Glen Tate - 299 Days - The Stronghold

Mr. Sharpe went into the house and brought back two helmets and two keys. “There’s probably a half tank in each. You know how to use one of these?” Grant had ridden one in college.

After showing Grant all the controls, which weren’t many, Mr. Sharpe said, “Hey, John, you can ride the second one to wherever you need to go. They’re yours. When things get back to normal, I’d like them back, and please repair them if you break them.”

“No problem,” Grant said. This would be the first donation for Drew to record in his records. “A guy named Drew will be coming by sometime, not sure when, to record your donations here. We’re keeping track of who’s contributing to the community. Thanks again.”

Recording contributions seemed like a good idea to Mr. Sharpe. It made sense to give people credit for what they’re doing, like he was by donating the mopeds.

Mr. Sharpe waved and went back in the house. John and Grant put the helmets on and got on the mopeds to head back home.

As they came down Over Road toward the guard shack, Chip gave them the thumbs up and smiled at the mopeds. The noise of the little engines brought the Team out of the yellow cabin. They were smiling, too. Their transportation problem had just been solved.

Most people were already eating breakfast by the time Grant and John got back to the cabin. Breakfast was oatmeal or pancakes. Grant chose oatmeal and added hot cocoa mix to it, a combination Grant learned in Civil Air Patrol that they called “chocolatey-oat goodness.” Grant liked pancakes better but, by choosing oatmeal, he was stretching their limited amount of pancake mix some more. Eileen had been thinking the same thing about the pancake mix and asked Grant if she should start using the biscuit mix in the morning to make biscuits.

“One of Mary Anne’s friends is a bee keeper and offered us honey,” Eileen said. “That would be great on biscuits.” Grant’s mouth literally started watering at the thought of real honey on biscuits.

Tammy was at Grant’s cabin for breakfast and updated everyone on what was happening at the power company. She had to leave soon to get to work, but said, “The director said some federal people came by and told him that we might need to consider cutting off utilities to various places. It almost sounded like the shut offs were political because the feds said the FCorps would be telling us specifically who to shut off.” Everyone was shocked. They hadn’t prepared themselves for the loss of electricity. In fact, they’d got pretty used to having it as the one stable luxury during this entire catastrophe.

“My boss,” Tammy continued, “said that he wouldn’t shut off anyone, not now, and not with everything that people are dealing with. The Feds left. My boss told us not to shut off anyone, not even if they hadn’t paid their bills. Which is funny because no one is paying their bills.”

Tammy, who had heard about the mopeds during breakfast, turned to Grant and said, “Guess who has a full tank of gas, courtesy of the power company? If you have a hose, I have the gas for the mopeds.” Tammy could also get diesel by driving to work in Mark’s truck, which ran on diesel, and filling it up every week, or so.

John said, “I can siphon off some. I have some gas cans to put it in. Just so everyone knows, these cans are reserved for moped gas, OK?” Everyone was fine with that.

It was time for the Team to go up to the Grange for the day. They went to the yellow cabin to get into their gear and kit up, which included their tactical vests with ammunition magazines, a Camelbak water bladder on their backs, a small trauma first aid kit, a flashlight, extra batteries, and miscellaneous things, like gloves, sunscreen, and a shemagh, which was a Middle Eastern scarf that had multiple uses.

Chip, who had also been up most of the night, would stay behind and take a nap. So would Grant, who was feeling his age after staying up all night and walking a few miles with guns, ammo and a good buzz. A nap would freshen him up.

Manda was overseeing Cole and Missy in the after-breakfast cleanup. After that, they were going to the “Pirate Cave,” which was a little cove in the bank along the beach. Then it was sweeping the decks of the houses and cabin and seeing if Drew needed any errands run. At Pierce Point, “errands” meant walking a piece of paper to a neighbor’s house or going over to someone’s house and telling them something. The kids would also pick up pinecones and put them in garbage bags for winter fuel. It took them about twice as long to do things as it took adults, but that was fine. They were occupying themselves and getting some things done, which made them feel helpful.

Although the kids were useful to the adults in their new roles, they also couldn’t let education go by the wayside. Mary Anne, the retired teacher, had been thinking about this and had planned to attend the Grange meeting to ask if the community wanted to start up a school in the fall, but Mrs. Roth’s death had interrupted that.

After Lisa was ready to go to “work,” Pow came over with his kit on. They were ready to go, so they piled into Mark’s truck. They waited a minute or two and then Lisa got into the cab. Grant felt that there was something so civilizing about letting a lady ride up front.

As they were pulling out, Pow looked at the guys in the back of the truck and said, “Beats the shit out of selling insurance.”

They went up to the Grange where Lisa met up with her medical team and they started going over how to turn two rooms of the Grange into a medical clinic. They kept saying, “What we really need is some…” The list of things they needed was long.

Cindy, the former renal nurse who knew all the nurses and others at the Frederickson Hospital, decided that they needed to go on a run into town to get medical supplies. She talked to Rich about how to do that safely.

The day’s plan for the Team was for them to patrol the areas around the Grange first. This would get the Team out to meet people. Ryan would come with them; he was a local guy who the residents would probably know.

Ryan was starting to fit into the Team. He was a combat vet and his skills could be used on the SWAT part of the community’s security force. More than his experience, though, was the fact that he was a quiet and calm professional. He wasn’t a gung-ho brute; he was a sheepdog, like all the other guys on the Team.

Rich realized that he would need Drew, who was back at his cabin, to go out with the Team to take down information on each lot number. Grant wasn’t at the Grange, either. They would need both of them. And Chip wasn’t there, either.

“Grant and Chip are taking a nap,” Scotty told Rich. “They did guard duty last night.”

“At the gate?” Rich asked. He knew who was on guard duty at the gate and it wasn’t them.

“Nope,” Scotty said. “At our guard shack on Over Road.”

Rich took that as a sign that things weren’t totally secure in Pierce Point. He wondered how many others had internal guard stations. That would be Rich’s goal: make things so safe that people didn’t need their own guards. Everyone, or mostly everyone, was armed in their homes, so that would stop lots of crime.

Rich could see that Ryan and the Team were fusing. He pulled Ryan aside and asked if Ryan wanted to work with the Team.

“Sure,” Ryan said. “They’re good guys. They don’t have my level of skills, but I don’t think they’ll get me killed.” Plus, Ryan really wanted to do the “door bustin’” work and it looked like the Team would be doing that, so he wanted to be with them. Guarding the gate bored him.

“You don’t have an AR, do you?” Rich asked. “I haven’t seen you with one and I would imagine now is the time to carry one if you had one.”