“Good call.”
“Really?”
Caden smiled. “Really. Any soldier worried about his family isn’t giving us his best.” In jest he asked, “Have you broken any other regulations?”
The tension returned to Brook’s face. “After the Los Angles bombing refugees came down all the roads from Seattle.” His eyes seemed to stare off in the distance for a moment. “We took a soldier, injured in a car accident, to the hospital. While we were there three armed looters attacked the pharmacy. The drugstore in town had already robbed. I’m sure these three were addicts looking for a fix.” He sighed. “They pulled guns on the staff and started shooting. I returned fire and…well…I killed all three.”
Chapter Nineteen
Fifteen minutes later, as he inspected the gun vault with Brooks, Caden was still wondering how many people had died, and who really shot them. Looters and drug addicts looking for a fix, what should they have done? Arrest them; feed them while law-abiding citizens go hungry?
“Sixty-eight M4s and ten M9s,” Brooks said with a gesture along the vault wall.
These are awful times. Hoover and Brooks have made difficult choices. How many are alive because they made those decisions? The faces of the people he had known and who were now dead lingered in his mind. So many have died, perhaps even Dad, Peter and Susan.
“And over here are the night vision….”
“Why are there so many empty slots?” Caden asked pointing to one row of M4 rifles.
“Two squads are deployed at the moment and one is on alert and, ah, I loaned seven to the sheriff’s office.” Brooks stood stiffly as if at attention. “I take full responsibility. I know there are all sorts of regulations that prohibit….”
“I assume he came and asked for them.”
“Yes sir. It was when the looting began we…he…all of us really…we were trying to keep order and….”
“You’ve done paperwork and logged the serial numbers, of course.”
“Yes sir.”
Caden nodded thoughtfully. “I’m sure it was the right thing to do.”
Relief flowed across the young lieutenant’s face as he stood at ease.
“I’m going to need an M9. How many rounds of ammo do we have?”
Brooks handed Caden a pistol and holster. “I’d have to look up the exact numbers, but we have less than I’d like. We returned from field exercises a month ago and had not been resupplied when the terrorist attacks began.”
Caden strapped on the holster as they exited the vault.
Brooks said, “I’ll show you the rest of the facility. This way sir.”
“My name is Caden, at least when we’re alone.”
“Thank you sir, my name is David.”
Passing through the lobby, Caden noticed a cross carved in the stone wall and recalled that the building had been a religious school of some kind fifty or sixty years earlier. In one wing, a large room now served as a barracks. Storerooms and offices had been cleared and married soldiers assigned individual rooms. Clearly his XO had been a busy officer.
In the basement David showed him an ancient coal furnace with no coal and a modern backup generator that was low on diesel fuel.
Ammo, food and fuel. He sighed inwardly. I need to get more of just about everything. Fumbling in his jacket he pulled out a small notebook and wrote several notes to himself.
As they walked back toward their office, Brooks suddenly turned to his left and opened one side of a double door. “We can cut across the gym. It’s shorter.”
Walking into the large room, the sound of their footsteps echoed off the old hardwood floor and bounced off the wooden walls and bleachers. Large windows high above on one side provided light that cast the old gymnasium in a yellow glow.
“Assemble the men in…” Caden glanced at his watch. Almost noon. “one hour, 1300. We’ll do the change of command and I’ll speak to the soldiers at that time.”
When they arrived at the office, Brooks sent two privates to make preparations for the assembly.
“Where is the first sergeant?” Caden asked, “I’d like to talk with him before the change of command.”
“He’s with second squad guarding the North Road Bridge over the Cowlitz River.”
Caden nodded. “You mentioned we had two squads out?”
“Third squad is east of town along the highway. A few days ago we had four squads deployed guarding the north and east perimeter of the town, but things are quieter to the east.”
“The north road isn’t secure?”
“There is a large unofficial refugee camp just across the Cowlitz River Bridge.”
“When you say large, what do you mean?”
“I’d estimate a thousand individuals.”
“I can understand us not wanting another thousand mouths to feed, but why don’t we let them pass through, maybe in small, manageable, groups?”
“Most of them stopped there because they were either low on gas or out of it. They can’t go anywhere and now they’re out of food and getting desperate. I’ve seen fights, riots really, and heard gunshots but, thankfully we are able to keep those problems on the other side of the river.”
“How?”
“The river is running high and fast and the bridge is barricaded.”
Caden nodded thinking of his father, brother and sister-in-law who were all on the wrong side of the river. When my leg is better I’m going to need to go up that road and try to find them. He continued to his office where he strained to concentrate on the reports and assess the readiness of his command. Not very ready. As he tried to come up with a plan, the lights went out.
From the next office he heard David moan. “We have been experiencing more brown outs and power failures with each passing day.”
Caden nodded to no one and continued to read by the light of a window behind him, but after a couple of minutes he gave up and leaned back in the chair. Even though it was barely afternoon, he was tired, his leg ached and the dim light strained his eyes. He stood and hobbled to the window. Gray clouds covered much of the sky casting the valley and town below in shadow.
It’s going to be a long hard winter no matter what the weather is like. I’m fortunate to be home…to even have a home to go to. He thought of the people he had seen walking along the highways. At that moment he wanted desperately to be with his family at the farmhouse. He realized that once again he had included Maria and even little Adam in his mental image of family.
A shiver passed through him. The farmhouse has a fireplace and woodstove, but how many don’t have that? Again he shivered. Perhaps it was just his imagination, but it already seemed cooler in the room. He reached out and touched an ancient radiator beside the window. It was cold. No coal for the boiler.
Brooks stepped into the office holding two cups of coffee and handed one to Caden. “We might as well drink it while it is still hot.”
“What causes the power to go out more each day?”
Brooks shrugged.
“Why doesn’t the backup generator come on when the main power goes out?”
“We’re so short of fuel I’m only using it at night.”
Caden nodded. All I need is more food, fuel, ammo and soldiers, and this command will be ready for anything. He grinned and Brooks gave him a quizzical look, but he ignored it and sipped his coffee.
David did the same and then said, “I hope we can get people back home and get the economy moving. If we don’t and the power fails for a long period of time…well, just imagine, heat, communication, refrigeration, cooking, it’s all electric.”