The Big Ten: The First Ten Books of the Beginnings Series Read online

  On that remark, Dean turned and walked right back out.

  Monday, June 15th

  Garfield Country, Montana

  The day’s first light began to shine. The wooded area was still dark, and headlights were needed. The six men made it past the first gate and headed down the bumpy dirt road in search of the community.

  “It shouldn’t be much further, Joe,” George noted as Joe drove. “Directions say about a half mile.”

  Henry leaned between the two front seats. “I think we’re on the wrong road.”

  “Ninety-four,” Joe said. “Ninety-four goddamn times you’ve complained or made a derogatory remark. Do you realize that? There’s something wrong with you.”

  Henry snickered, “Oh, yeah, well, you’re counting.”

  Frustrated, Joe bit his lip. “Where’s the duct tape? Miguel, do your thing to Henry again.”

  “No,” Henry called out. “I’m serious. That looks like a mountain up ahead; you can see it, look.”

  Joe looked over the steering wheel. “Seems like we’re headed right towards it.”

  George looked over his notes. “No, this has to be it.”

  Joe hit the brakes, and everyone jerked. “It is.”

  In front of them, the road became paved, and it led to the opening of a gated tunnel. Just in front of the gate was an empty guard booth, and on the gate a sign which read, UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT PROPERTY. NO TRESPASSING!

  Joe stepped from the van, and everyone followed. He walked to the booth with a chuckle. “It’s well-guarded, I can see.” He then walked to the gate which closed off the tunnel. The gate was secured by a padlock and chain. “Oh, this will keep people out.” Joe said sarcastically as he reached for the chain.

  “Wait!” John yelled to him. “Don’t touch it.” He ran up to Joe. “Don’t touch the fence.”

  “What the hell?” Joe looked strangely at him.

  John gently moved Joe with his hand. “Step back.” John looked around and found a stick. He picked it up and hurled it at the fence. The stick clanked against the metal and fell to the ground.

  Joe shook his head. “John, that stick is not going to open the gate. We’re gonna have to shoot it off. Throwing twigs is just not going to do it. Unless of course you want to intimidate it into opening, in that case we’ll all just sit here and yell names at it. Or annoy it and have Henry bitch.”

  John picked up the twig. “Ha, ha, ha, very funny, Joe.” He pulled out a piece of paper from his pocket and handed it to Joe. “This compound is powered by three solar energy generators, one of which generates the security system, here.” John showed him on the paper. “The system secures all ground entrances. If by some chance the generators were up and running, you would have been electrocuted.”

  Joe refolded the paper and handed it back to John. “Don’t you mean ‘solarcuted’?” Joe walked back to the van, opened the back hatch, and retrieved his rifle. He returned to the other men who were standing at the gate. “Watch out.” He aimed at the lock, fired one shot, and the padlock and chain fell to the ground. Joe walked up and opened the huge gate. “Let’s get back in the van and go.”

  They drove through the dark tunnel. The only guiding light was the appearance of sunlight at the end.

  When they pulled out of the tunnel, they were on a roadway that sat above the huge complex.

  The complex, which was recorded to have been built on twenty-five square miles of land, was laid out like a community that was intended to grow. As far as they could see, sporadically encircling the compound were huge, gray, warehouse-type buildings. Those were marked on the plans as to be used for storage. To their left was plain land, laid out for farming. The three long greenhouses could also be seen. To their right were the small rows of houses, all of which were tan in color and diminutive. All of them, five rows of ten, each had scrawny front and back yards. There were several other structures around, and land that looked as if to be used for more buildings if needed.

  George stepped out of the van first. He spread the map on the hood of the van.

  Henry was astonished. “I can’t believe it actually exists. It’s so big.” He stood next to George and looked down at the map. “George, this looks better than it does on paper.”

  George whose back was facing the complex, agreed. “It sure does, doesn’t it?”

  Joe looked back at the small tunnel. “Hey, George, how in the hell are we going to get trucks with supplies into this place?”

  “We’re gonna have to use the other entrance, here.” George pointed. “But we have no directions on how to get there so we’ll have to figure it out.” George turned and faced the men. “All right. We have all discussed this. Jonas and Miguel, you two will check out the agricultural side. Henry and John, you two check the solar generators. John, I believe you have the papers. Joe and I will check out the structures. Everybody, give a quick check and we’ll meet here in say one hour, just a quick check. After that then we’ll get into everything more thoroughly.”

  They all grabbed the paperwork for each of their divisions and headed off.

  Henry and John were the first to return to the van. They sat on the ground drinking warm beers until the others arrived.

  Joe and George huffed and puffed a bit as they made it back up the small hill. Jonas and Miguel followed a few feet behind them.

  Joe reached into the cooler filled with the beer bottles and grabbed one. He opened it, chugged it quickly so he would not taste how warm it was. He wiped his mouth then plopped on the ground next to Henry.

  When the men were all finally seated in a circle, Henry was the first to speak:

  “John and I checked out the generators, and they are definitely there. We feel that there should be no reason why we can’t get them up and running with little problem. They each have a huge reserve pool, which tells me that there’re one heck of a bunch of generators. Also, from what we could tell, right now we only need two of them, and probably not even much of the second one. The third seems to be a spare for when more buildings are eventually built.”

  George nodded. “You’re right, this place was designed to be started with fifty people, but the plan also includes growth. The population will definitely increase. It’s designed for that. Joe and I checked out the structures. All the housing units appear to be the same. Military-style housing with a living room, dining area, nice-size kitchen, one and a half baths and two bedrooms, no carpets. Although none of the rooms are very big, they are adequate.” George pulled out a small notebook and began to read. “They all have a stove, fridge, heating and cooling units. Very, very basic. As far as furnishings, that too is very basic. So it’s not an immediate need. Also there is plumbing. It is not working.”

  “Oh my God,” Henry gasped. “How do you know? Did you use a toilet and it not flush?”

  Joe glared at Henry. “What the hell is the matter with you? I turned on a goddamn faucet.”

  John raised his hand in interruption. “Henry and I read in our instructions that the filtering and pump systems won’t work until we get the generator up and running. The one generator definitely controls that.”

  George closed his note pad. “Good, also the warehouses that we got to appear to be empty. And now Joe has something to add.”

  “Thanks. We also discovered the small school and library, though furnished, have no books. There is a small clinic-style hospital, no medication or supplies. There are two other smaller buildings; one seems to be set up like a grocer, no food. The other seems to be like the supply stores I remember in the military, but no supplies.”

  Miguel stood up. “We have a similar problem.” He pointed to the land to the left of them. “All of that seems to be designated for different areas of farming. The greenhouses are set up. The warehouse is stocked with equipment and what appears to be everything we need to get started.”

  Joe was puzzled. “So what’s the problem?”

  Miguel sat back down. “None of us, in any of the conversations
that we’ve had, has mentioned that we know the first thing about farming. In order for us to determine what we need, we’ll have to bring our trio out here first.”

  Joe winced. “We’ll put that on our list. Right now I have to hook up the radio and let the others know we arrived. Then I say let’s rest a bit, then get to work. During this week, gentleman, we have to list everything that we need and more to get this place running. I have a feeling that will be one helluva list.”

  Ashtonville, Connecticut

  “There.” Ellen reached across the Scrabble board and placed down the tiles. “That’s ten.”

  Frank wrote down her score. “Thanks for waiting with me, Ellen.”

  “Yeah, well, it doesn’t mean I like you or I’m not mad at you. I just want to be around when Joe radios. Take your turn.”

  Frank smiled arrogantly. “Wait until you see this.” He proudly picked up four tiles and placed them on the board. “Uh huh! Triple-word score. That’s three, and four is seven, plus one, three . . .”

  “Wait a second! What is that?”

  “My word. I added R, I, S, M, to your word ‘plague’ and hit the triple word.”

  “And what exactly are you trying to spell?” she asked annoyingly.

  “Plaguerism. You know when you steal someone else’s idea.”

  “It’s not ‘plaguerism,’ goof. It’s ‘plagiarism’! Take it off.”

  “Are you sure it’s not a word? I mean now it might be, since we’ve been plaguerized. Get it?”

  “Take it off.”

  At that instant Joe’s voice echoed through the kitchen over the speaker on the radio. “Frank. Frank, are you there? Over.”

  Frank sprang to his feet, knocking over the chair as he dove to the radio. “Dad, I’m here.”

  “Hey, Frank. We found it, it really exists.”

  “What’s it like?” Frank asked.

  “It will work, but only with work.”

  Ellen grabbed the microphone from Frank’s hand. “Hey, Joe, I miss you.”

  “Hey, Kiddo, I miss you too.”

  “So it’s really real?”

  Joe answered Ellen’s question. “It’s real, very plain, but real. You guys will love it. It needs to be pretty much fully stocked.”

  Frank retrieved the microphone from Ellen. “Hey, Dad, how much?”

  “Well, basics are here. I mean the big stuff. It’s the little shit that we need. So we’re gonna spend the next couple days finding out exactly what that is, then we’ll head home. Oh, Frank, we sort of come up with a plan on the way out here and would like you to share it with everyone.”

  “What is it?”

  “We thought that once we knew exactly what we needed, we’d break it down into categories and pair people off sending them out to get the stuff. It was just hypothetical planning on the way out, but unfortunately it looks like that’s what we’re gonna have to do.”

  “That much?”

  “Yeah. Listen, I’m gonna get some rest. Check in if you have any problems, otherwise, I’ll see you in about a week, as soon as we’re done.”

  “All right, Dad, I’ll see you.” Frank turned off the radio. “El, they made it.”

  “I’m glad. I’m gonna go now, I didn’t get much sleep last night, and I want to rest up before Dean and I go out and search for that cow.” Ellen started to leave.

  “You go on, thanks for whoa. Wait.” Frank called her. “A cow? Did you say cow or did I miss understand you.”

  “No, I said cow. When we were doing the air samples, we saw a cow. We want to try to get a blood sample from it to see if it’s immune to the virus, or a carrier.”

  “Why?”

  “If it’s a carrier, breeding it with another would not assure its offspring is immune. I mean obviously cows get the virus, why else would their carcasses be all over the place? But if it’s immune, chances are there will be others, too.”

  “So you guys are going to walk up to this cow, stick a needle in it, and leave.”

  “No.” Ellen rolled her eyes. “We’re bringing it back. We saw it about ten miles away.”

  “You and Dean are going to bring back a cow? Why? Are we having steaks?”

  Ellen shook her head. “I’m leaving.” She headed to the front door.

  “I’m serious, El.” Frank gently held her arm. “If you and Dean manage to bring back this cow. What in the world are you going to do with it once you’ve tested it?”

  “Uh …. Fresh milk, maybe?”

  “Milk. That’s very smart.”

  “We’re intelligent people, Frank. Some people actually gain something from their education. Now please may I go? I need my rest; the cow is a big undertaking.”

  “You guys need any help?”

  “Oh, no. We did real good with the dead bodies. How hard will one live cow be?”

  “Dean, she’s not budging!” Ellen pushed the cow’s backside with her own then fluttered her lips and swatted her hand. “God, the flies. Are you pulling on the rope?”

  “Yes.” Dean pulled with everything he had, but the cow rested on the hard pavement. He too, swatted away the abundance of flies.

  “Dean, maybe we shouldn’t try to take her.”

  “Why?”

  “She could be sick, I mean …” Ellen flung her hand in her face. “The flies.”

  “We just won’t drink the milk, that’s all. Sick or not we can test her.”

  “True.” Ellen exhaled and stood behind the cow, hands on her hips. “Well, how did we get her this far?”

  “She followed us.” Dean dropped the rope and leaned against the truck out of breath.

  “Maybe she decided she doesn’t like us.” She walked to the front of the cow and spoke in a high-pitched upbeat voice. “Come on cow, wanna go?”

  “El, she’s not a puppy.”

  The cow looked at Ellen, mooed, shook its head to shuck the flies in its eyes, and when it did, a long line of slimy salvia flung out at Ellen.

  Shuddering vocally, Ellen stepped back.

  Dean glanced over the small pickup truck. “Ellen, how in the world are we going to get her in this truck?”

  “Wait, I got an idea.” Ellen picked up the rope and walked over to the passenger door and opened it. “Come on, Dean, just start driving.”

  “You want to drag her?”

  “No, maybe if you drive real slow I’ll hold onto the rope and she’ll follow us again.”

  Dean shrugged his shoulders. “It’s worth a shot.”

  They climbed into the truck and very slowly started down the road. The cow lifted herself from her lying position and began to walk by the side of the slow-moving red truck.

  “Dean, it’s working.”

  “Yes, but at this rate, it’ll take us three hours to get home.”

  “True, but we’re coming home with a cow.”

  Garfield County, Montana

  As the others napped soundly on the hard floor of the small house, Joe sat against the wall, knees pulled up, smoking a cigarette. He watched the others, almost as if he were the watch dog. It wasn’t that he expected anything to jump out and get them. Then again, he was in Bigfoot country. Joe needed his time. He had done his best thinking in the past when he was alone. It was hard for him to comprehend that even in a dead world, he had trouble being alone.

  Joe had to work now on his long-term plan. Once they got everything they needed, would they be able to operate as a community? Most of those alive were total strangers. They had already counted on each other without disappointment or letdown. But now it was different. Now each of them had to depend on each other to make their survival work. In a situation such as this, a situation where everyone had to do their part to eat and to live, there had to be no loose links in the chain, whether it be any of the fifteen of them or any survivors they found in the future. Joe pulled out ‘the Joe notebook’ and began to write. ‘No loose links’ was scribbled boldly across the top of a blank page. This was something he felt they had to enforce. This was
going to be their community. They were going to finish building as had been intended. They were going to stride to have it flourish with the sweat and pain of their own bodies. And now they would have to be careful, from this moment on, as to who they let in. One wrong person could break the project. Joe vowed to himself that, as long as he was there, he would never allow that to happen.

  Ashtonville, Connecticut

  The fenced-in yard was large, but not large enough. Ellen stood at the best distance she could from the cow. “All right, girl, you’re not gonna charge at me, are you?”

  “She’s not a bull.” Dean walked up to her.

  “Oh, you scared me. What took you so long?”

  “You wanted me to get the others, didn’t you?”

  “Yes.”

  “Anyway, she’s clean, no sign of the virus at all.”

  “Good. How about anything else? You know, since she has flies.”

  Dean shrugged. “We may do better to test the milk.”

  “Good idea.” Ellen reached her hand over and touched Dean on his side. “How are your ribs?”

  “Getting better, thank you very much for laughing at me when she kicked me.”

  “Well I told you she would jerk when I pricked her. Remember I have never done venipuncture on a cow before.”

  Andrea’s voice neared as she called out to them. “Are you guys back here? We brought the bucket like Dean …” She stopped in her tracks when she reached the yard. “Sweet Jesus, is that a cow?”

  Dean bobbed his head. “Looks that way.”

  Denny ran to it. “Neat.”

  Ellen stopped him. “Stay back, Den, I don’t think she’s used to people yet.”

  Andrea handed Dean the bucket. “Here, Dean, it’s the biggest and the cleanest I could find.”

  Johnny also ran into the back yard. “Wow, hey, Daddy, hurry up, there’s a cow here.”

  Frank was amazed. “You guys actually got it here. I’m impressed.”