Hell Released (Hell Happened Book 3) (24 page)

“Right now, we have four more major projects that’ll take us at least another two or three days to accomplish and will take all our effort and we don’t need the distraction.” He looked at his watch. “It’s Thursday today. On Sunday morning, they’ll have had five nights of incarceration and that’s when I’ll speak with them. I’ll explain to them what martial law means and by then maybe I’ll have come up with what we,” he indicated everyone at the table with his hand, “we, can and should possibly do with them as a community. We’re rebuilding the United States and I believe we need to do it right and as best we can.”

Some of the people, Russ could tell Fred was one of them, would have willingly taken the men out and executed them into a shallow grave. Others like Myles, and probably Sgt. Bare, were less ready to kill them outright.

“Any questions or comments?” Russ asked them. No one had anything. “Great, let’s get started with the captain and me going down to feed the prisoners and tell them what we’re going to do.

“Sgt. Bare, I’d like you to accompany us and put in some type of a monitoring device and maybe when they think they’re alone they will say something useful to us.”

“Actually, sir,” Bare said, “the wireless network Todd set up here would probably work better for what you want. It wouldn’t take Todd an hour to get it to reach to the police station. He’s got several spare laptops already set up. You get power to the building and he can plug one in out of sight and it’ll record everything without the need for wires.”

“Excellent idea, Erica,” Todd said nodding, already planning the set up on his laptop.

“Captain, why don’t you bring a small generator? Todd, grab what you need. We will get their food and we’ll get them taken care of while everyone else gets started on their projects.” Everyone seemed to think the plan was good.

“One more thing,” Russ said, “Party is at Sgt. Bare’s tonight at 7 p.m. and the captain is bringing the beer.” Everyone’s morale was instantly better.

Russ and Bob went to pick up Russ’ truck. They made three sack lunches of simple meat and cheese sandwiches, a whole dill pickle, some chips and three bottles of water each. Neither man was a nutritionist, but then they really didn’t care either. By the time they had the lunches packed, they saw Eldred with the generator hooked up to an Army truck pulling up out front with Pvt. Lucien in the passenger seat.

Todd was driving a full-sized truck with a cap on the back and was following the captain. Russ grabbed the flashlights he’d used the previous night and the five drove to the police station. Lisa and the food salvaging crew were already at the commissary and Sgt. Bare and her guys were pulling out of the armory with a trailer. They were smiling as Russ drove by and he waved to them.

At the police station, Russ had the captain park the generator off to one side of the building. With quick practice, Russ found the primary power leads to the station and hooked the 20 kw generator into the building.

He could hear one of the prisoners screaming to be let out and Russ thought the sound of the running generator would be a pleasant background sound for them. It wouldn’t be loud, but they’d hear it for the next few days.

Russ gave the captain thumbs up and the younger officer started the generator. It puffed some black smoke, but then settled down under the load of the station. Russ could see lights come on and the five men smiled. Russ checked his connections and called them good.

He pulled the meals out of the truck and told the others to get their weapons.

Inside the building, they heard static from radios in the foyer. Some of the fluorescent lights were on and a few more were flickering.

“You guys search the building for anything we need or can use. Take all the radios, but don’t worry about the cabling because it would be too much trouble. See if you can find their walkie-talkies and any gun safes.

“Todd, you come with me and I’ll show you where to set up. Make sure you’re quiet setting up, but these other guys are going to be talking and working and making enough distraction noise,” he nodded to the other men in the room to let them know they could be loud without seeming to be noisy, “and I’ll be keeping their attention with conversation.

“They won’t be able to see you, but I don’t want them thinking we are up to anything except cleaning out the building. I want them thinking we’re not as smart as they are.

“One more thing gentlemen, under no circumstance are any of you to come down that hall. No matter what you hear, I will not open the cells and I will not have keys to the cells. They can not get out and I won’t be letting them out. I can’t say this with enough force. Do not come down the hall. I know what I am going to do and I won’t be in any danger no matter what you hear.”

Russ gave the team the go ahead and picked up the lunches he’d packed and six water bottles. He walked down the hall and Todd followed. The other men were already talking amongst themselves. Russ pointed to a room for Todd to set up his surveillance then took the corner for the corridor which led to the cells.

Mason, as Russ had surmised, was screaming for his rights at the top of his voice. He was talking about lawyers and lawsuits and how he was going to own this place.

Russ let him fume for almost a full minute before the man saw Russ wasn’t going to respond to his bluster. It also gave Todd time when both men were paying very close attention to Russ.

He held up the six brown paper bags when Mason finally shut up. “These are your meals for the next 24 hours....” He was interrupted by Mason who began complaining about the conditions in the cells. Russ sat the bags on the floor.

When Mason was done with his tirade, Russ told him and his partner, Miguel, to move to the far wall of their cells. Mason refused even though Miguel did move to the far wall and sat down on the bed. Russ figured he was getting tired of Mason’s constant belligerent and bellicose attitude.

“When you back up against the wall, I’ll place these meals inside your cells. I’ll come in to do the same thing Friday and Saturday. On Sunday, there’ll be a trial by court martial for the both of you.” Russ was again interrupted by Mason.

Todd had said he’d need five minutes at most to get his computer set up. Russ figured five minutes had long passed and he had grown tired of Mason’s voice. He pulled out the Python .357 in a smooth motion. Mason, who was continuing his diatribe but looking at his partner didn’t see the movement of Russ.

Mason didn’t ignore the big revolver’s report. It was louder than his screaming and the sound caused men in both cells to jump. It was louder than even Russ had suspected and the bullet hole through the rear wall of Mason’s cell testified to the power of the weapon.

“Shut the hell up and keep your mouth shut or the next shot takes your mouth off,” Russ told the man in the cell quietly, pointing with the still smoking revolver. “I’m tired of your bullshit and am not going to put up with it anymore.” He kicked three lunch bags toward Mason’s cell and the others toward his partner’s cell.

“The president called for martial law and that is the law we will follow as long as I am in charge here, which I am. Until your trial, you will remain under lock in these cells, allowed to talk with no one. I, or one of my associates, will bring your three meals every morning.

“Sunday, your fate will be decided. Your actions and your attitudes will affect your sentences. Your sentences are at my discretion and can range from dismissing all charges and setting you free to go on your own way, which because of your attack on my executive officer, is the most doubtful resolution, up to a summary execution.”

Mason started to say something and Russ pointed the Python at him. He shut his mouth so fast Russ thought he might have cracked a tooth.

“I do not want to hear another word out of you until the trial. Do you understand?”

The man nodded. Russ looked over at Miguel in the other cell. “Are we clear?” Miguel nodded furiously. Russ holstered the gun and picked up three bottles of water and set them inside Mason’s cell without looking up. He put the other three in Miguel’s cell. Miguel looked properly afraid and beaten down when Mason looked like he wanted to argue.

“I’ll be back tomorrow morning sometime with your meals and to check on you,” he said as he left them alone in the cell area. Russ felt his heart beating fast, but he refused to hurry away from the two criminals.

He’d served in areas, when deployed with the Army, where he had to draw his weapon on another human. He’d never done it in haste and until today, had never fired a weapon in the direction of another man where the other man was ten feet in front of him and unable to defend himself.

He’d only shot the weapon to make a point. Mason was not going to shut up and he was going to bluster and bully until he had gotten his own way, probably something he’d been getting a lot since the great plague. He pulled the trigger knowing the gun was going to make a very loud noise and to make sure both the men now incarcerated knew he was ready to use the gun. The hole in the wall was a side benefit. He hadn’t figured it would go all the way through, but it did. He thought now that if the bullet had ricocheted it might have been rather embarrassing.

The other men were carrying out shotguns and the radios and putting them in the back of the trucks. Todd gave the colonel a wink and a nod. They’d say nothing more about it anywhere in this area.

The men also picked up some flares, flashlights, bullet proof vests and all the ammunition they could find. There was an area in the armory they were using to store and keep an inventory of this kind of gear.

They cleaned out the equipment and supplies they wanted and left the building. Russ thought as he was leaving that even though it had been a brisk morning, it wasn’t that cold in the building. He decided it was well enough insulated and chose not to turn the heat on for the men in the cells. If they got cold, they could cover up with the blankets from their cots.

“Let’s get this stuff back to the armory,” Russ said to them and then get one of the generators over to the commissary and we’ll get that working. “It’ll take me a while to figure out the wiring, so I will take my tools and Bob with me. We’ll meet you there.”

For the next two days, it was working during the day and a communal dinner in the evening. Everything was going as planned and Sgt. Bare got her 75-foot lattice tower erected on Friday evening. In the morning, she and Fred, who was their best wrench, would install the antenna for her radio station.

Captain Eldred and his crew found three more fuel trailers and a fuel storage area. Todd finished getting all the houses connected to the wireless network he’d built. He was still adding servers for storage and setting up a database and filing system for survival knowledge. It was a task he was enjoying and in the evening, he showed people how to access the information.

Lisa found a Kroger store on base that had been invaded by wildlife, but they were still able to fill another three houses with non-perishable foods. It was hard work for everyone, but Russ made sure everyone worked within their abilities.

While he was working on figuring out the water and septic system for the houses they were living in, he could hear the trucks filled with foodstuffs being transported with drivers playing their CDs as loud as the people in the cabs could stand. Russ could hear music from two blocks away when Connie was driving. He could see her behind the wheel pulling into the community area, her head bobbing hard up and down to the beat of the heavy metal music.

By Saturday afternoon, Russ had the septic and water supply systems figured out.

Water towers are deceptively simple as Russ explained to Lisa one night.

Typically, towers hold enough water to supply a community for a day or two if power to the pumps that fill them runs out. The community they were building had 14 people for a tower that would under normal circumstances serve tens of thousands of people. The pumps for the current water tower were 500-gallon per minute pumps and too massive for the modest generators Russ had access to.

Russ checked the gauges and did the math and he figured even if the community grew to 500 people, they wouldn’t have to worry about water for three years at least.

In time, he could install a smaller pump that would work to keep the community’s use satisfied for years if a satisfactory well could be found.

The septic system was both more complicated and simpler to keep operational. It worked in reverse of the water tower with waste running through pipes below the base to a waste treatment facility. Russ spent all of Friday afternoon with Lucien and Hilario re-directing the incoming waste to an empty 10,000 gallon tank usually used for fuel. It made for an ideal septic tank because they could use it for years and it was far enough from the community so the smell wouldn’t waft back to them.

Lisa had finished packing five houses full of foodstuffs. One of the houses was filled with just canned goods from floor to ceiling. She and her merry band of foragers had taken shelving from the Walmart’s sporting section to stack the canned goods. The WalMart’s freezers had been opened by some wise animals and the food section was useless except for the canned goods, dry goods and soft drinks.

Instead of a communal evening meal on Saturday, together the community went to the WalMart to pick up whatever they wanted, including clothes, toys, batteries, sporting equipment, electronics, movies, books and music.

Lisa made it into an event.