Chapter 13 -- TNBYIJXUEXROTSIMBVG
The next day was spent in the woods, split into several groups they entered the
forests covering most of the hills. The main objective was a combination of
physical conditioning and woodcraft. They followed an instructor deep into
the woods, and then tried to find their way back without help. Jessica and
several others had been on these excursions before, and had little trouble,
while Carter discovered that his experiences had not prepared him for this,
and he would have been in trouble alone. Once among the hundreds of square
miles of trees, with no trail, he doubted he could had found his way back to
the rendezvous point after they had been walking for a few minutes.
They wore boots with trousers tucked in, as they were encounters with snakes were
possible. They didn't see any, but their guide assured them they were present. He
wasn't excited about the idea of encountering one, but Jessica assured him the only
way to get bitten was to step on one, hence the boots, or to deliberately touch it
which, strangely enough, some foolish people had been known to do.
Their guide was a member of the freehold, a young man in one of the Nine
families. He was, like most of the Niners, as he thought of them, young -
probably mid twenties. He seemed to have spent a good deal of time outdoors,
his skin deeply tanned and with a generally robust appearance. Carter had
worked with him in the close combat exercises, and was impressed with his
speed and agility for his stout build.
"Not out here though," she told him. "City people on vacation do stuff like that."
"Thanks," he said.
"You're not a city person now," she said, smiling. "And you'll be a country boy
before you know it."
"Even when I was a city person I knew not to pick up a snake," he said.
"Believe it or not," she said, "it happens."
"Well," he said "considering the state of society, I'm not surprised."
"That's why we're in the situation we're in. The big cities aren't just hives
of crime and corruption, they're in a precarious situation in the event of any
disruption of normal processes. The food supply in even the smaller cities,
is only good for a few days. If the highways, bridges, even some of them,
were cut off you would have people desperate for food almost immediately. The
stores would be stripped clean in the initial panic, and if the supply was not
restored immediately - well, we wouldn't want to be there."
"Yeah," Carter said. "What do we think would happen?"
"Well, you have riots and city blocks burned down - after being looted, of
course - when a career criminal gets killed by a cop, a few tens or hundreds
of thousands of people without food, use your imagination."
They had come to a small stream, and as they crossed, walking on slippery rocks,
they held hands in a chain to prevent falls. When they had all crossed their
guide called a halt.
"One thing to remember, if you're lost in the woods, a stream can be useful if
you happen to come across one. Follow it. If you don't have a compass or don't
know which direction to go even with one, and if you're in hilly country, go
downhill. Roads, and eventually people, will more likely be found downhill.
And streams run downhill. And if you're lost without any prospects for rescue,
downhill is the way to go anyway."
The hike continued, and eventually they descended a hill overlooking a lake.
It didn't look like one of the ones they had seen while Tracy and Jessica were
showing him around.
"There are five lakes, or very large ponds," Jessica told him. "and probably a
dozen or so smaller ponds made by building a dam across a small valley or a
low area. Aside from being a source of water and food in emergencies, think
of the things you could hide by sinking them in a deep lake, one that you
control access to."
"Are any of the lakes deep?" Carter asked.
"The big ones are. A couple of them are probably a hundred feet or more in
places."
Carter could see how effective that could be. Even if a lake was suspected of
being a hiding place, it would take some work to find the goods, unless the
exact location was known. With enormous bins full of grain, lakes in remote
mountains, he wondered how many hiding places there were, and of what kind and
what was in them. Weapons, certainly, and other supplies.
"I suppose if you wanted to hide a person, underwater wouldn't be a good place."
"Not likely," said Jessica, smiling. "Still thinking about where to hide a renegade?
"I suppose a good system of safe houses would help," he said. "I would guess
something like that exists."
"Of course. The trick with keeping someone safe is discipline. Any
relaxation or slip in protocols and procedures can give you away. And the
person being kept hidden must be able to adhere to that discipline. That's
why a lot of the people put in witness protection blow their cover, and some
of them just can't handle it and get out."
"I wonder if we couldn't do as well or better, given our resources."
"Probably, but it would depend on the candidate."
"Yeah, always does."
The trek went slowly due to the near absence of trails, requiring the hikers
to tread slowly, often stopping to avoid low-hanging branches or other
obstacles. At a pace of probably less than a mile per hour, Carter could see
how difficult it would be for anyone, especially a stranger, to move around.
He suspected the locals could probably do quite well on their own in areas
they visited frequently. A guerilla war in places such as this would favor
the defenders. Given the degree of determination he saw in everyone he met,
along with their competence, if things came to a full-blown war, it would be a
bloody one.
About four hours in Roger called a halt, and most of the group sat down or
leaned against trees. They had stopped a couple of times for a ten minute or
so rest, but most were fairly tired, and they still had to retrace their steps
to get back.
"Anyone know where we are?" Roger asked as they prepared to return.
No one did, even Jessica and a couple of others who had been on such
excursions before, had an idea. The woods all looked the same. Even Roger
took out his phone to check their position before starting.
"As you can see," he said, "even I need some help getting around here. One and
a half square miles is a lot of territory, and probably three fourths of it is
tree-covered hills. Even we who live here can get lost, so you can imagine
how much trouble intruders would have."
The walk back seemed easier, probably because food and rest awaited them at
the end. Roger had passed out military web belts, each with a couple of
canteens, partly for the feel of carrying some gear, and the water would be
needed even though the weather was not especially hot. Still, the quart
containers were mostly empty by the time they got back.
They arrived with time to go their cabins and clean up before the evening meal,
something Jessica, even with her experience, seemed to appreciate.
"If things get really bad someday," she said when he commented, "we'll do what
we have to do. For now, I'm going to enjoy civilization while it's still here."
He had noticed that seemed to be the prevailing attitude. Women and men and alike were
always clean and in fresh outfits every morning, and all looked like average
suburban or small-town middle class types or, he thought, at least the way
they used to look. Even among the ex-military types he saw no tattoos, much
less on the civilians. And not a piercing in sight, except the earrings the
women wore and there were not many of those, likely due to the nature of the
outing. He wondered if any of the generations replacing his were anything
like that.
As before, there was a small gathering for a couple of beers after the meal,
and he made a couple of new acquaintances. Having now met most of them, he
saw a pattern - quite a few ex-military and law enforcement, several family
members of the Nine, and a few regular citizens recruited he knew not how, but
evidently had passed the vetting process.
Later, in their cabin, they turned on the news again to check the progress of
events in Little Rock. As expected, the trouble was beginning. Or from the
look of it, well underway.
"Looks like they've got it going," Carter said. The current video was showing
a crowd like the night before, only the dozens were now hundreds. At this
point there were no apparent fires, and the scene seemed relatively calm.
"It may be a while before the professional agitators arrive," said Jessica.
"Little Rock isn't a prominent target, like LA and New York, or even
Minneapolis or Portland They'll have to load up some of the organizers and
probably some loads of equipment. Probably St. Louis will the staging point,
so it's a short drive. If the past is any indicator, they should have it
going today, tomorrow at the latest."
At this point the 'equipment' was a few large signs that looked like poster
board. "Justice for De'Andre" was demanded by a couple of them, while another
demanded that someone 'stop killing us', and the other usual signage.
"I'd have to guess they are going to make it a big one," said Carter. "It is a
little off the beaten path and not very big, but it looks like no opportunity
is being missed. I'm guessing the local government isn't such that it won't
get ugly."
"I wouldn't think so," Jessica said. "It's like St. Louis and Kansas City,
and most other big cities. Essentially, they're on the side of the rioters.
There seems to be a hatred of normal people, and of course normal people don't
operate that way, and they aren't offering any resistance."
"Sometimes," said Carter, "it looks like our only chance is that when they
finally get it broken enough to take over, they will find that they can't
control it. That might give us some breathing room."
"We'll do our best to make that happen," said Jessica, "if it doesn't happen on
its own. Or even if it does, anything we can do to make it worse. The police
forces, most likely augmented by military force, can be kept busy in the cities,
too busy to be grabbing our weapons and supplies. Or trying to."
"That would certainly be helpful."
Not much developed before they went to bed. He was wondering what was about
to happen as Jessica stopped, facing him.
"As they say," she said "About last night..."
"It's OK," he said. He grinned. "If you're planning a repeat performance, I'm
up for it."
She smiled, put her arms around his neck and kissed him. "Good night."