Jacqueline Druga - Protocol One

“So let me get this right. You’re not really cold and heartless. You really would want to help people if you had the means and the muscle of protection behind you.”

“Absolutely. And a place to put them, because this place will get tight. I’m not giving up my space.” He took a sip of my brandy and handed back the glass. “Sorry, I like our joined rooms.” He winked.

“Okay.” I stepped back and walked to my dresser. “I’ll be back.”

“Where are you going?”

I lifted another glass and the bottle of brandy. “I need to talk to Gil.”

Tony crossed one arm over his waist and looked at me.

“What? What’s wrong?”

“Should I be worried? I mean, you’re taking booze and are dressed seductively in that ugly hooded shirt.”

“No worries.” I crinkled my nose.

“Anna…” He called before I left. “No matter how drunk you get him, you won’t get him to side with you on this one.”

“Oh, I’m not going to get him to side with me. I’m going to convince him to stay.” I headed to the door.

“Okay. Now I am worried.”

Booze in hand, I smiled and left and sought out Gil.

He was on the third level of Hive One. Peter told me he was in his room.

When I arrived there his door was ajar. I called out and walked in.

“Hey,” he said. “This a surprise. That’s a good look for you.”

“I brought you a drink.” I closed the door using my foot.

“You shut the door. Are you seducing me?”

“Tony thinks I am.” I poured him a drink.

“Even better.” He took the glass. “But I must tell you, Anna, you don’t need to get me drunk.”

“You’re a married man, Gil.”

“Anna, come on. You know that marriage was a political move.”

I gave him a closed mouth smile and clinked my glass to his. “Sorry I said you suck.”

“You’ve said worse in twenty years.”

“I have.”

“I heard it was pretty ugly out there for you.”

“It was.”

“Maybe you should leave.”

I exhaled and sipped. “Gil…”

“You know I had this fantasy that you were gonna come back and say you thought about my offer. That you were absolutely in love with me and would go anywhere with me.”

“Gil.” I looked at him seriously. “I will always love you. That will never change. You have a special place in my heart that no one can touch.”

“Even Tony?”

“Even Tony.”

“Are you in love with him?” he asked.

It took a few seconds for me to take a sip and then I answered. “I don’t know. I do care very much for him and very deeply. Enough that I won’t leave him.”

“Figures.” Gil downed his drink and poured another.

“Gil, you had to figure eventually I would move on.”

“Yeah, but it took the world to end, Anna.”

I laughed, then turned serious. “I need to ask you something and I need you to be one hundred percent honest with me.”

“This sounds serious.”

“It is.”

“Do I need another drink?”

“Perhaps.”

He grabbed the bottle and splashed some in both of our glasses. “Ask.”

“It’s a two part question. I didn’t say anything when Tony mentioned it, but I am doing so now. Do you have all that stuff that Tony said you did? The food storage, fuel, water, and whatever?”

“Anna…”

“Do you?”

“Yes.” He nodded. “Yes.”

“Second part. Was he right on what you wanted to do with it?”

“I’m not a monster, Anna.”

“Answer the question.”

“You know me, I have always been prepared. I have always been infatuated with these things. I… had this vision that with my advanced knowledge of the needs, I could get ready for the end. I would have everything needed to rebuild society the way it should be redone.”

“So you did have the idea that you would rise from the ashes, extend your arms to the starving masses and say, ‘here I am, I give you food and shelter’, bow to me?”

Gil curled his lip and grunted. “Anna, come on. You make it sound so evil and dark lord like. Yes, in a sense I would draw them in but only to create a long term functioning society.”

“That you’d run.”

He didn’t answer, he took a drink.

“Doesn’t the government have a similar plan?”

“Ah, yes they do. Sort of. It’s a very structured continuity plan. It could fail because they favor those who can contribute more.”

“How long will the government’s plan take to initiate?”

“At least six months to a year. They’ll start out with food depots which will cause riots. People will be huddling around a truck to get one MRE or a gallon of water. And then fighting when it’s gone. It won’t work. You have to build a society with people who want to build it with you, not those who are afraid to live without your help.”

“How about your plan? How long would that take?”

“Everything is set in a chain. You go to one facility, get what you need to get to the next. To be operational and ready, three months tops. Remember, my plan doesn’t involve a huge cabinet of decision makers warm and cozy in a bunker.”

“Oh, yours is simple. One dictator to say what happens.” I said with sarcasm. “How many people do you think you can recruit as opposed to the government?”

“Recruit?” He laughed. “Get. Save. Help. Whatever you want to call it. Lots. I would hope.”

“Do you plan on overthrowing the government when it rises from the ashes, or do you plan on being the government they have to bow down to?”

“Anna…”

“So, are you gonna put your own food trucks out there?”

“Um, no. My plan was to go out and entice the survivors. I have means to build an initial above ground shelter, then use those people to build another and so on.”

“Rise from the ashes with wide open arms.”

“I have known you for twenty years and I can honestly say this is the first time I can’t read you. Are you making fun of me or hating me?”

“Neither. I am…” I spoke soft, and maybe seductively on purpose as I poured him more brandy. “Giving you your fantasy.”

“Excuse me?”

“Stay Gil. Don’t leave. Stay here. Do your plan. However you see fit, but you do it from here. It was so bad out there. People are dying. And this… this is just a small, tiny dot of what is left. I don’t care how you go about it, but I don’t want another child to die out there if we can help them. Is this a way to help them?”

“It is. Why…why are you so passionate about this?”

“Because I lost a child and so did you. I need a reason to focus. I need a cause and I don’t want to live in a bunker with twelve people. I want to live in a world filled with people. That… is living.”

“It’ll take time, Anna, and rules. Are you sure?” he questioned.

“I’m sure. Just get on it now.”

“Tony is not gonna like this.”

“Yeah, he will. Once he sees the good in it. So…are you going to Texas? Or are you staying here and doing this?”

“Oh, I’m staying.” He raised his eyebrows a few times. “I’m definitely staying.”

“Then here’s to our starting a new future.” I lifted my glass to his.

“Things are going to get interesting.” He stepped closer to me, brought his glass to mine and smiled. “Here’s to a new future.”

FOUR MONTHS LATER

March 1

Things took longer than Gil’s optimistic, no longer than three month time frame. But in order for it to work, it had to be set up and initiated perfectly.

Spencer found a purpose. He worked with Gil and Ben on trips. To my surprise, and it should not have been, the first hidden depot with fuel, trucks and building supplies was located outside of Louisville. It also had four more men that were part of Gil’s plan.