Eric Walters - The Rule of Three

“Good afternoon!” Herb yelled out. “I assume you fellas are from Olde Burnham. Glad you could make it.”

The other man said something to Herb that was too quiet for me to hear. The two met in the middle and shook hands, probably exchanging introductions. I stared at them but also tried to look past to the man standing farther behind. He was shuffling his feet nervously.

Herb turned and gestured for me at the same instant the other man was called forward. A surge of adrenaline jumped through me. I worked to contain the energy and walked calmly, timing my steps so that I’d arrive at the same instant that the other guy did.

“Well, it’s your meeting, Herb,” the first man said. “What can we do for you?”

“I guess I just wanted to be neighborly,” Herb said. “We’re from the settlement west of here.”

“Eden Mills?” he asked.

“You know about us.”

“We have been sending out scouts to see what’s going on out there. Are you the leader?” he asked.

“I’m a representative,” Herb said, “but I’m able to make decisions. And you?”

“I’m one of the leaders for Olde Burnham. We have a lot of people to look after in our neck of the woods.”

“And we can defend ourselves,” the second man added. His statement was threatening, but his voice was hesitant, catching over the last words. He was scared.

“I would imagine you’ve had the same problems we’ve had,” Herb said. “Have you been fending off any attacks?”

“Until we came together there were some incidents ,” the first man said. “Since then we upped our defenses. Now whenever we see some threatening groups of people pass by and give us the eye, we make sure they move on.”

“We’ve had the same. So far they’re only targeting the weak and defenseless.”

“And we’re neither,” the second said. Again, not that convincingly.

“We’re aware of your size and relative strength,” Herb said. “After all, we did do a couple of flyovers.”

“That ultralight gives you a real advantage,” the first guy said.

“It does. My young friend is the pilot.”

“And there’s been another plane flying over as well—is that yours, too?” he asked.

“We’ve heard reports of a plane,” Herb said. “We think it’s some sort of Cessna.”

“I’ve seen it,” I said, “but just once.”

“We’ve seen it a few times, but never as low as you flew. That little thing of yours certainly was a surprise,” the first man said. By his tone, he clearly meant it wasn’t a nice surprise.

“Dropping a package seemed like the best way to extend the invitation without risking a misunderstanding,” Herb said.

“A couple of the guys wanted to take a shot at the ultralight, but I told them not to,” he said.

My eyes went wide at that remark, as I thought about how I’d naively reassured Lori that we were perfectly safe up there.

“I think my young friend here and his girlfriend are particularly glad you didn’t,” Herb explained.

“To be honest, it’s hard to get control over people,” the second man said. “I think the reason nobody did shoot was because they couldn’t get a bead on you and we’re trying not to waste the limited—”

“Shut up,” the first man snapped.

“Look,” Herb said, “we all have limited quantities of the necessities, whether it’s ammunition, medicine, food, or chlorine to disinfect water supplies.”

“Oh, we thought you might have more chlorine,” the guy in charge said. “That’s why we’re here.”

“Those tablets are pretty valuable. We don’t have an endless amount, but we do have enough that we can share some more with you. Could you use another hundred tablets?”

“That would be great, but what do you want from us in return?”

“Like I said, we don’t have unlimited quantities, but chlorine is something we could talk about sharing more of. Think of it as one neighbor trying to help another.”

I knew that Herb had something up his sleeve.

“If it was up to me,” he went on, “we’d just be helping each other, but it’s not my decision. The committee that runs things at Eden Mills isn’t going to be happy about me giving away something for nothing, so if you can think of anything you have that you could offer back, something you have in big quantities, then we can talk about doing more.”

The two men from Olde Burnham looked at each other.

“Vehicles,” the second guy said, and shrugged. “We have vehicles.”

“We have some vehicles, and I’m sure you’ll need the ones you have.”

“No,” he said, shaking his head. “For some strange reason we have a huge posse of mechanics in the neighborhood. We’ve made trips to the nearby junkyard and were able to scavenge and repair over a dozen cars and trucks. We probably have a truck to trade.”

“Or maybe you could just lend us one of your mechanics to help with our conversions. We’re turning lawn mowers and snowblowers into go-carts and rototillers.”

The two envoys looked at each other. “We hadn’t thought about doing that,” the second guy commented.

“If you have a mechanic or two who can help us with the conversions for a few days, then we’ll be able to show them how it’s done. That’s the sort of exchange I think can help us both,” Herb said.

“We’ll talk to our people. We might be able to do that,” the first guy said.

“That would be great. I also want to invite you two to come to our community for a midday meeting and a meal,” Herb said. “If you have anybody who needs to see a doctor, you should bring them along with you.”

“You have a doctor?” he asked.

“We have four doctors and a medical clinic, as well as a dentist and a vet. Luck of the draw—you got mechanics and we got doctors. Any of your people or pets who are in need of treatment can come to our community and receive it.”

“Can you really make that offer?” the second man asked as his partner gave Herb a hard stare.

“You have my personal guarantee.”

“Well, thank you so much,” the nicer guy said. “I just don’t know what to say.”

“Just say you’ll accept our invitation. Why don’t you go back to your people and talk this over? We’ll expect you tomorrow, around noon.”

“That’s so generous. It’s just that… that…”

“You don’t know if you can trust us, correct?”

Both guys nodded.

“We’re not at war with you, my friends,” Herb said. His voice was soothing and soft and reassuring. “We are two little pockets of civilization. We can’t let this situation, the things we’ve all seen and had to do, take away our basic humanity. We are surrounded by savagery, but that doesn’t mean we have to become savages. We can become good neighbors. You have my word.”

Herb shook hands with both men, and I did the same. It looked like the second man was on the verge of tears.

“Come in off the gate on the south end,” Herb said. He gave them directions. “I’ll be waiting there for you at noon.”

“We’ll be there.” The second guy paused. “We’ll bring two of our mechanics. And if it’s okay, could we bring nine or ten people, mainly women and children, who need to see a doctor? Is that too many?”

“You bring whoever needs to be seen, even if it’s double that amount, and we’ll make sure our doctors are ready and that everybody has a good meal. See you tomorrow, and remember, despite what’s going on out here,” Herb said, gesturing around, “you have friends in Eden Mills.”

We turned and walked away.

“That went really well,” I said.

“It had some positives.”

“Extra mechanics would be a big boost to us. That’s a really big positive.”