Jacqueline Druga - Protocol One

They didn’t expect his initiative to start until the year mark. Spencer said Gil merely told them he had great incentive.

We couldn’t leave and begin the project until the shelter was built and enough supplies were moved to our location. It wasn’t supposed to be the main location, but it was.

Ideally, as far as weather went, it wasn’t a good choice. We were in the middle of a mini ice age, as Peter explained it. We made contact with the space station that sent pictures down for our viewing.

It looked like the earth wore a white beanie.

We were at the tail end of that beanie. The pictures were breathtaking. However, we weren’t moving. I found it hard to believe that there weren’t people alive and struggling up north. Not everyone was able to go south.

It was still early.

The weather was screwed up. Because we were already submersed in cold, there was no real defining winter. We did get snow. Not much though and that was a blessing. Peter made his prediction that our summer would run from July to September and maybe we’d hit fifty degrees. That was this year. There was hope for next year. Year Two after the comet, we would start planting.

Melissa had her interior farm growing pretty well. In fact we had surplus and started using that obscene amount of left over aluminum foil to wrap dehydrated vegetables and put them in cold storage.

The entire project, which we would forever call Protocol One, was mapped with strict rules, regulations and guidelines to follow as far as who we let in.

It had to be that way. Six months had passed since the comet struck earth. That was a lot of time to build bad feelings and desperation in people. Although, I still believed there was a lot of good left.

Tony told me I all but gave my blessing to Gil to live out his lifelong fantasy of being a dictator and ruling the world.

Not the world, just the country. I was fine with that as long as we did it for the good and didn’t take a dark turn.

Tony was doubtful that the project would even get a foothold. Me, I was confident because I gave a very ambitious man an even more ambitious project.

I did win one argument.

In the rare joint effort guidelines set by Tony and Gil, we went into Elwood City and brought back twenty-six people.

I wouldn’t use the word rescue, because they were alive. They were cold, starving and some were actually pretty sick. Four of them died from complications of some sort of virus. But that was a lot less than would have died if they had stayed in Elwood.

We retrieved them and kept them on the third floor of Hive Two. They were under surveillance and medical watch. Skyler, while not qualified, gave them psychological evaluations and just to test them, Tony made each one of them spend two hours alone with Peter while he talked about constellations.

A mental endurance experiment.

I thought that was mean and disrespectful to do to Peter. After all, he was a brilliant scientist. He didn’t mind though. He got to know everyone and even made a friend of a young man who was a science enthusiast.

The good news was, for the most part, the ill recovered and were an active part of our project just in time for the first Christmas.

I didn’t know how that would go considering we were up to eight children. Six of them were still the Santa phase.

But we took Christmas back to the old days. Where it was about the spirit of it and had real meaning. Nelly made candy for the kids and Duke along with Skyler and one of the Elwood City men, went into town and scavenged for toys. They got a few that weren’t destroyed.

It was a good first Christmas.

I still missed my son horribly, and thought of Jackson every day. I was grateful for the music he left behind.

We built, we worked, and the countdown was on.

The government rose from the ashes before us, sent out trucks with food to nearby survivors. It failed fast and had problems with mobs, just as Gil had predicted. They retreated to rethink their plan.

I asked how Gil knew it was going to happen and he simply said he knew the head of FEMA and that was who was running it.

The first official day of Project Protocol One, or execution day, was at hand and I was excited. The first trip would be two vehicles. One going east, the other west. A six hour trip. No more. We’d increase that when the weather was not as cold, although it felt like a heat wave when it hit thirty-two degrees.

We’d look for people and help them if they needed help or bring them back if that was what they desired. Bottom line was to get them help and let them know where we were.

With the Elwood city people and the men from the hidden storage facilities, we had quite a large security force.

Tony was in charge. Gil didn’t put him in charge of that, Tony took the honors. I wouldn’t have wanted it any other way.

Gil did notify Damnation Alley of his plan to look for survivors. He didn’t tell them how elaborate his plan was or all that it entailed, but I suppose Gwen knew her husband better than he believed she did.

Gwen showed up the day before execution day with two armed guards in a pretty decked out Humvee. She claimed exhaustion, needed to sleep, whined a little and stayed clear of everyone.

The next day, bright and early we were ready to go. The first truck had pulled out and Tony and I stood with Gil in the bay.

“You know the rules. Radio check every half hour.” Gil stated to me.

“Got it.” I said.

“Do not stay out long, any trouble come right…”

“Hey, Gil,” Tony interrupted. “I got this. I’m with her. We’re good. See you in about six hours. Let’s go, Anna.” He took my arm.

Gil dismissed him. “Are you sure,” he said to me. “I can’t convince you to let someone else do this?”

“No, this is what I want to do. I have been waiting for this day. So I…” I stopped talking when Gwen barged into the bay.

“Gil.” She called out his name, paused, hand on the wall, leaned forward to catch her breath.

“You’ll get used to the steps,” I said.

She ignored me and marched to Gil. “I was trying to shower. I hadn’t even finished shaving my legs when the water shut off. They said there’s a three minute time limit. That is absurd. No one can get clean in three minutes.”

“I do.” I raised my hand.

“As I said…” She glanced at me then back to Gil. “No one can get clean in three minutes. So can you please do something about this? I need…” Suddenly her eyes moved to the blast doors. “Is that my Humvee parked there? Why is it running?”

Tony replied. “We’re taking it. We’re heading out.”

“And you are?”

“The guy that’s taking your vehicle. I heard from your guys it’s pretty sweet.”

“And exactly, why do you need to take it?”

Tony smiled. “Anna wanted it. See ya, Gil. We have miles to cover.”

Her mouth dropped open and if her eyes were fire, I would have been burned.

Quickly, Tony took my arm and escorted me out of the bay and to the Humvee. He opened the door.

“Why would you tell her that?” I asked.

“Get in.”

I did. “Oh, wow.” I sunk down in the thick and soft leather seat. “I swear this is the most comfortable seat.”

“Yeah,” Tony closed his door. “This thing is decked out. When I saw it, I claimed it as our survivor vehicle.”

“Good choice.”

“It may not be gas efficient for long trips but for this one it’s fine.” He reached up. “Do you need your seat warmed?”

“No, I’m good.”

He placed the truck in gear. “Man, how about that evil look she gave you?”

“Thank you for that.”

“No, no, Anna, she was shooting daggers at you long before the Humvee comment.”