Eden's Hammer - By Lloyd Tackitt Page 0,2
left of the government, but they’re just folks that had government shelters to get into. They have no way to help anyone; probably they’ll eat up their own supplies and hit the road begging any time now.”
Adrian asked, “What about Fort Hood? What’s the news there?”
“First tell me about the bear lovin’—I’m dying to hear the details.”
Adrian told the story to Sarah and Roman; it wouldn’t be the last time he had to tell it.
When he was finished, Roman was laughing and slapping his leg. Sarah, aghast at the story, interjected, “You men move into the living room. I’ve got to clean up, and then I have chores to tend to. Go on, now, you’re in my way and you’ll be jawing for hours.”
The puppy followed Adrian into the other room. As they sat down again, Roman said, “Fort Hood—there’s a study. First, they discharged all the men they couldn’t feed, like you and your buddies, sent them off with some rations. Some, the ones with families, they set up with area farmers and ranchers to form communities. Those haven’t worked out so well. Seems most of them broke down pretty quick. Too bad; sounded like a good idea. But mostly they had too many soldiers that couldn’t adapt to farming life, or the farmers couldn’t adapt to having so many strangers. Some of the farms worked, though.”
“What about the post itself?” Adrian asked.
“Not good news, sorry to say. They overestimated how much food they’d stored. Not having the time or the skill to raise crops, they turned to taking food from local farmers around them. They didn’t wipe them out, but they put them in severe hardship. Those farmers didn’t much like being taxed at gunpoint, but there wasn’t anything they could do about it, except hide food, which they did. That went on for a while, then the plague hit the soldiers—hit them hard. I hear tell they lost ninety percent of their people in a few months. Living close together and interacting every day did it to them. That, and there not being a cure, and sure as hell no vaccine to prevent anyone from getting it. Now they’re down to a skeleton crew of what they were after the grid collapse, and that’s a whisper of what they were before. No one really knows what the plague is or where it came from, but it seems to have started in Atlanta. The best theory I’ve heard is that some fools broke into the CDC and opened up a Pandora’s box of diseases. Jennifer is running the hospital now and thinks that maybe some of the viruses mixed or mutated into something no one’s seen before, says the symptoms aren’t like anything she’s ever heard of.
“We’ve been hearing rumors about the Navy in Corpus Christi. Word has it they’ve docked some nuclear powered air-craft carriers and subs down there, but haven’t heard how many. If you can believe the rumors, they’re pulling electrical power from the ships to a refinery and they’re starting to make diesel and gasoline. Kind of makes sense—those boats should have been hardened for EMP attacks, especially the subs. Funny thing is, we never hear anything at all from the Navy itself on the ham radio, just stories about them. Seems like if it were true, the Navy would at least let us know they are there; it would be some small comfort to know part of the government still worked. Then again, maybe they don’t want to be overrun by refugees, might already have all they can handle without beggars coming out of the woods, too. Hell, people might come from all over the States to get there.”
Adrian said, “Neither you nor Sarah has said anything about the family, so I guess everyone is okay?”
“Sure, they’re all doing fine and will be tickled to death you’re home. They’ve missed you, we all have. Alice’s death hit all of us hard. She was a wonderful person, had become Sarah’s best friend in the world, or what’s left of it, and that made it even more of a bond. We still miss her something awful, always will I guess. Sarah was especially tore up about the baby. She felt guilty for not telling you that Alice had told her she was pregnant; but it was Alice’s wish to surprise you, and well, after Alice died Sarah thought if you didn’t find out it would be for the best. She would have taken that secret