Chapter 35 -- HZBRGJVEGRARMN
Jessica slowed the Trailblazer slightly as they approached what looked like a
group of houses to the right side of the road ahead. They were probably five
or six miles from the small town they had just passed through, and the area
was mostly fields, with an occasional house on one side or the other, most
with an outbuilding or two.
"This looks like it," Carter said. "Chapman Trailer Park."
The sign providing the identification was old, apparently a four by eight
sheet of plywood between two posts. It was, however, in good repair given its
apparent age.
There were two roads running into the park itself, through four rows of old
mobile homes. A few spaces were empty, several held large travel trailers of
the sort people sometimes lived in in mobile home parks. The vehicle count
was approximately two per dwelling.
Jessica passed the two roads and turned into a driveway at a modest house with
a detached garage and several small outbuildings. She stopped and
killed the engine.
"Looks like we're here," she said. "Just about the middle of nowhere."
They were far from any major population center. Carter reflected that in a
place like this and thousands of others around the country, people of
independent means could live quietly and unnoticed. Unless of course the
government forced them into its net.
The almost complete conversion to digital money had been prodded to completion
to 'shortages' of coins and currency and the forced accounting of any sums in
excess of a thousand dollars. Even here in the hinterlands almost all
commerce was digital - a drink and bag of chips in a convenience store was
paid for with a card, and the stores often couldn't, or wouldn't, give change
on a purchase. From clerks not being able to count change to not having any
to count, Carter thought. How much further do we, or can we fall.
"Coming?"
Jessica was opening the door and he wondered how long they had been stopped.
He had become lost in his thoughts more often lately.
He got out and accompanied her towards the house, intercepted on the way by a
young man and woman emerging from the garage. They looked about the ages of
Carter and Jessica, the woman a little younger than the man. She greeted them
with an enthusiastic smile.
"Jessica! Good to see you. And this is Darrell, right?"
"Right," Jessica replied. "Darrell, this is Rebecca and Henry. Hope I got that
right since we've never met."
"Right," said Roger. He was about Carter's age, fit and healthy-looking as all
freeholders seemed to be. Rebecca was about Jessica's age. They had been
given only names and descriptions when the meeting was set up, transmitting
pictures was a needless risk. They were on one of a number of visits they
would be making during the months ahead. With the rapidly deteriorating
situation improving networking was essential. The need to make people
disappear, as they had done with James, could become more important. Which
was the reason for the visit.
The trailer park was actually the Emerald Ridge freehold, a small group of
about forty men and women, most of them in partnerships, married or otherwise,
and a handful of older men, most of them with wives. The
appearance of the facility was that of a small rural trailer park, and nothing
about it or the behavior of its residents was likely to attract attention.
Occasional inquiries about available rentals were told there was no vacancies.
The previous owners had retired and moved away some years ago, and the
freehold had purchased the property. Natural attrition would have emptied the
place of its original occupants eventually, but they were told the place was
being closed and given notice to vacate. In order to keep the matter from
attracting unwanted attention and to get control more quickly, they bought
some of the homes for more than they were worth gave other incentives. In
less than a year the place was empty and they could begin work. The freehold
had a base, in a most improbable location and with a most innocent appearance.
Roger and Rebecca had invited them in and they were sitting around the large
dining room table, sipping glasses of the strong sweet tea Carter had some to
appreciate since he had become involved with the freeholders. A couple of
their comrades were on the way over.
"We don't live here," Rebecca told them. "This is our headquarters. We live
over in the park with everyone else. It's got plenty of room for meetings,
storage, whatever we need. There are a couple of shops and storage buildings
out back. The former owner was a guy who liked to tinker. He built the
windmills back there, we still use them for charging an emergency battery bank
for the house and the other buildings. There's a big pond back there, about
five or six acres, so we have a good supply of fish for regular use and water
for emergencies. We put in a good-sized chicken yard back there as well, so
it keeps our cost of living down.
"We're not especially wealthy - I know some of the freeholds are financed by
wealthy people - but we're just regular folks."
"I'll just go ahead and plead guilty." said Jessica with a smile.
"I know you're kidding, but no guilt is necessary," Rebecca said. "Believe me,
without that money this would never have happened. We're happy to give
whatever assistance we can."
They heard a door open, and shortly a couple of young men entered. Both
looked to be in their late twenties, dressed in the jeans and long-sleeved
khaki shirts common among freeholders. The shirts usually had a military
look, with double flapped pockets and sometimes epaulets.
"Hi guys," said Rebecca. "This is Bryan and Justin. Seth should be here shortly."
"He went to town this morning to get the feed and some other stuff. Should be
back by now," Justin said.
"Probably got behind a tractor or two," said Roger. "We're in planting season."
Jessica and Carter had been behind a couple on their way in, and having to
follow one for long could be annoying but they were part of living in an agricultural area. Bryan and Justin helped themselves to
tea, which seemed to be about the only thing people drank wherever Carter had
been. Having been accustomed to the bland offerings in restaurants he found
the type people made at home almost addictive.
The door opened again and an older man, presumably Seth, entered the room. He
was considerably older, probably in his late sixties, maybe older. With men
in good physical condition, the look of age could come late. Seth greeted
Carter and Jessica, got a glass of tea and sat down.
"I'm one of the old geezers hereabouts," he said. "Got together with a few of
my old cronies a few years back and whatever we talked about it always ended
up complaining about the government. Roger and Rebecca here were with some of
their friends and family talking about the same thing. We both realized that
it was bad and getting worse, eventually ended up getting this thing together.
"It was while we were trying to decide what to do that Seth showed up. He was
originally with a group up in the hills, had some good ideas but was too
erratic to accomplish anything, and he joined up with us. It wasn't much
later that their place was raided by the feds, arrested and hauled off, some
of them may still be in prison."
"There were some members who were too loud," Seth said. "Made some enemies
with the local law, threatened some politicians, things like that. The feds
raided the place, brought some drugs and illegal guns to plant, and those guys
were finished. I was looking for someone to join, that was smart enough to
stay low and not be noticed. This looked like a good place."
"Seth had been hanging out with a guy from Cedar Ridge, about the time he hooked
up with us." said Roger. "I don't know if you know them."
"I may have heard it, my father is on the Council and knows a lot of them,"
said Jessica.
"Well," said Roger, "it's over in Oklahoma, without a cedar or a ridge
anywhere near. A lot of us use names that can't be a clue to where we are.
There aren't any ridges around here - the nearest is Crowley's Ridge up in the
northeast part of the state. And no emeralds either, as far as we know.
"Anyway, the Council checked us out over several years. We wondered about
some of the people we 'just happened to run into' back then - they were
evaluating us - and eventually they extended an invitation. Cedar Ridge
is one of small several freeholds in this area, not big enough to have its own
Council representative, that send a delegate."
"So you're up to date on everything," said Jessica. "And you know why we're
now in a preparation mode, beyond helping each other learn useful things,
getting equipped. We're getting to know each other's territory as well, in
case we find ourselves on joint operations. We'd like to spend a couple of
days with you going around and learning the area. We could work in a trip to,
how far away is Cedar Ridge?"
"Just over in Oklahoma," said Seth. "About two hours".
"We could drive over day after tomorrow, spend a day there and still be
back home by the weekend," said Jessica.
"Well," Roger said, "why don't we get the tour started. We'll show you around
the place and then drive around the area. Tomorrow morning you can leave and
be there in time for lunch. We'll have Seth give them a heads-up."
The five of them took Jessica and Carter on a circuit of the park, which was
four rows of mobile homes lining the long sides of the rectangular drive.
After a few hours they had met a couple dozen of the residents, and were shown
several empty, or at least unoccupied, trailers that were used for storage and
work areas. A couple of them housed small armories - racks of rifles and
shotguns, a sizable collection of handguns. Most residents owned a number of
both handguns and long guns, but the armory included a number that could be
given to anyone lacking one in the case of an emergency.
In one of the caches Roger displayed a rack of M-1 carbines. He handed two to
Jessica and Carter. Carter was unfamiliar with the weapon, while Jessica had
fired them on several occasions. They were popular with the Freeholders.
"The M-1 has been around quite a while," Seth said. "World War II, Korea, and
used some in Vietnam. They made millions of them, and they're still
being made, though not for military use.
"A few years ago military surplus ones were going for two, maybe three hundred
each. Now they're over a thousand. I was lucky enough to get a bunch of them
back then. Got reloading equipment, so we're pretty well set on these."
A couple of trailers were almost full of food, survival supplies prepared for
long-term storage.
"We've got wells to supply water, and some big storage tanks," Roger
told them. "And a pretty good supply of fuel for the generators. We could
hold out here for quite a while if things break down. Although it looks like
that may not be the big problem."
They toured the remaining area before returning to the house for lunch. After
lunch Carter and Jessica got into a an old Ford Expedition that allowed six of
them to ride. Henry and Rebecca sat up front, with Carter and Jessica on the
left side of the remaining rows while Bryan and Justin sat on the other side.
After a quick tour of the town they left on the main street which became a
state highway heading west. The country was almost entirely farm fields, with
an occasional house. They passed through a couple of small places large
enough to have a sign announcing the name and population, the larger of the
two seemed to have a population of 133, if the sign was correct.
About an hour out they turned around and headed back.
"Cedar Ridge is about an hour and a half that way," Roger told them.
Going back through town they drove about an hour in the other direction, then
took a road north, and eventually turned west again. A few more changes in
direction left Carter and Jessica completely lost.
"As you can see," said Roger, "it's easy go get lost out here if you don't live here."
"Kind of like our area," said Carter. "Or I guess, anywhere away from the cities."
"Yeah," Roger said. "So much of the population is concentrated in the cities,
especially on the coasts, there's not much out here. A lot of the country has
less than ten people per square mile, or even one. We hope that means those
of us out here will escape attention for a while, as the government deals with
the population centers."
"Of course," Jessica said, "the ultimate goal is to have all the population in
controlled areas. Those outside will be forced, one way or another, to move.
We hope it takes a while, even after the takeover is complete, giving us time
to work on our ultimate project."
"The big one," said Rebecca, in a serious tone.
"In the end, yes," replied Jessica. "We're being left with no choice."
As darkness approached they headed back towards home. After dinner and a
brief look at the news, which had nothing of significance, Carter and Jessica
were shown to a trailer used for guest quarters. They were both tired from
the long drives on the country roads, and fell asleep quickly.