuel for the buses, trucks and the few private vehicles we still have.” He glanced at his two friends and said, “Probably tomorrow morning with a little luck.”

   Bellows spoke, “Screw luck, we are leaving in the morning, so you’re going to have to make it happen. We will meet you at the Mesilla Avenue on-ramp to the I-10 at eight o’clock tomorrow morning. Can you be there?”

   The three of them exchanged looks and finally, Jesse said, “If we’re a little late, can we catch up with you?”

   I said, “We don’t drive like bats out of hell, so yeah, there’s a good chance you may be able to.”

   Rich pointed to my radio pouch and the FRS civilian band handheld it contained, “FRS?”

   “Yes,” Bellows answered.

   “We have a few of those ourselves, but we try not to use them because Los Negros monitors radio comms around here, give us a channel to contact you on and at least we can let you know we’re coming.”

   “Alright,” Bellows said. “Send on channel 10, receive on channel twenty. That way they only get half the conversation if they detect your signal.”

   “Smart,” Jesse replied. “Until tomorrow morning then?”

   “We’ll see you at Mesilla,” Bellows replied.

   We waited until they passed from sight around a corner and then returned to our own, “What do you think?” Bellows asked.

   “Hard to tell, for sure, but they seem okay on the surface. Anything bothering you about them?” I asked.

   “It doesn’t really bother, me, but Debbie may not like that Stella woman.”

   “Why? She seemed alright.” I answered.

   “Yeah, but she sure was looking you over, hard and long, considering her husband was standing next to her.”

   “Really? I thought she was just being attentive.”

   “That’s a word for it alright, attentive. Debbie has always said you were a little naive for how intelligent you are.” I frowned and he smiled to ease the comment, “Geez, man, half the unmarried women in the Rangers and the Militia keep eyes on you, but Debbie has already staked a claim, so they don’t approach you. Just be aware, I wouldn’t encourage Stella with being too friendly, you know?”

   “Okay,” I said. “But I’m not so sure that was Stella’s intent; like you said, her husband was right there.”

   We finished securing the loads on, and within the trucks, then once again drove to an area outside of the city to park for the evening. The next morning, we gathered up our sleeping gear and headed for Mesilla and the I-10. We arrived fifteen minutes early and waited until eight o’clock, but no one appeared, so Bellows sent all but one of the trucks farther up the I-10 while we gave them a little extra time. At eight-fifteen we received a radio transmission that the Las Cruces group were almost there at Mesilla. At eight-thirty, a convoy of eight school buses and three UPS trucks arrived and lined up on the on-ramp. I was one of the crew that had remained at Mesilla and when Jesse stepped out of the first bus, I simply keyed the mic of my radio and informed him to follow us.

   We pulled slowly forward until the bus convoy began to follow and then accelerated up onto the freeway. West of Las Cruces there is a long uphill grade, and as we reached the top, I could see our own trucks pulling out from the side of the road and we fell in behind them. Initially there was a lot of chatter on the radios, people asking questions about where we were going and how long it would take to get there. Bellows finally got on the radio and told everyone to shut the chatter down because they were giving us away to anyone that might want to follow us. It was generally fairly quiet afterwards.

   It was almost three in the afternoon before we finally made radio contact with the facility and were able to inform them, we were almost home and were bringing new people with us. I could tell from Packer’s voice over the radio that he wasn’t excited about having 150 new people dumped in his lap without prior notice. When we finally arrived, we were sent to the air strip where all the newcomers’ vehicles were parked while a group of Rangers and Militia stood by. Doctor Horne showed up and began a process of examining the arrivals to make sure nothing was being brought in that might endanger the health of the community and it was easy to tell he was stressed over the possibility.

   He and the new Doctor worked together and the new guy told Horne he had brought quite a bit of pharmaceuticals that could be added to the facilities’ stocks if they were allowed to stay. The extra nurses and an extra pharmacist were worth considering also. The new doctor was also an obstetrician and Horne considered him an added bonus because we were experiencing a lot of pregnancies now that condoms were in short supply. Packer interviewed every veteran in the new group himself and found several who were interested in joining the Rangers and the rest said they were interested in the Militia. He was going to have Dan, Danni, Banner and Bellows also interview everyone. The newcomers had been through a lot of nasty circumstances and had already formed a militia themselves. Rich Morrison led their militia under the direction of Aquilar, so there was that. I found it personally odd that a guy married to a college professor would be interested in anything militaristic, but he said there was a reason why Stella had been kept as just an adjunct, her politics were a little too conservative for the faculty leadership. I ran into that myself on occasion when I actually attended classes. Most of the conservative professors were very old and carried a lot of tenure. The newer professors were the ones that seemed more liberal in their attitudes and belief systems.

   I didn’t see Debra until well after her normal time off; her squad had been doing a perimeter check and followed what they first thought to be someone scoping the facility again. It was, but it was a small family that were looking for somewhere to land after discovering that bugging out to the woods wasn’t as easy as they thought it might be. With winter coming on, they were looking to change their circumstances.

   The reunion with Debra was spectacular. When her patrol realized we were back, her squad leader cut her loose and she came running out to where we were busy integrating the new group. I could hear her calling my name as she searched through the crowd and started calling out to her also. At the time, I was standing with Rich and Stella and when they asked what was going on, I told them my fiancée was trying to find me. I was actually kind of surprised at the look of disappointment Stella had when she discovered I was engaged. I also noticed that Rich was staring at her and when she looked at him, he just shrugged and walked away. Debra found me, dropped her gear and literally wrapped her legs around me as I caught her flying at me.

   “You weren’t supposed to be back until tomorrow!” She kissed me and almost broke my neck she was squeezing me so hard, “Are you okay? You didn’t get hurt? Did you have trouble? Who are all these people?” Then she looked directly at Stella and said, “And who are you?” As she dropped her feet to the gravel.

   Stella smiled and said, “Professor Doctor Stella Morrison, School of Science, NMSU, Las Cruces.” She offered her hand in greeting.

   Debra glanced at her offered hand and then back to her face, “That was a mouth full, Debra Tarn, Daniel’s fiancée.”

   Stella gave her a strained smile and said, “Is that the only way you have to self-identify? Your association with a good-looking man?”

   “Debra,” I said as I placed a hand on her shoulder. “Stella’s husband just walked away, I’m sure…”

   “School of Science, huh?”

   “Yes.” Even I recognized the condescension in Stella’s short answer.

   “I graduated with honors from the school of death and destruction, I see you stare at my man’s junk again like you were when I got here and I’ll give you a demonstration of the expertise I possess in, MY, chosen profession.”

   Stella backed up a step and said rather quickly, “I better go find my husband,” as she stood on her tip-toes and glanced around over Debra’s head. “I’m kind of busy, so…”

   “Yes, you are,” Debra said as she took a step forward. “Does your husband know of your, busyness?”

   Looking over Debra’s head again, “Daniel, we’ll continue our conversation tomor…”

   “No,” Debra said. “You won’t, tomorrow, he’s going to be busy taking care of his fiancée’s needs.”

   Stella hurried away.

   Debra turned around and leaped back into my arms and wrapped her legs around me again, “If you could see your face right now!”

   “Debra…” Then I laughed and pulled her tight to me, “God, I’ve missed you!”

   “Me too!” She planted a kiss on me and then leaned back as she looked at me, “Did you see the pictures I added to your phone?”

   “Of course, I did. Babe, you are so beautiful, and sexy, and erotic.”

   “So, you liked them?”

   “Geez, Babe, what man wouldn’t?”

    She smiled and then said, “I’ve never done anything like that before, but for you, I’d do anything.”

   “Babe, I just thought of something.”

   “Oooo, a special request? What is it!”

   “Baby,” I whined. “No, well yes, do you remember the day I washed our laundry and then told you I smelled your shirt and got aroused by your scent?”

   “My stinky shirt! You are such a pervert!”

   “Babe, I have never, ever been with you when you smelled bad in any way. Really, next time we are separated, I want something you have spent the day in; a piece of clothing, so I can lose myself in your scent when I miss you.”

   “Oh, no, Honey, no, no way!”

   “Please?”

   “You really want something that I wore? Really?”

   “Yes, really.”

   “I’ll think about it, but no promises.” She looked around and then said, “Are you done here? Can we go home?”

   “I think so, are you ready?”

   “God, yes. I need a shower though when we get to our apartment.”

   I made a point of sniffing her hair and said, “No, you don’t.’

   We left and started walking home, hand-in-hand. My right leg had improved a great deal since the cast was removed, but it was still a little weak and it hadn’t been exercised or received physical therapy while I was gone, so it was with some relief when Dan and Danni pulled up beside us in a cart and offered a ride. We both threw our gear in the back and I added the pack I had taken with me on the salvage trip. When we arrived, they helped us carry our equipment in and then sat down while Debra and I both took a quick shower.

   I was the first out and opened the pack I had taken with me, “Okay guys, I returned bearing gifts, so I hope you aren’t offended by what I brought the two of you.”

   Danni immediately frowned and asked, “What did you bring back with you?”

   I opened the top of the pack and handed Dan two boxes of condoms, “If you guys are in the same shape as Debra and I, these might come in handy.”

   Dan laughed as Danni shook her head, “Dan,” she said. “Maybe you better hang on to those, the pill doesn’t affect me the way it does Debra.”

   “I know,” I said, “But how long do you think those pills are going last? I kind of doubt someone, somewhere, is mass producing them.”

   “Dan and I have already discussed it and if I get pregnant, hopefully it will be after things have reached a fairly normal situation. Either way, we’re kind of looking forward to it.”

   I nodded knowingly, “Yeah, Debra would get pregnant right now if she felt comfortable with the state of affairs, but until then, we’ll keep these handy.” I dropped the condoms back into the pack and pulled out a roofing hatchet I had found at Lowes. “I remembered you said once you wished you had gotten yourself one of these, Dan. Do you still want to try one out when you’re in the field?”

   “Hell, yeah!”

   “You’ll have to figure someway to attach the sheath to your gear though.”

   “I’ve got that covered, Danni has a few of those adapters Marines used for attaching their K-bars to their MOLLE gear.”

   “Really?” I said, then to Danni, “Do you have a spare one? Wait, never mind, I’ve got my knife attached already and it seems to be working fine.”

   “You sure?” Danni asked.

   “Yeah, I’m good to go.” I listened and then said, “It sounds like Debra is done in the shower and I have a surprise to give her, do you mind hanging out alone for a minute?”

   “Of course not,” Danni said. “Is she going to like it?”

   “I think so, I hope so.” I replied as I walked to the bathroom door and asked, “Hey, Babe? Can I come in for a minute?”

   “Don’t be silly, of course you can.”

   I eased the door open and saw she was bent over trying to dry her mass of hair. I stepped in and closed the door, “I got you a couple of things while I was gone.”

   She straightened up and looked at me, “You did? You didn’t go off by yourself and…”

   “No, I didn’t,” I said. “First, but not the most important, guess what I found?”

   She looked a little dubious, but I think she realized I wasn’t going to prank her somehow, “I hate guessing, you know that.”

   “Yeah, I know it, but I meant it as just an expression not actually a desire to play twenty questions with you. You know how you’re always saying you wish we were safe enough to have kids because you really enjoy it when, well, you know.”

   “When you’re inside of me, God you are such a prude sometimes.”

   I laughed and said, “One of us needs to be and I like the way you are, so you’re stuck with me being the prude. I found,” I said as I pulled a packaged condom from my shirt pocket. “This.”

   Her eyes lit up and she squealed, “You found one?” Then in a lower voice, she said, “I want to use it tonight, okay? Unless you want to save it for some special occasion?”

   “Babe, I found four cases.”

   “Four cases? Oh…my…god. Honey, you are the very best man a woman could want.” She grabbed me, kissed me, and then went back to drying her hair.

   “Baby, I’m not done yet, so throw that towel down on the toilet lid and sit down.” She frowned, but did as I asked, with no questions. I reached into my pocket, but before I pulled it out, I said. “Close your eyes.” She did, and I slipped it on to her ring finger, “Okay, you can look now.”

   Her eyes widened as she looked at the simple thin gold band with a small diamond. A gasp escaped and she looked up at me as a tear started to trickle down her cheek, “Honey, it’s a, it’s…”

   “An engagement ring,” I said. “And when you finally stop the planning and decide to do the actual deed, I have a matching wedding band to go with it.”

   “You really do want to marry me.”

   “Well, yeah, I mean, didn’t you think I wanted too? We’ve been talking about it for months, we live together, I love you and you love me, why wouldn’t I mean it?”

   She pulled me to her and held me against her body, “I knew it, but there’s always that little thought in the back of my mind, that maybe you will figure out I’m not worth it, or something. I’ve been told so many times that I’m…”

   “It wasn’t me, Baby, I’m the one that recognized what a prize you were and are. I’m going to be eternally thankful you gave me the chance.”

   She pointed behind me and said, “Bathrobe please?” I removed her robe from the hook she hung it from and handed it to her. She put it on, tied it off and then said, “Danni is going to full on shit, let’s go tell her.” She walked past me and into the living room as she wiped her eyes and then walked straight to Danni and held her hand out for Danni to see. “Look what I just got.”

   Danni’s eyes widened, “Wait, what? He just now, gave you, your engagement ring? When you had just got out of the shower with your hair everywhere, no makeup, not even any clothes on so you could have some dignity? Did he sit you on the throne while…oh my god, you were sitting on the toilet? Are you serious? Did he at least wait till you were done peeing?”

   I could feel my face draining of blood, how could I be such an idiot? Girls were all about how things should be done, the proper sequence of events, the proper…I really screwed up. “Uh, Debra, I mean, uh, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to, I really screwed this up, didn’t I?”

   She laughed, wiped her face again, and said, “No you didn’t. We don’t live in the same world anymore, and I think you are very romantic in your own little way. I’ve had three men offer me an engagement ring before. They all knew how to do it, the right words to say, everything, but you are the only one that made me feel like you meant it. You didn’t screw up; you love me unconditionally and I will always remember today with happiness.”

   Somehow, I felt like she was trying to ease the feelings of guilt flooding over me.

   “But,” Danni started.

   Dan interrupted her, “Danni, and where were we when I said you were going to marry me?”

   “You didn’t say I was going to marry you, you said…” He kept staring at her until she seemed to deflate, “Okay, yeah you did, but if you ever tell anyone what happened…”

   “Never,” he said.

   “What happened?” I asked.

   He laughed and said, “She was coming out of the head and…”

   “Daniel, I swear…” She said as she drew back her fist and aimed at his arm, “I mean it!”

   “Okay, okay, I said, never.”

   Debra got dressed and Danni helped her braid her hair. We ended up playing some cards for a while and finally Dan and Danni called it a night. I doubt they were more than ten feet from our door before Debra was dragging me to the bedroom while asking me where the condom was. A lot of people seem to consider sexual variety as new, and different people to have sex with. People like Debra and I, we like variety, but with each other, not others. I’ve noticed what seems to be people jockeying and shifting partners, I think some of it is people searching for someone to be with permanently, others I think are just looking for the variety they can’t imagine. Some, I think are just bored. I think that’s the case with Sara Gupta, she’s bored and shopping around. I wish she would have left when those other 800 people did, but she didn’t, and lately she’s been hanging around causing problems here and there, problems we don’t need, or want.

   She started approaching Dak and Felicia first and making overtures of friendship based on the last time she hung out with us. Knowing full well the stunt she pulled in the past with me and Debra, her reception was understandably cool. Dak and Felicia informed us of her interest in renewing the old acquaintanceship and asked the rest of us what we thought about her as we were playing cards one night. Naturally, Debra and I were definitely against her coming around, but Danni, with Felicia, seemed to think it could be advantageous.

   Debra was the first to voice her legitimate concerns, “No, absolutely not! I don’t want to see her! I don’t want to hear her voice! And I’m surprised the two of you would even think of having her come around. I’m not the only woman here that has a good-looking man they care about deeply. Why would you even want to have her close to your men?”

   Felicia answered, “Debbie, are you afraid that Sara will take Daniel away from you?”

   “No, absolutely not, but it didn’t occur to me she would even try before, and look what happened. I almost lost him forever and not because she almost got him, but because I believed the shit she created. That bitch wanted to ruin our lives, so she could get hold of Daniel’s sperm and impregnate herself with his child, no, absolutely not! I will kill that bitch…” I could see it coming, that anger that she and I knew we could control, if we chose to.

   “Babe,” I reached out and gently took her arm. “Babe, you are letting that shit get hold of you, come on, Babe, let it go, let it go.” I watched her eyes and as they started to get damp, I could see the calm coming. “There you go, she can’t hurt us anymore, she can’t.”

   She nodded, took a deep breath and exhaled, “No, she can’t.” then she turned to Felicia and added, “No, I’m not afraid she can take him from me, but that’s not the point, the point is, she tried. No matter how attractive I might think Dak is, even if I wasn’t with Daniel, even if I thought Dak was the most desirable man I had ever met, I would never consider coming between the two of you. I feel the same about Danni and Dan. No, some things are sacred, and trying to take another woman’s man is as far from sacred as you can get. Remember when we all saw the picture of Daniel and that woman? Do you remember? Both of you automatically supported me, even though we eventually found out the truth, but you were with me one hundred percent. That’s what sisters do, but Sara isn’t our sister, she doesn’t deserve the title.”

   Danni stepped forward and wrapped her arms around Debra, “Debbie, we’re not talking about her becoming our sister like you are, what we’re interested in, is delving deeper into her involvement in what happened to our world. I, and Felicia, both believe she can tell us an awful lot about what happened. Since most, if not all, of the ZPG people left, she has started to come around. There are times when you can see behind her eyes, and what I see is horror. Why didn’t she leave with the others? Why did she stay here, with us? Something is going on and we need to find out what it is.”

   “Try to think about my position here in the facility,” Felicia said. “As Governor, as the chief administration official, it’s my responsibility to discover the dangers my community faces and try to ameliorate the possible effects those dangers may have in store for our people. If that means I have to occasionally deal with the devil, then so be it. I just have to realize who I am dealing with and take that into account when I do it.”

   Debra frowned and said, “How do we know we can trust anything she says?”

   “That’s the whole point,” Dan said. “We know from past dealings with her she can be dishonest, we take that into account and verify anything she says. From her past actions, we know who she is, what she’s capable of, and then act accordingly when she tells us anything.”

   Debra looked at me and asked, “What do you think? Should we, god I don’t know, should we allow her to come around?”

   “I think the chance for her to cause problems is too big to ignore, I also think she may know things we need to know. Do I trust her? No, emphatically, no, but like Dan said, we know who she is. Another thing is, I want to know why she stayed when most of the others left. What happened? If we can get that out of her, it could be a start; I believe we should make the effort.”

      Debra reluctantly nodded, “Alright, but I’m not going to act like some new age forgiving person who turns the other cheek. If she even looks at you the wrong way, I’ll rip her hair out and I don’t care if it makes me sound like a jealous harpy.”

   I pulled her tight to me and said, “Deal, but if I tried to kick the ass of every guy that looked at you with desire, I’d be fighting all the time.”

   “And how many of those guys have sent you pictures of me making out with another man?”

   “None, of course,” I answered. “But I’ve seen guys looking at you that made me a bit irritated. The only reason I haven’t gotten pissed is because I know you would never respond to their advances if they made one.”

   She smiled up at me and said, “So, you do get jealous, huh?”

   “Yeah,” I hesitantly said. “But I trust you, I know you would never do something behind my back. You’re the type who would tell me you were tired of me and move on before getting a new man.”

   She snuggled up against me, “That’s not going to happen, I’m yours forever.”

   “Okay, you two,” Danni said. “If you need us to leave so you can have some quality time together, say so, otherwise let’s get back on topic. Do we encourage Gupta, or tell her to fuck off?”

   Debra looked up at me and finally said, “I guess we invite her in, but with reservation.”

   All six of us nodded and finally agreed.

   “Okay,” Felicia said. “I’ll invite her to join us the next time we get together, maybe a night of card games or something. When do you guys want to do it?”

   Danni said, “The sooner, the better.” Dan nodded in agreement.

   I glanced at Debra and then said, “As soon as possible.”

   Felicia looked at Dak and asked, “You’ve been quiet about the whole thing, what do you think?”

   “From the perspective of a friend? I say no. From the perspective of a psychologist? I say a reserved, yes. There’s pros and cons for any argument we have, but in the end, I think we give her the chance and if she blows it…oh well. At least we took the high road.”

   “Okay,” she said. “As soon as possible, so how about I invite her to play cards with us tomorrow night?” Everyone looked around, and nodded, “Okay then, tomorrow it is. We’re going to be an odd number of people, any idea of someone additional we can add?”

   Danni immediately said, “Ted Banner, he’s been wanting to find something to do besides work and drink. I think he’ll fit in with us pretty good.”

   “Okay,” Felicia said. “Since you know him, Danni, I’ll leave that to you.”

   So, the next night, Debra and I were waiting for everyone to show up and I could tell she was beginning to regret the whole idea of bringing Gupta into our private space. She wasn’t alone, I had my misgivings as well. Danni and Dan arrived first and they had Sergeant Banner in tow. I liked Banner quite a bit and was happy to bring him into the group. He was the one who had the tracker school and I know Debra often spoke highly of his abilities including his training style.

   When Danni, Dan, and I had approached Packer about brewing beer, he told us to pick one of the rooms in the construction workers’ barracks and set up there. While we were moving the equipment in, Marvin, one of the guys that worked for me on the sprinkler crew, recognized what we had and got excited. I guess he had been home brewing for years and wanted to know if he could help make a batch. So, he and Dan are working together and Dan is learning the trade. They have been using John’s notes and recipes and tonight we will be trying out the first batch while we play cards. I’ve got twelve quarts in the fridge and I’m hoping it will be as good as John used to make.

   Dak and Felicia finally made their appearance and Sara was with them. The first thing Sara did was ask Debra if they could speak privately for a few moments, so Debra took her outside and they were gone almost thirty minutes. I was starting to get rather nervous when they finally came back, but Debra seemed more relaxed even though Sara appeared to still be somewhat nervous. We sat around as a group and just talked for a while then we broke out enough of Marvin and Dan’s homebrew to give everyone a taste. I don’t believe it was as good as John’s, but it beat the shit out of Colorado Koolaide.

   We broke into two groups of four and started playing Canasta. Banner and Gupta had never played before, so the first couple of games were pretty rough as they started to get the hang of it. The beer helped to loosen everyone up and before long we were all laughing and joking around. Around eleven o’clock, Dan and Danni left, they had duty the next day, and shortly after, Dak and Felicia left. There were just the four of us left. One of the things I noticed was Banner seemed to engage Sara in a lot of conversation. When she finally said she needed to be leaving, Banner offered to walk her to her quarters and she accepted.

   At our front door, Sara stopped as they were leaving and said, “Debra, I realize that this evening must have been difficult for you, I just want to tell you how much I appreciate your forbearance. What I did, I wish I could undo, I wish I hadn’t…”

   “We had this discussion earlier, Sara, we agreed to start over and I don’t go back on my agreements. I’m very comfortable with Daniel’s and my relationship and I have no concerns over it anymore. Let’s see where this goes and leave it at that, okay?” Sara nodded quickly, gave us a brief smile and then walked away with Banner.

   After we closed the door, I asked Debra, “Okay, now tell me the truth, how are you really feeling?”

   “I willing to give it a shot, but it’s a very reluctant willing, you know what I mean?”

   “What did the two of you talk about outside?”

   “We carefully, very carefully, danced around the gorilla in the living room. Finally, she just flat out admitted that what she did was wrong on a shitload of levels and asked to be forgiven someday if she proved herself worthy of forgiveness.”

   “Do you think you can?” I asked. “Forgive her, I mean.”

   “Maybe, I don’t know, she has a long way to go for that.”

   “Good, that’s the same thing I was thinking.”

   “On the one hand, I want to hate her with every fiber of my being, but on the other, she seems so, I don’t know, lost, I guess. Did you know she wanted to leave with the ZPG people when they left?”

   “No, I figured she wanted to stay, maybe because being on the road might be dangerous.”

   “She says they wanted her go with them, but she says they told her she wasn’t committed to the cause. She wanted to follow a long-term solution to over-population, but they said the course was settled and they told her there was only one solution to the problem and they didn’t want to hear her suggestions anymore.”

   “What were her suggestions?”

   “She didn’t say, but I’m pretty sure neither of us would have approved.”

   “Okay, let’s change subjects, what did you think of Marvin’s and Dan’s beer?”

   “I can see it becoming a problem, that stuff was damned good.” She looked up at me and smiled, “That was one of your friend’s recipes, wasn’t it?”

   “Yeah, it was. You’re right though, I can see it becoming a problem.”

   “I noticed Sara didn’t think a whole lot of it at first, but then she seemed to relax and drink it once she found out it was the only alcohol available.”

   “Yeah, but not until Banner offered her more, that was when she seemed to really relax,” I said. “I think Banner is a little interested, what do you think?”

   She walked away, opened the fridge, and took out two of the quart bottles, “I think we have another beer and then make love, what do you think?”

   “I think another quart of beer and you’re going to be throwing a sheet over me wherever I pass out. I’ll split one with you?”

   “Deal.”

   The next day, Packer called the apartment and told Debra to go back to Fourth Squad, Sargent Thomas agreed to give Debra a chance and see how things worked out. I told her to be careful because he might try to push her buttons just to see if she would hold together. She agreed it was a definite possibility and if their roles were reversed, she might do the same. I was scheduled to return to work at Facilities with the plan of developing supply for all the new sprinklers needed for the conversion of the Workers’ Barracks to family quarters.

   Naturally, we continued to run into problems centered around material availability. Felicia, as Governor, assigned Morgan as the new director for construction materials. She wanted structures built for storage near the area she wanted allocated for farming during the coming Spring. That was going to require more visits to the lowlands for supplies. Then we started running into sanitation problems. We were going to need septic systems for all of the structures we needed Topside and we didn’t have the materials for that either. Morgan assigned one of the plumbers the task of figuring out what we could do in ways that were done in the past before industrialization, but the library within the facility was sadly lacking in information. It seems the powers-that-be before the ZPG people left didn’t have a clue when it came to building a new civilization from scratch.

   Most of the new people from Las Cruces were fitting in and many of the men and women joined either the Rangers or the Militia. After the period of time they had spent fighting to survive in Las Cruces, they were eager to make sure their new home was well-defended. We were again running out of weapons to issue to the newer members. Debra continued to practice with John’s bullpup and Packer was the first to suggest I consider allowing her to use it full-time. When I asked her if she would like to, she readily agreed, she had really come to like the weapon. With the heavier, fluted, barrel, she could readily outshoot her Designated Marksman Rifle. She turned in her rifle for someone else to use and began to carry the bullpup whenever she was on duty. She seemed to get a kick out of the two of us having similar, if not identical weapons. The one change she made to the weapon was to have Henderson thread the barrel so she could switch from a muzzle brake to a suppressor whenever she wanted. I had heard her original rifle fired with a suppressor on it and though it was quieter, it would never be considered silenced. She said only the rifles in Hollywood were silenced by suppressors; in the real world, the discharge could be muffled, but never silenced because the bullets traveled faster than sound and created a sonic boom just like a high-speed jet did. She told me the suppressor would make it more difficult for a counter-sniper to locate where the rifle was fired from and almost eliminate the muzzle flash. If it keeps her safer in a fire fight, I’m all for it.

   Jesse Aquilar suggested Felicia give him a post in the Facility Government because he was the leader of the new people, but she declined. She told him he would be found a job he could do and that would be the best way to fit in. He ended up in the same accounting office as Shayla Lincoln. Rich and Stella Morrison were both given jobs they could relate to. Stella went to Education and Science Development; her first job was to come up with expedient explosives that could be used by the Rangers and the Militia. She did that in an exemplary manner. Rich, who was an ex-Marine, went to one of the two new Ranger squads that were formed with the addition of the Las Cruces people.

   There were enough new volunteers for the Militia that Packer was able to form five new squads. Originally, my own squad in the Militia had been assigned as 1^st Squad, 3d Auxiliary Platoon, Able Company, but unofficially, we were the fourth squad of 2nd Auxiliary Platoon. Now, we were officially called, 1^st Squad, 3d Platoon, Able Company, Militia. Two more of the new squads were assigned to the 3d Platoon, and the final three were formed into 1^st Platoon, Baker Company Militia. Even though a significant number were ex-military, some were not, so they were immediately trained up as I had been. Gillian Packer and Mrs. Bellows were sewing their fingers to the bone to provide smocks for all the new Militia members.

   Some of the new people tried to fit into the Facility population, but many seemed to gravitate towards remaining separate. There was nothing wrong with maintaining friendships with people they had suffered with, but it also slowed the integration process. Major Packer, realizing the problem, took action. He eventually broke up the Militia squads that contained the people from Las Cruces and spread them through the Militia. That seemed to do the trick as the new people were accepted by the previous members of the Militia and they made new acquaintances they became friends with. Rich Morrison, though he was assigned to the Rangers, would often seek me out and talk. That’s how I came to learn why he put up with Stella’s often blatant overtures to other men while he was present. Before the end of civilized society, they had filed for divorce and when things started breaking down, Rich left the apartment he had moved to when they separated and moved back into the home they had bought together previously, for mutual protection. He told me the separation had been Stella’s idea from the start and she had wished to experience herself without his encumbrance. He seemed sad about the whole episode, but also seemed to have accepted that his marriage was over. When I asked him why she still used his last name instead of her maiden name he laughed and said, “Staszczyk, spelled S-t-a-s-z-c-z-y-k. Her maiden name was Polish and she always hated it because so many people struggled trying to pronounce it. She told me she was really happy when she married me because she could change her name to something pronounceable.”

   “Wow,” I said. “That is a tongue twister isn’t it?”

   He laughed again, “Yeah, but it wouldn’t hurt my feelings if she changed her name to something even easier to say like, I don’t know, Stella Asshole, or something even easier to say.” His expression saddened and I realized he still loved her.

   “So, I guess the ‘encumbrance’ was sort of one-sided?”

   “Yeah, she said she needed someone who wanted to be something, do something with their life, be important, or something. I was simply happy just loving her and being with her; raising a family together, you know?”

   “Yeah, I know, I’m happy as hell with Debra; we’re so much alike and yet, so different also.”

   “When I see the two of you together, I get jealous because the two of you are so good together. Maybe someday I can find someone like that too, but I’m not holding my breath, you know? Just a word of caution, after the little run in Stella had with Debra, she backed off her interest in you, but since we’ve been here and she’s heard so much about you, I think she might be exploring the possibility of trying to take you from her.”

   “Not going to happen,” I said. “We’ve already had someone try that and they were almost successful. No, it’s going to be me and Debra, all the way to the end.” I paused, and then asked, “What has Stella heard about me?”

   He gave me a puzzled expression and answered, “You’re kidding, right? Smith, you’re a damn legend around here. Stella says, any woman with a mercenary nature is probably keeping an eye on yours and Debra’s relationship. And the guys around here? Shit, they admire the hell out of you, and wish Debra was available. Some of the stories I’ve heard about you are damn near unbelievable. Did you really go into a fire fight with a broken leg? Or kill a man with your bare hands while rescuing two women, again with the same broken leg and after being shot?”

   I looked away in embarrassment and said, “I didn’t know my leg was broken.”

   He started laughing and said, “Oh, well that explains it all.” He laughed again and added, “When I first heard about the, ‘Oh yeah, I got shot’ thing, I thought it was an exaggeration, you know, a little bullshit to liven up a story, but I bet you really did say that.”

   “Do me a favor, don’t mention that little episode around Debra, okay? She still gets a little bent out of shape when she thinks about it. I know she’s really pissed when she starts a sentence with, Mister Oh Yeah, I got Shot.”

   “Deal.”

 

   Things kind of settled into a new normal. Packer started sending teams of Rangers out to explore the surrounding territory and make contact with any people they came across. There were quite a few as we eventually discovered. They were spread out pretty thinly, but they were there and loosely organized. Most of them were cattle ranchers or their employees, but there were others as well.  Some were retirees, some were definitely less desirable types, like meth cookers, and the like. We made contact with the ones we deemed desirable and arranged agreements that could benefit all of us. The cattle ranchers and small farms were a real boon; fresh beef was back on the menu at the cafeteria and after the farmers realized there was a substantial population at the facility, they made plans to expand their plantings come the next spring. At the request of the surrounding population, Packer and Felicia formed agreements to begin patrolling the roads. We even took in a few and included them at the facility.

   Another project Packer was working on was getting a Ranger team over to Holloman Air Force Base near Alamogordo, New Mexico. He was still wondering about Dan’s belief a Predator had flown over the facility. The Major believed if one had flown over, it could also have come from Tucson; either way, it was on his to-do list. I was rather curious about the possibility of someone watching us also, but if Major Packer sent a team to Tucson, or Holloman, Debra as ex-Air Force was guaranteed to be on the team that went; I wasn’t happy about that. Hell, Predators were long range aircraft and could come from places a lot farther away. I’d have to wait and see.

  

   We had another get-together with the eight of us again, and I was surprised to see Banner and Gupta making headway in their fledgling relationship. There was a lot of personal touching going on, but when I asked Banner about it, he said they were taking it slow. Danni told me when she spoke with Sara, she said she was eagerly waiting for Banner to make all of the first moves. She was finding him intriguing. I don’t know, I hope things will get better for her, but all I have experienced has been her less favorable side; I guess Banner is seeing something else. We did have an interesting talk before we were supposed to start playing cards and we never did actually start playing.

   I was still wondering about the papers I had seen in the cafeteria with her name on them and rather than beat around the bush, I straight up asked her about internet access. “Sara, does your lab have access to the internet?”

   She simply stared at me for a few moments and then reluctantly gave me a simple nod.

   “No one else is getting anything, how are you getting it?” I asked.

   “It’s an encrypted satellite transmission.” I could tell she really didn’t want to talk about it, but Banner, who was standing nearby, abruptly sat beside her.

   “Sara, when I told you I was interested in seeing where we could take this, whatever it is we’re doing, I meant that completely. I really do want this thing between us to develop, but like you yourself said, you needed to earn our trust. This is a chance, there will be more, but this is a big one. Those people had you do things you didn’t agree with and then they shit on you because you were not on board for the way they wanted to proceed. Tell everyone where you were, the day they left.”

   “I was hiding.” She was staring at her hands as she starting wringing them.

   “Why,” I asked.

   “I was afraid.”

   Banner sighed and said, “Sweetheart,” Sara glanced at him with a surprised expression on her face and then concentrated on her hands again. “Three-word answers are not going to cut it.”

   She cleared her throat and then said, “I was hiding because I overheard two of the lab technicians talking about me the day before everyone left. They didn’t realize I could speak Spanish. They were the ones from Venezuela and they were part of the ANTIFA contingent here at the Facility.”

   Debra gasped, “Wait! What! There were ANTIFA people, here, in the Facility?”

   Sara nodded, “Yes, that was another thing I disagreed with. I have no respect for terrorists. My parents were killed in Mumbai by Muslim jihadists. ANTIFA is just another group like those.”

   “Sara,” I said. “What did they say that made you want to hide?”

   “They were glad we would be leaving the next day and they could put an end to me. The way they said it, it sounded like there were more than just them that wanted me dead.” She pulled a handkerchief from one of her pockets and dabbed at her eyes. “Those people, they say you are with them all the way, or you are against them; there is no middle-ground.”

   “If you knew that,” Danni asked. “Why didn’t you come forward sooner? Why didn’t you warn us of what they were planning?”

   She wiped her eyes again before she answered, “I had faith in the movement, that it would find the moral way to reduce the population. Mass murder was not what I envisioned. I saw a slowing of the birth rate and then a reduction as births continued to fall. I advocated for selective breeding, that would allow the most promising members of each race to repopulate the earth with a manageable number of people. I read somewhere that it takes seven generations for people to change their basic belief systems, we couldn’t wait that long, within fifty years it would be too late to make a change and the effects of climate change would be irreversible. Seven generations would add up to 175 years, that would have been 125 years too late. The Earth, our mother, would be terminally wounded. It was just a matter of time until we all died with our planet and I couldn’t understand why so many people refused to believe the scientists. 97% of scientists agreed we were adversely affecting our world, but no one tried to stop it.”

   I shook my head, “Well, that seven generations thing you mentioned? The idea it takes seven generations for people to change comes from the Iroquois Nation circa 1300 AD. Add in, an Iroquois generation is 100 years instead of twenty-five years like we consider it to be, and there’s not much sense even trying if that’s the case. As far as 97% of scientists agreeing people are causing climate change? That’s BS also. In actuality, only 1.6% of the scientists actually surveyed, agreed that man was causing a dangerous degree of climate change, the rest agreed with the statement, mankind might be adding to it, but not to a dangerous degree.”

   You could have heard a pin drop in the room. Dak was the first to reply, “Why would someone lie about climate change to begin with? It doesn’t make sense.”

   I shrugged, “Any number of reasons are possible, but the one I’m going with is, the guy who did the study needed research funds and thought he came up with a new exciting topic he wanted to explore. People love doom and gloom until it’s knocking on their door, then, not so much.”

   Sara shook her head, “I refuse to believe that. Everywhere you would go you would hear that 97% statement. I heard it in lectures as a student, politicians repeated it, my fellow scientists repeated it constantly as the reason we had to take action as quickly as possible.”

   Banner spoke up, “Didn’t Herman Goebbels say if you repeated a lie enough times it becomes the truth?”

   I nodded, “Yes, he did. For those of you who don’t know who he was, he was Adolf Hitler’s Minister of Propaganda and he used the idea constantly. I discovered he wasn’t the first to say it though, I believe the first time it was printed was in 1869, but I can’t remember the name of the book.”

   Debra frowned and asked, “Why would you read a book published in 1869? Things have changed so much…oh, you were a History major, that’s right.”

   I laughed, and said, “Babe, I didn’t read the whole book, just the part that was cited in the footnotes of another book I did read. I used to always check the veracity of footnotes because they were wrong so many times. I counted the incorrect footnotes of one book I had to read in college and found as many as 28% of them were misquoted, or completely unconnected to the topic they were used for.”

   Dan looked shocked, “Are you shitting me?”

   “God’s truth, Dan, 28%.”

   “No,” Sara said. “What you said, about climate scientists, it can’t be true, it can’t.” She was obviously distressed, “If what you say is true, then everything I have done was based on a lie. My whole life, is a lie, everything I’ve…”

   Banner took one of her hands and said, “You did what you thought was best for the world, for humanity. The world was over-populated and you wanted to solve that problem. The way you wanted to do it was the correct way, the humane way. What it looks like the others did? No, that was wrong, what they did was murder, no, what they did was the worst case of genocide the world has ever seen.”

   “Sara,” Debra said. “Did you know what they were doing? What they created? Did they create the different versions of the flu the world suffered from? Finally, what did you know about the blue aerosol that was crated up in your lab? Where was it sent and why? Wasn’t the flu bad enough? Billions died, so many children.”

   “I was, I am, a geneticist. I don’t make poisons to kill people, I tried to find ways to eliminate the parts of the genome that weakened us, cures for genetic malfunctions. I believed, and still do, that our predilections to destroy could be removed with enough study. Once the population was reduced, there would be no need for wars for resources, clean water, fuels, all the things that were running out.”

   “Lebensraum,” I said.

   Danni looked at me and asked, “What?”

   “Lebensraum, it’s German for living room. They wanted more land to call their own, so their population could spread out and expand. It was one of the more compelling reasons for why they started the Second World War.”

   Dan looked puzzled, “I thought they started the war as an excuse to wipe out the Jews?”

   “Don’t get me wrong,” I said. “What they did to the Jews was horrific, over six million were killed, but they also killed an additional five million of other groups, Gypsies, Slavs, the mentally ill, people with birth defects, you name it. As horrible as what they did was, others have been better at it. Stalin, or Mao se Tung, come to mind the easiest, another could be Margaret Sanger. They killed tens of millions of their own countrymen over politics, or racial prejudice, but they don’t even come close to what the ZPG people have accomplished. Sanger would be proud of what they have done.”

   Debra sighed, “Yeah, I have always wanted to have a big family with lots of children if I could find the right guy.” She smiled at me and winked, “but I always kind of kept it to myself because so many people were against big families, you know?”

   I could tell that Sara wanted to make a comment about having large families, but she controlled herself and kept her mouth shut. I also noticed both Danni and Felicia nodded in agreement with Debra’s sentiments. I knew Danni was raised by her aunt and was an only child like Debra, but I discovered that Felicia had seven siblings and wanted a large family of her own. I noticed when she talked about it, Dak got a bit pale. I felt the same as Debra, I wanted as many kids as she was willing to have. I guess growing up in foster homes made me want a family I could call my own.

   As a group, we talked well into the evening before everyone began to leave for home. Early the next morning Banner came to talk to me again; he had some distressing news he had gotten from Sara. He said that when he and Sara arrived at her apartment, she had invited him in and asked him to spend the night with her, but that wasn’t the news he found distressing. Sara told him that the people who had left for parts unknown, considered their leaving as temporary, they fully intended to return and retake the facility. Not only that, they completely believed they would have help from trained, military forces.

 

Chapter 15

   Debra and I were preparing to go to the cafeteria when Banner arrived, but with the news he had, all thoughts of eating were gone. Instead of breakfast, the three of us headed for Packer’s office at the Ranger’s Bunker. When we arrived, Major Packer looked surprised.

   “Smith, Tarn, and Banner, well this is different,” he said. “Why is something different making me nervous?”

   “We need to talk, Major, and it could be news you don’t want to hear,” I said.

   Packer pointed at the two chairs in his office and said, “I guess we need another chair, Sargent Banner, why don’t you grab another one from the Ready Room.”

    “I’ll get it,” I said. “Ted, why don’t you get started.”

   Banner said, “Thanks, Daniel,” as I turned and left the office. When I returned with a chair, I placed it next to Debra and started listening.

   “…so, she invited me to stay the night with her.”

   “About time,” Packer said. “I was beginning to wonder if I needed someone else to approach Gupta.”

   Huh? I thought to myself.

   “Sir,” Banner said. “I started this process as a favor to you, but to tell the truth, I’ve become more involved than I intended to. Frankly, I’ve developed rather strong feelings for Sara and this whole project is starting to screw with me.” He shifted in his seat and looked away from Packer for a moment before once again looking him in the eye.

   “I see,” Packer replied. “How involved have you become?”

   “Very, but I do not believe it has affected the performance of my duty. However, if you decide to banish Sara, I will be leaving with her.”

   “I don’t consider that a viable option, you’re too valuable to the Rangers.” He scrubbed his face and then said, “Okay, you didn’t come here to extort a promise to allow her to stay, so why are the three of you here?”

  Banner slid forward to the edge of his seat, “Because late last night, or early this morning, while Sara and I were talking in be…while we were talking, she told me something I felt you needed to know at the earliest opportunity. I told Sara that I was going to tell you and she said that was the reason she was telling me. I truly believe she is coming around, Sir.”

   “Okay, and what is this crucial information?”

   “Sara is convinced, the people who left here are planning on returning and retaking the facility with the help of trained military personnel.”

   “God damn it, I was afraid that son-of-a-bitch wasn’t just blowing smoke up my ass!”

   Nether Debra, or Banner replied, so I said, “Sir?”

   “Anthony Dupree, that French fucker on the Final Authority, when they were in the process of bugging out, he made a comment to me as he was leaving. He said it looked like the inmates were now running the asylum, but he wondered how long we could keep it. Then he said he would be seeing me again under different circumstances.”

   “Ah, great,” I said sarcastically. “I wonder where they went and who is going to help them?”

   “This is going to create a major burden for the Rangers,” Packer said. “We’re going to need OPs, roving patrols, Reaction Teams and more intensive training for the Militia in both rural and urban settings. We need the capability to monitor radio comms, maybe some sort of anti-aircraft capability. Christ, my life is getting extremely difficult.” He looked at Banner directly and asked, “Did Gupta have any kind of timeline?”

   “No, Sir, she just knows what she heard during unguarded moments,” Banner replied. “You have to remember; she was marked as unreliable and was probably facing a death sentence if she left with the others.”

   “So, you’ve told me,” Packer leaned back in his chair and again scrubbed his face. “Okay, I want a meeting with every Company Commander, Platoon Leader and Squad Leader from the Rangers and the Militia in two hours.” He turned to his phone and picked it up, finally he said, “Gillian, use the P.A. system and announce a Yellow Alert immediately,” He glanced at his watch and then added, “Also announce a briefing for all Company, Platoon, and Squad Leaders at 0900 hours in the Ready Room, thank you.” Turning back to Banner, he said, “how’s that school of yours coming?”

   “I’ve got a backlog of people wanting to take it.”

   “Good, co-ordinate with the squad leaders, I want at least one trained tracker in each of the Ranger and Militia squads, preferably one in each fire team.”

   “Yes, Sir, with your permission, I’ll get started on that now.”

   “Granted.” Banner stood and saluted before he left, Debra and I started to stand also, but Packer waved us back down, “Tarn, I want to talk with you for a moment.”

   “Yes, Sir?”

   I started to stand and leave, but once again, Packer waved me down, “This concerns you too, Smith.” I sat back down, and Packer continued, “Debra, Banner says you were damn good in his tracking class and Thomas says you’re one of the best Designated Marksmen he’s ever seen.”

   “Really?” She said.

   “Yes, Thomas also says that since he has been serving with you, he has reappraised his opinions and believes you would be an outstanding Assistant Squad Leader. However, with your tracking skills and your DMR skills combined, he would rather utilize you as a Scout Sniper, what do you think? How do you feel about that?”

   “The skills of a Tracker and a Scout aren’t really the same, Sir, but I’m willing to give it a try.”

   “There is some overlap, Tarn, Thomas was a Raider, but he’s also ex-Force Recon and says he would be more than willing to train you in scouting.”

   “I’ll serve wherever you think is best, Sir.”

   “Good, you are officially the Rangers’ first Scout Sniper. One other thing, though you will not be an Assistant Squad Leader, you will be in the chain of command. Therefore, I am advancing you to the rank of Sargent. Do you accept?”

   Debra smiled broadly at me and then said, “Yes, Sir, I do!”

   “Good, get on over to your squad bay and inform Sargent Thomas, I’ll give him a call myself after you head that way.”

   “Thank you, Sir!” She stood and saluted the Major and then we walked out and into the Ready Room where she threw her arms around me and said, “See? I told you it would work out, didn’t I!”

   “Babe, I am so proud of you, but does this mean I have to salute you before sex now?”

   “No, no saluting, but if you could stand at attention…oh wait! You already do that, don’t you!” She started laughing.

   “Good grief”, I said. “Now whose being silly? Get going, I’ve got an extremely important sprinkler head somewhere that needs to be moved, or something.” She gave me that sexy contralto chuckle of hers and quickly jogged away. I headed over to Facilities and discovered the work they wanted done, couldn’t be, because of lack of material. Then Morgan told me I had a call waiting for me.

   I was surprised after I said hello, it was Sara Gupta. “Hey Sara, what’s up?” I really didn’t want to speak with her without someone else present, but I went with it.

   “Daniel, I called Debra’s squad bay, but they told me she was reassigned to a different squad. Then I tried calling Theodore, but they told me he was involved with a training exercise and was in the field. I don’t know how to contact Danni or Dan and Felicia…”

   “Cut to the chase, Sara, I don’t need a list of reasons why you are calling me. What do you need?”

   She hesitated, and I began to wonder if my tone was harsh, but then she said, “Last night, you asked if I had an internet connection. I told you I did, and I suppose you might want to use it?”

   “If possible, yes, but you said it was encrypted.”

   “The connection is encrypted, yes, and you need a computer that contains the decipher program in order to use the internet. When everyone left, they took my computer from my lab and from the others as well, they thought by removing the equipment they could isolate the facility and make sure anyone who stayed, like me, wouldn’t be able to use it.”

   “But you’re using it, how are you managing that?”

   “After the accident in my lab, I was told all of the electronic equipment was going to be replaced because of contamination concerns. I went to the computer tech’s boneyard and took the hard drive from a nonworking computer and replaced the one in my lab with the bad one. We received our new computers, and I kept the hard drive from the old lab computer hidden. The new computers were already encrypted, but when they started to suspect I wasn’t fully agreeable to their plans, they took my encrypted equipment and isolated me from the net. After they left, I changed out the hard drives and now I’m back on the encrypted net. It’s been a godsend for me.”

   “Is the computer in your lab?” I asked.

   “Yes,” she said. “But the connection has been spotty lately. I need a computer tech I can trust to see if it can be improved.”

   “You don’t know anyone you can trust.” It wasn’t a question; it was a statement.

   “No.”

   “What are the chances we can figure out some way to add the encryption translation to other computers, like mine?”

   “I don’t know, swapping out the hardware was simple, but now I’m thinking we’re getting into coding. I was told some of the Las Cruces people were computer students, maybe we could check with them?”

   “I don’t know either, I’ll check around and see what I can come up with.”

   “I’m sorry, Daniel, I wish I could be more helpful.” She sounded sincere.

   “That’s alright, and thank you, Sara, I’m glad you gave us the latest information you have. Do you have any idea where they may have gone?”

   “No, only that it had a military contingent they could rely on.”

   “Okay, thanks again and I’ll try to keep you in the loop, alright?”

   “Thank you, Daniel, goodbye.”

   “Bye, Sara.” I hung up the phone and stared at Morgan’s wall. “What now?” I asked it.

   

   I left Morgan’s office and walked to Packer’s again, but he wasn’t there. As I was about to leave, Gillian came out and saw me, “Daniel, did you need something?”

   “I needed to speak with the Major; I just spoke with Sara Gupta, and she said she had a tentative internet connection, but according to her it was spotty. We really need to get back to it somehow and I was wondering if he has, or knows, someone that might be able to help.”

   “Well, I’m no slouch and I can even do some minor coding, but I’m willing to bet we need someone with a little more, shall we say, expertise? I know a couple of the people from Las Cruces were employed at NMSU and were involved with computers, you might touch bases with Stella Morrison, she should know who they are.”

   “Ah, no, I’m afraid someone else will have to do that, let’s just say Debra would frown if I had any dealings with Stella.”

   “Really? Stella seems rather nice.”

   “Yeah, I thought so too, but even Sargent Bellows warned me off from her. He said she was looking me over pretty hard and didn’t think Debra was going to be all that welcoming about it.”

   “Well, I’m sure if someone warns Stella that Debra can be rather, possessive…”

   “Too late,” I said. “Debra saw her giving me the once over the day Stella’s group arrived here and there were a few words exchanged. Stella attempted to wow Debra with her title and how smart she is and then insinuated that Debra’s claim to fame was being my fiancée; it didn’t go over very well.”

   “Oh my, she didn’t realize the stringent employment standards for everyone working here, did she?”

   “No. Stella introduced herself as Professor Doctor Stella Morrison, Science department, NMSU, Las Cruces.”

   “Oh, wow, that was a mouthful.”

   I started laughing and said, “That’s the same thing Debra said!”

   Gilly laughed and said, “Good for her. What happened next?”

   “The comment about Debra identifying as my fiancée, and then Debra said something like, School of Science, huh? And Stella said, in very condescending manner, yes, and Debra said she graduated with honors from the school of death and destruction, and she would give Stella a demonstration of her expertise in her chosen discipline if she caught Stella staring at her man’s junk again.”

   Gilly burst out in gales of laughter, just as Major Packer strolled through the doors of the Ready Room. “What the hell is this, Smith, you making a play for the finest woman in the Hole?”

   I couldn’t help it, I had never heard Gilly laugh like that and it was infectious, I started laughing harder. “Sorry, Major, but I’m going to let Mrs. Packer explain, she can probably do a much better job than I can.”

   She tried several times, but every time she got to Debra’s statement about watching my junk and death and destruction, she would lose it again. So, even though she was telling the story, I ended up finishing the critical parts. Packer got a huge kick out of the whole episode. “Yep,” he said, “That’s our Debbie alright.” I told him of Sara’s phone call and after checking the time, he told me he needed to prepare for the upcoming meeting, but he would check with Stella herself and see if the Las Cruces people had anyone that could help to establish a reliable connection to the internet and transfer the encryption.

   I left, and looking for something to do, I wandered over to the Machine Shop to touch bases with Henderson. I wanted to see if he was having any luck with the measurements, he had taken from my bullpup carbine. He told me he had a working prototype, but he still needed material for the barrel. He had given a short list of required metals to Morgan, and Morgan had promised to send the request with any salvage crews that were sent out. The two metals he was most interested in acquiring was SAE 4140 chrome-molybdenum or "chrome-moly" steel and the second was 416R Stainless-steel; either one was suitable for barrels. He told me he had a short conversation with Packer concerning the possibility of automatic weapons and he figured he could develop something along the lines of what Packer was looking for, but it was going to be a ways down the road before he would be able to start on the proposed project. Another project he was working on in his spare time was a breakdown rifle with an integral suppressor. He was leaning towards making it chambered for .45 ACP in order to keep the velocity below 1126 feet per second, thereby eliminating the sonic crack of a bullet breaking the sound barrier. It was a fairly interesting discussion.

   After finishing with Henderson, I decided to go to the cafeteria for an early lunch or late breakfast. As I walked in, I saw Rich Morrison standing in the buffet line with Nadia Tooles. I grabbed a tray and joined them, “Hey, Guys,” I said.

   “Hey, Daniel,” Nadia said, and Rich smiled as he nodded to me.

   “Late breakfast?” I asked.

   “Naw,” Nadia said. “Late dinner. I was stuck working on the electrical switch for the fuel transfer pump on the Number Three generator last night.”

   “What was wrong with it?” I asked.

   “It took us forever to trace it down, but someone installed an interrupter in the remote signal wires.”

   I laughed and said, “Okay, that sounded a lot like Greek to me.”

   “Join the club,” Rich said.

   Nadia chuckled and then explained, “You know we cycle through all three facility generators, right?”

   “Yeah, during the daylight hours when most people are awake, we run two of the gennies,” I said. “At night, the facility powers down and we run off one, but one is on standby. Maintenance is performed at low power hours on the third generator that is not on standby.”

   “Good, you know the basics.” She said, “Last night while the crew was inspecting, and maintaining, Generator Two, Generator Three started sending alarms that the fuel transfer switch was inoperable. What a cluster fuck. The Diesel Maintenance guys started going like gangbusters trying to get Number Two back online while we started searching for the problem. They got Number two back up and shifted it to standby and took Three offline. Generator One was working fine, so we relaxed and started tracing circuits.”

   I’ve been in the dark inside the facility when the power has gone down and it’s not fun, at all. In fact, I don’t know of anyone who doesn’t carry a flashlight with them at all times. “So, everything is good to go?” I asked.

   “Not at first, we couldn’t find the problem, but finally, we found the interrupter inside of a junction box. After examining the equipment that had been installed, we realized what we were looking at was sabotage. That led us to start tracing circuits on the other two Generators and guess what we found?”

   “They were sabotaged also?” I asked.

   “Yep, one of our guys did a diagnostic and discovered all three gennies were set to shut down at the same unknown time and stay off until the interrupters were removed.”

   “Why would someone do that? I mean that’s kind of a shitty hack, you know? And why didn’t the other two gennies go down the same time as Number Three?”

   “The interrupter was wired into the wrong power supply circuit, received too many amps and the timer burned out. It was a screwup that blew their plan,” she said.

   “So, this was definitely, purposeful?” I asked.

   “Oh, yeah, most definitely. We figure some of the ZPG people did it just to fuck with us when they decided to leave,” she added.

   “So, the interrupters were on timers, are you sure? If so, can you tell me when they were supposed to go off?”

   Rich raised one eyebrow and asked, “There’s more to this than just a shitty prank?”

   I answered, “I hope not.”

   “I don’t know,” she said. “We pulled them out and gave the equipment to our Super, he said he would give it to Morgan.”

   “Okay,” I said with a little more urgency. “I’m going to take this to Morgan, Ortiz, and Packer and see what they think about it.” I continued through the buffet, but all I took was a cold cut sandwich and then hurried back to the Ranger Bunker.

   When I arrived outside the Ready Room it was crowded and Packer’s emergency meeting with his leaders was just getting started. I was going to wait, but left for Facilities instead. When I arrived, I went straight to Morgan’s office and knocked, he looked through his window, saw me, and waved me inside.

   “Smith, what’s going on?”

   “I heard you had someone pranking with the Generators last night.”

   “Yeah, we figure one of those asshats that left wanted to screw with us one last time.”

   “Do you have the, uh, interrupters, I think Tooles called them?”

   He opened a drawer and removed a handful of small black units and displayed them, “I’m going to have Electrical check all of our critical systems to make sure they didn’t screw with anything else. These wouldn’t have caused any major damage, in and of themselves, but if the one hadn’t fried, we could have been searching in the dark for the others for god knows how long.”

   “So, all they would have done is created a major headache and a lot of dark,” I asked for clarity.

   “Yeah, once removed, everything goes back to normal.”

   “Tooles said they were timers; do we know when they would have shut down the electrical?”

   “I don’t,” he answered. “But anyone with some computer skills should be able to determine that, why?”

   “Because I’m thinking this may be something more than a prank. Do you mind if I take those?”

   “Sure, if you think you need them. You can tell which one was burned out; the plastic case is melted.”

   I reached across his desk and took the items he held out, “Thanks, Morgan, I’ll catch you later, okay?”

   “Sure thing,” he answered.

   My leg has been steadily improving, so I jogged back to the Bunker; the meeting was still in progress. I stood outside and waited, hoping Packer would notice me. He didn’t, but Gillian did. She was standing just outside of Packer’s office and covertly waved to me with a curious expression on her face. I pointed to the Major, pointed to myself, and then tapped the face of the watch on my left wrist. She nodded to me and gestured for me to go around. I figured she intended for me to come in the back way through the Family Barracks; I nodded and hurried outside.

   Gillian met me in the hall of the barracks, “Daniel, what is it?”

   “Gilly,” I held out the interrupters. “Someone installed these in the control circuits of all three of our power Generators. We know they are timers, but I think we need to know when they were set to shut down our power.”

   She took one from my hand and inspected it, “I’ve never seen anything like this, but I know what this is,” she pinched an oblong portion of the instrument she was holding and pulled it out. “This, is a thumb drive; follow me.”

   I followed her back along the hall to a door she opened and then through another door to the right, I suddenly realized I was in hers and the Major’s private quarters; someplace I had never been invited, so I stopped and waited at the door. She walked to a computer workstation and then looked back at me, “Daniel, please come in.”

   “Yes, Ma’am.” I walked in as she turned on her computer and I admired what she had; there were three computer screens and all of them had different things displayed on them.

   She busied herself changing a few of the cables around and then glanced up at me, “I’m isolating the systems so if there is a malicious virus, it doesn’t infect all three.” Finally, she placed the thumb drive into the side of a computer, used the mouse to open a few different pages and then leaned forward to examine the results. “It is a timer, it was designed to break a single, low voltage, electronic circuit.” She looked up at me and asked, “These were installed in the control circuits of all the Generators?”

   “Yes, Ma’am.”

   “How were they discovered?”

   I held up the one that was melted, “This one was connected to the wrong power source, which caused it to burn out and prematurely send a warning signal to the controls that started shutting down the fuel supply.”

   She nodded, “Ingenious. Was it hidden within the normal wiring circuits?”

   “Yes, Ma’am, it took the electricians hours to locate all three. Once the power was off, all someone would have to do is remove these and restart the system.”

   “So, they could deprive us of power and when they were once again in control, turn everything back on.”

   “That’s what I’m thinking, can you tell when they were supposed to activate?”

   “Of course, They would have all activated at 0300 hours,” she looked at a calendar and then added. “Thirteen days from now.”

   “Three o’clock in the morning,” I said. “That would be a good time to stage an attack, wouldn’t it?”

   She turned and looked up at me, “Yes, it would. I guess I better tell the Major; he’s not going to be happy about me interrupting his meeting.”

   “No, probably not, maybe we should wait until the meeting is over?”

   “Absolutely not, he would be even more upset if he wasn’t told right away.” She stood up as though she was bracing herself, then smiled and said, “Follow me,” as she walked out of the apartment up the hall to the Major’s office and the Ready Room. I followed, but I stopped before following her into the Ready Room. She walked deep enough in, so he could see her coming, then turned and strode straight to him and whispered in his ear for a moment.

   I’ll give him credit, he immediately asked, “How did you find this out? Is the source credible?”

   She nodded and then pointed to me where I stood. He turned and looked at me and turning back to the audience in the room said, “We have new intelligence we just received; it appears we have thirteen days to prepare for an attack by what we assume will be a trained military force, continue with your SOP until notified. Captain Williams, Sargent Thomas, and Sargent Bellows, please remain, the rest of you are dismissed.”

   Thomas and Bellows both moved forward as everyone else were filing out of the Ready Room. Williams was standing beside and slightly behind Packer while he was addressing the troops, now he walked forward and sat on one of the tables. “Major?”

   Packer held his hand up for a moment as he addressed Gillian, “Call Felicia Ortiz and have her get down here right away, as Governor, she needs to be in on this.” She nodded and hurried away, then Packer waved me into the room, “Smith, how certain are you of this?”

   “Too many coincidences, too many things said by the people who left, the timers, the Generators…”

   “Save it for now, Smith, let’s wait on the Governor and you can tell all of us at the same time.”

   Sargent Thomas said, “Major, this possible attack will probably move up the missions you have assigned both mine and Sargent Bellows’ squads. Should we give orders of preparation and get gone with the wind?”

   “No, I want both of you fully briefed, so you can tell anyone you think can be of assistance. You will be leaving sooner than I anticipated though, so as soon as we are done, I want both of you to prepare your squads to leave.”

   They both answered, “Yes, Sir,” and then waited patiently.

   I waited also and the longer I waited the more nervous I became. I began to second guess my conclusions and what ifs started bouncing around in my head. Was I over-reacting to a simple prank? I almost wished I would find that to be the true result. I didn’t want to have to fight people that might be just as well-trained as our Rangers were, just as well armed and maybe better armed than the Rangers and the Militia were. We had no heavy weapons, no machineguns, no mortars, artillery, tanks, or air support. We were just a bunch of weekend warriors, closet commandoes and…shit, I needed to stop and have faith in the capabilities of our people. We knew our battleground and we knew how to fight within our own battleground. Have faith.

   Felicia finally arrived and I could tell someone must have given her a heads-up about what she had been summoned for. She was nervous as hell. Packer directed me to tell what I knew and then Gillian told them what she had discovered on the thumb drive. Packer mentioned the comment that Dupree had made, and the information provided by Sara Gupta. Then I heard some stuff I had never heard before. When the ZPG people left, I had assumed that the Marlows had gone with them, but that apparently wasn’t the case. They were still here, and the reason was, Mary Marlow was afraid to leave. She was afraid Becker’s father would get hold of her. She and her husband weren’t running around free though, Packer had them sequestered where they couldn’t stir shit up. Good. I wondered what Tooles, and Menendez would say when they found out.

   After I told what I knew and suspected, it turned into a roundtable discussion. It was during the discussion I discovered what Bellows’ and Thomas’ missions were, Packer was sending them to Holloman Airbase and to the Air National Guard Base in Tucson. Thomas was going to Holloman with his squad, with Debra. They were figuring it would take ten to fifteen days to go, make contact if they could and see if any help was available, and then return with Debra. Shit. I don’t remember too much after that revelation in regard to the plans they were making. All I could think of was, the love of my life was leaving and going out on the road where I couldn’t be there for her, where I couldn’t protect her from harm.

 

   It was rather quiet in our apartment that evening, neither one of us wanted to be the first to mention it. Finally, I said, “Why do you have to go? You could quit and we could load up the truck and hit the road. We can find somewhere quiet and raise a house full of children.”

   She shrugged and said, “This is actually a pretty safe place to raise kids, Daniel. Out there? Who knows?”

   “Maybe, but at least I would be by your side, at least you could be completely certain the person beside you has your back 24/7.”

   “Honey, you know how much everyone watches out for each other. It’s a sisterhood, a brotherhood, we all watch each other’s backs. There is not a single person in the Rangers that I don’t trust to look out for me, the same as I would look out for them. There is not a single person who wouldn’t endanger themselves, to help the other members of our team.”

   “That’s what I’m afraid of, Debra, because I know you would risk your life for them as well. You always get upset when I’ve done the same things you are talking about doing for others; you want me to avoid danger, why can’t I want the same for you?”

   She opened her mouth to reply, and then shut it. After a moment she answered, “There’s things I could say to debate you; I could say I’ve been trained to a higher degree than you have, I could say I have the personal protective gear that you don’t, but none of that would help lessen your concerns, I know that. Believe me when I say it makes me feel so good, knowing you are worried for me. I’ve never had someone who cared about me the way you do, but if I said, okay, let’s run away together, I would be forever ashamed I had done it. I know you understand what I’m saying, I’ve seen you do it yourself, Mister Oh yeah, I got shot,” she smiled as she said it.

   “You realize that was a poor example for a reason to go get shot at, right?”

   “It’s all I’ve got, I would rather be like you, than to run away.”

   “There’s an expression for that.”

   She laughed, “Hoist on your own petard?”

   “Hmm, that’s not fair,” I answered.

   “All’s fair in love and war.”

   “Sometimes, I like it better when you pretend to be dense and malleable, I probably look like I’m sulking, probably because I am.”

   “Yeah, you do, but you do it with a certain amount of sexiness. I don’t want to discuss this anymore; I want you to make love to me.”

   We did, and in the morning, I loaded her ruck and gear bag into a golf cart and drove her to the place where the two squads loaded up into four trucks and then watched her drive away as she waved to me and blew me kisses. I was genuinely frightened it would be the last time I would see her.