Authors: Rich Goldhaber
Josh said, “I don’t know how long the gas
will last. We’ll have to check things out in a couple
of days.”
“We’ll have to place a solar array on the
roof,” Jessie said. “We can start on that project tomorrow.”
I added, “And we’ll also have to send a
cleanup crew here to get rid of all the spoiled food.
And that identifies a problem I haven’t thought
about; how are we going to get rid of all our garbage?”
With our gifts for Beth loaded in the back of
the truck, we headed back to the campus to see
what was going on there.
Six new cars I hadn’t seen before and a
Marriott Hotel bus, the kind they use to shuttle
people to and from the airport, were parked near
building H. There were almost thirty new faces
walking around. Jack and Bobby had found two
new friends. Their names were Jake and Martha.
George introduced us to each new person except
he had forgotten a few of their names. No matter,
they would become well known in the next few
days. George explained these were the groups from
Marco Island and Fiddler’s Creek.
Beth was surveying the food in the back of
the truck. She thanked us, “We better get this food
into our refrigerators before it spoils. I see we’re
going to have a multi-cultural cuisine night.”
Margaret was sitting down at a small table
in the parking lot and recording everyone’s names
and skills. She told them each to pick out apartments in Building J and then to let her know
where they were staying so she could record everything.
Our welcome party was interrupted by a
large black bear lumbering out of the woods and
moving directly toward our little group. The four
kids screamed and ran to the far corner of the
parking lot to hide behind some cars. The bear,
seeing the sudden distraction, began lumbering
after the children as they ran for cover. I ran out
into the parking lot screaming and tried to catch
the bear’s attention. I waved my hands at the creature. It turned and stood up on its hind legs and
then roared. I instantly knew I had made a mistake, but I had to do something to save the kids.
I ran across the parking lot and the bear
followed. It looked like it was in a pretty bad mood.
I knew I couldn’t outrun the animal, but I ran into
a nearby field to draw the bear away from the others.
Suddenly, I heard the roar of an engine and
Stan appeared in a Bobcat. He quickly sized up the
situation and lined up the small construction machine on a collision course with the bear. He raised
the frontend loader so it was level with the bear’s
neck. At the last minute the bear saw the Bobcat,
but it was too late. The tip of the front loader blade
struck the bear in the neck and almost cut the unfortunate creature’s head off. It died instantly right
there in the field.
It was over almost as quickly as it started,
and soon the whole adult community gathered
around the dead animal while the children were
told to play on the beach. Josh broke the ice.
“Beth, I’ll skin and butcher it for you, but how are
you going to prepare it?”
Beth laughed. “I don’t have a clue. I don’t
think any of the books in the library are going to
have a recipe for wild bear.”
Patty and Greg arrived to see the dead
beast lying on the ground. They were not dressed
in their hazmat suits. Greg said, “I hope you’re not
going to ask us to bury that monster.”
I gave Stan a pat on the back and thanked
him for risking his own life to save mine. He
shrugged it off, and said I owed him one, and I
guess I did.
Mary shouted from the entrance to the
apartments. “We’ve got water. There’s not a lot of
water pressure yet, but at least it’s flowing.”
I reminded everyone not to drink the water
until we tested it and confirmed it was safe. Our
new arrivals left to choose their new accommodations while the guys all helped load the dead bear
into the Bobcat’s front loader. The Bobcat followed
Josh who looked for a place where he could skin
and butcher the fresh meat, and luckily I wouldn’t
see Mr. Bear again until the next night’s meal.
I heard the sound of Blaine’s airplane approaching. He circled the apartments a few times
and then disappeared behind the woods. He landed
the plane and taxied it over to his usual spot in the
corner of the parking lot. He walked up to me and
saluted. “I have news to report El Presidente. We’re
probably going to have another hundred people
showing up on our doorstep. There were three
large groups of survivors: one in Fort Myers Beach,
a second in Fort Myers, and a third in Cape Coral.
I couldn’t land near them, but I dropped a few of
my parachute messages. From the way they were
reacting to my plane, they were really glad to see
some visible sign of civilization.”
“So,” I said, “It looks like we may wind up
with over 500 people. We’re going to have to rethink the infrastructure. Let’s talk about it over
dinner.”
I was taking a few minutes to relax on the
beach just outside my apartment when Jessie
tapped me on the shoulder. She had opened a bottle of wine from Costco and had two glasses with
her. “The price below the bottle said $299.00,” she
said. “I couldn’t resist.”
She poured two large measures, and we
toasted with Margaret’s new toast,
l’chaim
. The red
Barola was outstanding. “We need to talk,” she
said.
“I heard from Blaine that we’re going to
have over 500 survivors in our little community.
It’s not going to be little anymore, and I think we’re
going to have potential problems.”
“Like who voted to make you king. Don’t
misunderstand, I think you are the unofficial leader of the group, but that’s just it; it’s unofficial.
That’s going to create problems. With this large a
group, there’re going to be some people who don’t
think you should be the leader. They’ll cause trouble; it’s the nature of our species. We need to have
a legal leadership team. Otherwise it will be like
anarchy.”
“Let’s be proactive. I think tonight we
should begin the process of electing a small group
to govern the community. We’ll have a democratic
vote, and then it will be official.”
I thought about Jessie’s assessment. She
had this uncanny ability to anticipate future problems, and the more I thought about it, the more I
realized she was right. We needed to elect some
people to govern. We needed to create some semblance of order amidst this chaos.
Our enjoyment of this fine wine was interrupted by shouting and clapping from out in front
of our apartment. Bill and his team had just returned, and their team did deserve a round of applause. I was looking forward to a shower, and I
was certain those around me would also be thankful for the reduction in body odor.
I congratulated everyone on his team and
then pulled Bill aside. “We got lucky,” I said. “We
started up the freezers and refrigerators at Costco,
and we were able to salvage some of the frozen
food. Now we’re going to need your team to establish solar power at Costco so we can use the place
to store our food.”
“We can do it Jim, but we’ll be running out
of solar kits soon. We’ve got to figure out a way to
find more kits.”
We moved more tables into our picnic area,
and after everyone had taken their food from
Beth’s two kitchens, I stood up and addressed the
group. “I’d like to welcome all of our new residents.
I’m looking forward to getting to know each of you.
Tonight I want to talk to you about something that
concerns me and I’m sure others as well.
“Tomorrow we’re expecting another large
group to arrive from around the Fort Myers area.
Our little community will no longer be very little.
We’re going to have to expand our infrastructure
and establish some rules so we can all live together
peacefully. There is no Federal Government; there
is no Local Government; there’re no police to keep
order or pass out speeding tickets.”
Everyone laughed at the unfortunate truth
behind my joke. I waited a moment and then continued. “As Americans, we have all accepted a representative form of government; it’s what we’re
used to; it’s in our blood. I propose we elect a senior leadership team, I’m thinking five people. This
group of five will elect some officers, and every year
we can repeat the process.
“I would like to see a show of hands to indicate how many of you are in favor of holding some
type of formal elections.”
Since Patty is our resident lawyer, I’d like her to
post some rules for our election on the front entrance to Building H tomorrow morning.
“On a separate issue, I’d like to let everyone
know that Jessie, Josh, and I broke into Costco
and restored temporary power to their freezers and
refrigerators. Now we’ll have a place to store some
of our food supplies. But the smell from the spoiled
food was pretty terrible.
“So tomorrow we’re going to need several
volunteers to clean up the place. Also, Bill’s team
which has given us all water, are now going to be
providing permanent solar power to Costco. On a
separate issue, does anyone know how to drive a
garbage truck?”
Steven, a guy who had just arrived from
Marco Island, raised his hand. “I drove a garbage
truck up in Detroit just after getting out of college.
My history degree didn’t get me any other work, so
I guess I’m your man.”
A woman named Rachel raised her hand.
“It’s located just a little southeast of Naples. I forget the name of the road, but I know where it is.”
“Well Rachel, I’d appreciate it if you would
help Steve; and Steve, maybe you can work out a
schedule for some type of routine garbage pickup
service.
“I’ve got one more request; Today Patty,
Greg, and Stan helped bury some of the dead
whose remains were on campus. They’re not done
yet; it’s going to take a few more days, but we need
to bury all of the dead. It’s a health and safety issue. I’m guessing the run in we had with Mr. Bear
today was probably because he was dining on
some human flesh and liked the taste. We all need
to be extra careful when we walk outside.
“Thank you all for helping today and special
thanks to Beth for once again preparing a wonderful dinner.”
Everyone clapped for Beth who waved from
the kitchen, and then it was finally time to relax. I
finished the day with a shower. The pressure
wasn’t great and the water was only warm, but it
felt wonderful. Bill said the low pressure was due
to many people throughout the Naples area leaving
their faucets on after the water stopped flowing
and the storage reservoir was still not totally filled.
He had the locations of all of the major shutoff
valves in the North Naples water distribution system, and tomorrow Frank and Janet agreed to shut
off everything except the water going to the campus.
Captain Sanchez and his officers had been
looking at satellite images of the Bahamas for a full
day before they settled on stocking up on provisions at Samana Cays, a small apparently uninhabited island southwest of Nassau. Close up images from the satellite had shown a single 150 foot
yacht anchored just a few hundred yards off the
south side of the island, just outside a coral reef.
Sanchez ordered his ship to surface just a
mile south of the anchored yacht and then slowly
approached the smaller boat. It was early morning
and the boat looked deserted. Sanchez took out his
megaphone. “Ahoy Lucky Charm, this is the USS
Jimmy Carter. Is there anyone on board?
A family of four appeared on the rear deck
and began waving. Sanchez waved back. “Lucky
Charm, please raise anchor and approach the
starboard side of our ship.”
The man climbed onto the flying bridge,
and Sanchez could hear their engine start and see
the anchor rise onto the bow pulpit. As the Lucky
Charm approached his ship, some of his crew
helped the yacht tie up to the starboard side of the
submarine. Sanchez climbed down from the submarine’s sail and approached the tied up yacht.
The four people on the boat were getting ready to
board the submarine, but Sanchez stopped them.
He had no intention of risking the lives of his crew.
Sanchez said. “I’m Captain Sanchez. What are you
doing out here, and when was the last time you
encountered another person?”
The man answered, “We’re the Winters family. A week after the first case in New York we left
on vacation. We were following the news closely
and a month ago we decided it was too risky to return to Miami. We haven’t seen anyone since we
left Miami seventeen weeks ago. I know you’re
probably thinking we’re contagious, but I promise,
we haven’t seen another person since we left Miami.”
Sanchez studied the Winters family. He was
looking for any sign of the disease. He saw nothing
even remotely suspicious. He ordered his men to
secure a gangplank between the two vessels and
welcomed the Winters family as they cautiously
walked across a ten foot span of ocean.
Sanchez led the group through an access
hatch on the side of the submarine’s tall steel sail.
The Winters family looked around the inside of the
vessel with ever-widening eyes. Sanchez smiled at
them and said, “You’re the first civilians to ever set
foot inside this ship since it was commissioned.”