Dark New World (Book 2): EMP Exodus (18 page)

Then everyone grew silent when they saw the others returning with three unknown faces. Frank spoke up loudly, and said, “These are three lost Marines. They want to kill invaders and chew bubblegum, but they’re out of bubblegum. I think we should bring ‘em with us, Cassy, if you have the room and supplies. They’ve agreed to be good little guests.”

SSgt. Mueller spoke up. “Absolutely. We need a base of operations, and you folks could clearly use a few more guns. Maybe we can make a deal.”

Ethan’s heart leapt at that. Amber would be safer with Marines, and the woman, Sturm, had medical training. With the homestead only hours away now, they could use more hands on the farm, too. Win-win-win all around.

Cassy smiled. “We’ve suffered losses, but now we gain new friends. God’s blessing us right now, if we have the wisdom to see it—or that’s what my mom would say—and if you can’t trust Marines, who can you trust?”

Ethan saw her glance to Michael as she said that, and then she began introducing everyone. He just hoped her instincts were right to trust these people, just as they had been right to trust Frank and his people. Yeah, it all would work out. It had to.

- 21 -

1600 HOURS - ZERO DAY +9

THE CLAN TRUDGED for hours, and with every step Cassy’s arm hurt less, and her heart raced more. Home was so close she could almost taste it. And despite all the odds against them, they’d come so far with only one loss. In a way, the loss of Jed solved a possible issue with Amber, but Cassy would have rather had Jed alive and well and, despite lingering issues with Jaz, Cassy knew the pain she was feeling. Frank said Jed was a wiz with machines and what he called “redneck ingenuity,” and that kind of horse sense would have been invaluable to the group.

The three Marine newcomers mostly kept to themselves, taking the left flank as the group traveled, which freed up others to help with the kids, and so the whole group had moved faster. That was damn convenient, even if she didn’t really believe the new Marines could have the clan’s interests at heart. Still, they’d insisted on coming and, short of shooting American Marines, there was little reason for the clan to stop them. At least they seemed like okay people—but she still wouldn’t trust them any time soon, and Frank had told her that he felt much the same. That made her feel at least a little less tense about their presence.

Mandy must have been thinking in the same direction as Cassy because in a private moment with Cassy she blurted, “I guess as long as we convince them their interests are the same as ours they’ll be useful to have around.”

“Who, the Marines? Their interests
are
the same as ours, so long as they don’t try to commandeer our supplies or act like they own the place. It’s my home, and they’ll have to respect it or leave.”

They reached the top of a small rise and looked down into a lush little valley. Cassy’s eyes watered, and she grinned from ear to ear. “Look, Mom… Home. And the bastards didn’t spray it. The windmills are still working. And see all those trees to the north side? Those are all either fruit or nut trees, or dwarf breeds to draw birds to enrich the soil and control pests. And all that underbrush you see isn’t weeds; they’re berries and fruit and veggies, mostly, but a lot are just there to fertilize the soil, or medicinal. Lots of comfrey. Those three sparkling jewels down there are my fish ponds. The water runs from the top of the hills north, down to the first pond, which overflows to the second, and so on. Those sheds are for smoking meat, solar dehydrators, and so on.”

“What are all the ripples, dear? Your hillside looks like it has wrinkles all over.”

“Those are swales and berms. Ditches that collect rain water and slowly soak it into the soil. On the downhill side from each ditch is a mound, with dead wood at the bottom and covered in soil and cover crops, bushes, dwarf tree breeds… I could go a whole year without rain, and my land would stay green, there’s so much water in the soil.”

Mandy smiled. “Impressive. I’ve been here before, but I’m seeing different things now. As the Lord says, we must be good caretakers of the earth and its bounty. I never really thought of your prepping that way, but I guess I was a bit narrow-minded.”

“Just stuck in your ways, Mom. Most of being prepared means being
resilient
, so you can adapt to changes as they come. But it goes on from there, Mom. The pigs, for example, eat whatever falls off the trees that I don’t gather up, which fattens them, and they leave their droppings behind to enrich the soil. Everything here is connected to everything else in one way or another. If you look, you can see God’s plan for the world in miniature, here.”

“And you have guns, too, I imagine,” Mandy said with a smile. She was teasing, of course, but Cassy decided to accept it at face value for now. Nothing was going to screw up her mood today. “Yeah, for hunting and defense. They’re just tools, Mom. Use them wisely and they help, but use them badly at your own peril.”

“And those things moving around up on the hillside above the house?”

“Two goats for milk and cheese, four sheep for wool, and the four pigs. They all live up there on the lee side so any wastes I don’t gather to compost will work their way downhill on their own when it rains.”

“Think they’re all still alive? You haven’t been home in a while.”

“Eleven days. They should be okay. Their water is gravity fed, and the cistern up there was full when I left. Water gets pumped into it from the first pond by a solar pump, which must be fried now. But I have a manual pumping system for backup. Windmill power, too, with a little conversion work. The animals are probably damn hungry by now, though.”

Michael interrupted their conversation. “Cassy, should anyone be there at the farm? I’m going to recon it before we all walk down there like lambs to a slaughter, if bad guys are holed up there.”

“No, nobody belongs there now. Recon’s a good idea, Mike.” She smiled at him.

Michael turned on his heels and strode toward the farm, bearing east of it to come in from a flank side. Cassy let out a contented sigh, and sat down to watch, and to answer the million questions the others, like her mom, were just starting to ask.

Tiffany sat roughly down next to Cassy and gazed out over the farm. “Where’s the septic tank? You got the whole half acre around the house covered entirely in raised beds. Don’t you need a drain field?”

Cassy laughed. “That’s a weird question. But if you’re asking if you have to use an outhouse, the answer is no. Normal toilets, ultra-low flush ones, that unload into a cistern buried flush with the ground right outside the bathroom wall. Lots of worms in there, who eat the wastes about as quickly as you can put them in. The liquid—urine, worm tea, whatever—drains down through a pipe and into a series of wet-water channels with swampy-type plants. Three sets of channels, in series. The plants filter the water almost completely before it drains down into the lower fish pond. And the overflow from the fish pond, with all those nutrients, gets diverted throughout the little forest you see down there. No waste, and you don’t have to pump out outhouses. Pretty slick, really.”

“That’s gross. But, as long as I can poop inside like a normal human, I’ll overlook it.” Tiffany shared a laugh with Cassy over that.

“Everything is going to take getting used to, Tiff. But I have kids, and I wasn’t trying to be some Lone Ranger mountain man type. I just like being prepared for things, and in the meantime, it’s a healthy, happy way to live. And truth be told, I feel like it’s a lifestyle that puts me closer in touch with my mom’s God, though I have my doubts about him. Don’t tell Mandy I said that. But we’ll be fine here, Tiff. You, your kids, all of us. We’re
home
.”

A short time later, Michael returned wearing a grin. “All clear,” he announced. “Looks like a cow has been slaughtered, and there’s no food in the cabinets.”

Cassy pursed her lips. “So someone was there?”

“Yeah,” replied Michael, “but they’re not there now. The fireplace is warm, and there’s a cast iron kettle over it, also warm. Whoever was there, it was recent. But I scouted the whole place, briefly, and saw no sign of anyone there now.”

Cassy’s heart soared. “Home,” she said with a lopsided grin. Home again, home for the kids, and for the clan. A chance to regroup and to live. Not just survive, but really live. “Let’s get going,” she said with her voice raised almost into a song.

* * *

Peter’s eyes bulged when he saw where the spy was heading. His experienced eyes made out so many little details, like the placement of animal pens and the water infiltration mounds, that his head swam. It was all too labor intensive for the kind of farming he’d done, but he understood the beauty and simplicity of the system. He sat down and began taking page after page of notes on ideas he got from the farm, and sketching out a map.

Better yet, on the far side of the hill the farm was on, there stretched miles and miles of forest. Government land… Sure to be full of game. To either side of her farm were other farms, though they looked more like what he expected a small farm to look like. Well, he’d have the manpower to convert those farms to the way the spy did things, when he led his people to this Promised Land. And heck, they would even be able to use the people who lived there now to do most of the hard, dangerous work. Wouldn’t
that
make his followers happy?

The only downside was the damn soldiers the spy picked up along the way. Those three looked like they knew their shit. Maybe he could find a way to contact them, make a deal, before he took over this oasis. That could be risky, though. It might blow the surprise. He’d have to mull that over for a while. Probably he’d just have to make sure they died first. Easy enough with a surprise attack, if he could get his Scouts to sit still long enough for the targets of opportunity to present themselves all at once. Then if he put the rest of his shooters up at the crest of the hill on the north side of the house they could lay fire down onto them, and from elevation. Yeah, that might work. Surprise, surprise, bitch.

After he was done taking notes, he gathered his things and, with a heavy sigh at the thought of the journey ahead of him, began the trudge back home, or to whatever was left of it after the invaders bombed it. He’d get his revenge, surely, and better yet he’d found a home for all of his people. All the women, the children, his friends—no more of them would have to die, once they’d taken over and settled in. For the first time in a week, he had a strong sense of confidence. His people would make it. And he would lead them to this Promised Land.

- 22 -

0600 HOURS - ZERO DAY +10

CASSY STRETCHED, BUMPING into Brianna next to her, and it took a moment for her mind to realize where she was.
Home
. She sat up and rubbed her eyes. The room was stuffed; with Bri and Aidan in bed with her, plus Frank and Mary, and their kid, scattered all around on the floor. The upstairs second bedroom, she remembered, was equally stuffed with Michael, Tiffany, their kids and the three Marines. The living room slept the rest of the party, mostly on the floor. Well, she’d have to figure something out soon, because this was just too many people for her two-bedroom house. If a fire broke out, or if they were attacked, they’d be tripping all over each other. An attack was certainly possible and not only by the invaders. That was a sobering thought.

Cassy made her way through the house, waking the adults. It wasn’t difficult to wake them; they were all accustomed to rising with the sun now. Not much light got into the house yet, but their body clocks were set. Soon the house was awake, everyone had gone through the line to use the one bathroom, and Cassy had assembled them all outside. Looking around, it was clear that the clan was more relaxed than they’d been since she met them. Today promised to be a good day, despite the amount of work that needed doing.

With Frank standing beside her, she told the clan what chores needed doing first thing in the morning, and that breakfast would be around 8:00 AM. The kids were assigned to feed the animals and gather the eggs from her chickens and from the ducks at the ponds, with Brianna given the task of supervising it all. Bri had done it many times before on her own, of course, but Cassy wanted them all to know how. Brianna rolled her eyes but didn’t argue. Cassy suppressed a smile. Her daughter would probably roll her eyes if she won a million bucks. Teenagers, hah.

“Michael, you’re now head of security. Take the Marines and wander around the property. Look for anything wrong, of course, but mostly I think it’d be good if you were familiar with every inch of this place, and can identify any security risks. Even here, people will be hungry, and we have a lot of food around for the taking—that little forest I have is mostly food, not natural woods. It just looks like woods. But my neighbors probably know it’s really a ‘food forest,’ so we should at least know where they’re likely to come in from, if anyone gets ideas.”

Mandy frowned and said, “Cassy, you should have more faith in your fellow man. God put us here for a reason, and He won’t let us stumble now. Faith, hope, and love, and the greatest of these is love.”

Cassy nodded in agreement. “Of course, Mom. In fact, I had made a lot of friends among my neighbors, and after we get settled in we’ll be going to find them, and invite them into the homestead. Mutual protection and more skills, and all that. But it’s prudent to at least be prepared for trouble. Okay, Michael, you and the Marines can go anywhere and everywhere. Eventually, you’ll want to put some security measures in place, I imagine, and I’ll support whatever decision you make so long as it doesn’t cut into our food production, so be thinking long-term security.”