John O'Brien - Awakening

“Let’s try further south along I-5,” I suggest after flying over the fifth field full of dead, mutilated cattle. “I know there were a lot of ranches along the road and it may be far enough away from populations that night runners may be scarce.”

“Sounds good,” Craig replies.

We fly over the low-lying, forested hills south of Olympia and pick up I-5 on the other side. Turning south, we sweep out of the hills and over flatter, grassy plains. The ranches I remember were alongside the highway so we parallel it. It isn’t long before I pick up the shape of cattle in grass fields surrounded by acres of fencing. There are indeed some motionless shapes in the tall grass but we also find an equal number of standing cattle in some pastures. The fields where there is still standing water has the greatest number of those still alive while those where the water was pumped into troughs, and are subsequently dry, are filled with the motionless, dark shapes. I radio back to base to update Frank and Bannerman on our find and give the locations.

“Copy that, Jack. I’ll talk to Bannerman about finding some cattle trailers and directing some trucks down that way,” Frank answers. I glance at the various fields with their associated buildings.

“Frank, I see some cattle trailers on some of these ranches. We could just drive the tractors down and hook up to the ones here,” I radio.

“Sounds good. I’ll talk to Bannerman and get back to you.”

“Okay. We’re going to continue here for a while and then head back your way,” I reply.

“We’ll be looking for ya,” Frank says.

Craig and I fly on getting acquainted with the controls and systems before heading back for touch-and-go’s. He is used to smaller jet aircraft so it takes a while to get the hang of flaring higher but he eventually becomes proficient getting us down without requiring a chiropractor or possible back surgery. I’m sure the aircraft is thankful as well. We finish up the day, hop over to refuel the helicopter, and head back to base. It definitely won’t take too long for Craig to become proficient and we’ll be able to head to the southwest.

I would like to have another pilot trained as we’ll have only three pilots and one flight engineer to spread between two aircraft normally needing four pilots and two engineers. My thought is to have Robert, Craig, and Bri in this 130 and I’ll fly the AC version back myself. We’ll fly in formation in case of trouble but flying a 130 alone is not something I really want to tackle. It’ll be a constant flurry of arms and elbows. It can be done if nothing goes wrong but the after take-off checks and pre-landing checks will get a little sporty. Maybe I’ll bring Gonzalez along on subsequent training flights and have her train with Bri. I would try and train Gonzalez myself but training two people at once might result in turning the 130 into a fast falling brick. That is definitely not a flight characteristic I’m interested in experiencing.

With the sun lowering into the western sky, we skirt low over I-5 heading south to Cabela’s. Below us is a small convoy of trucks and Humvees heading in the same direction; their tasks complete for the day. It’s another day with our walls around the housing areas and vehicle sheds a little further along. From the number of trucks below us, I am guessing Frank and Bannerman decided to gather the livestock tomorrow. There is a comfort seeing the trail of vehicles, knowing we are still alive to see another day, and that our plans are approaching some sort of fruition. We survived the initial surprise and onslaught to find a relative peace and security in the evenings. We’re not there by a long shot but we are a day closer. That is if there is such a thing as a point of arrival and if the night runners behave.

The nightly meeting is a recap of the day’s events. Bannerman relates progress on the buildings which are nearly completed and plans to redirect the trucks and crews southbound to pick up the livestock Craig and I found.

“That shouldn’t set us back long on the walls around the housing and vehicle areas. The walls should be finished within the next few days if we have decent weather,” Bannerman relates. “After we finish with the stables, barns, and greenhouses, I would like to use the crews to attempt moving one of the water towers in the area to our location.”

“Will that take away from any of our other endeavors?” I ask.

Bannerman pauses before replying. “No, I think we should be able to keep on with the walls and gathering of supplies. I won’t really know until we take a look at what relocating one will entail,” he answers. “Once it’s in place though, we won’t have to rely on the pump near as much, except to fill the tower that is, and we’ll be able to provide a decent watering system for any livestock we bring in.”

“Okay. I think we’ll be ready to head south to look for some of the families and pick up the AC-130 within the next couple of days. Once we clear the area out, I think that will give us more breathing room to focus on our move to the bases. Oh, I’m thinking of taking Red, Blue, and Echo teams down if that won’t interfere with anything here,” I say addressing both Lynn and Bannerman.

“No, we should be good,” Lynn answers.

“Yeah, I don’t see a problem with manpower although that will slow building the wall some,” Bannerman replies.

“We shouldn’t be gone for more than five days,” I say. “The overall plan is to fly down to Canon AFB, spend the next day looking for Gonzalez’ family, head over to Lubbock and look for McCafferty’s the day after, refuel at Canon AFB and pick up the other aircraft, then beat cheeks home.”

Lynn then updates everyone on the training programs currently underway. “The current class in phase one should be finishing on time in a couple of weeks along with the second class going through phase two,” she says finishing her report.

“That’ll be nice to have others trained. Are there any that look like they’ll be good permanent additions to the teams?” I ask.

“There are a couple that show promise but I won’t really know until they finish. So far, no one has asked to be on a team but we’ve really only started. We’ll just have to wait and see,” Lynn answers.

“How many did we pick up today?” I ask directing my question toward Drescoll.

“No one showed up,” Drescoll replies.

This comes both as a surprise and not one. It’s surprising because we’ve always had people show up at the previous meets. It’s not a surprise because we were close to the bases and, with the activity we’ve shown around there, anyone close would have already responded. At least one would think.

“Well, we’ll just keep at it. I guess we’re not going to find people everywhere we try,” I say.

The meeting breaks up without much further to add and we retire to our various cubicles. The living cubicles Bannerman has arranged cover almost the entire second floor. There are over a hundred people occupying our little sanctuary and we’ll have to come up with additional space soon, especially if we find a greater number of survivors. Lynn and I adjourn to our little living space which isn’t much more than a couple of cots set within wooden walls and a blanket covering the entrance. We plop down on our beds almost in unison. I’m hesitant to ask my next question but curiosity gets the better of me.

“Hon, have you spoken with Craig about what took them so long to get here?” I ask with hesitancy.

Lynn looks at me and then down at her lap but not before I see the beginnings of tears in her eyes. She remains silent as she contemplates her lap.

“I’m sorry. We won’t talk about it if you don’t want to but when you do, I’m here,” I say feeling tightness grip my heart. I feel bad for her and for my insensitivity in asking. I should have waited for her to bring it up.