Chapter 33
Consolidation
After leaving the little family and promising Mandy that we would hurry the three of us continue on our sweep of the base. After clearing three more buildings Michael brought up a point that I had totally ignored. How are we going to remember which buildings we have already done if we need to switch out or take a break. Okay, that is kind of important. After a quick brainstorming session, we just decided to find some spray paint and paint an X on any door that we had personally cleared. We went back and tagged the buildings we had already checked and then continued our sweep until almost four p.m.
I decided that we had done enough for today and had enough buildings cleared that if anyone from the boats wanted to sleep on land then they would be able too. We would finish sweeping the base with more groups tomorrow. We start heading back towards our little flotilla and make a quick stop by Bill and Maddie’s house to let them know what we are doing and then it was back to the boat.
As soon as we reach the boat dock we are met by several people all shouting questions at once.
“Everyone calm down. I will answer everyone’s questions to the best of my ability.”
After the group had calmed down I start explaining what we know.
“My group has tagged every building that we have cleared with a spray paint X. I personally recommend that you stay on the boats for one more night just to be safe. However, you are all adults you can make your own decisions. If you decide to spend tonight on land, please stay in the cleared area. We cannot guarantee your safety in the buildings currently so you will want to check out a weapon just in case.”
The murmuring started up again and I saw some enterprising individuals start to leave from the back of the group.
“Before any one leaves there is a couple of more points I need to raise. First we have made contact with at least one surviving family. There may be others, so be careful. Sometimes people are more dangerous than zombies as many of you know from dealing with the Miami pirates. Next, I don’t want anyone to start looting. We will be finishing the sweep of the base and fortifying the position tomorrow. We need everyone to help out in some capacity. For the foreseeable future we are going to be distributing work and supplies communally until we are sure of the safety of the island and the situation normalizes. If you don’t like this you are more than welcome to leave the group. However, this island and the local group have been claimed by my group. You will need to travel somewhere else.”
This last statement caused some grumbling and someone finally had the nerve to call out.
“Why do you get to decide what gets done? Who put you in charge?”
I had been expecting this for a while and had my answer ready.
“First off this was my plan and I organized the whole thing. No one here was forced to join. If you don’t like me being in charge or what I am doing I am willing to listen to constructive criticism and arguments. I have family following and another group that will be here in the next few days. If all you want is to argue or take over than you can just leave. I plan on appointing people that are experienced in specific areas to run certain aspects of our new little colony. After a certain amount of time which has not yet been decided we will come up with a common set of rules and then vote on them and hold elections for important areas of responsibility. However, that is far in the future. Right now instead of complaining you should be thinking about how you can help us set up the greatest, most well defended area ever. If you are not 100% behind my plan, I personally or someone I trust will get rid of you. I don’t mean kill I mean exile from the island. I and the other people who are depending on me do not have the time to deal with petty crap like this. I want my family and friends safe. That is my overriding goal and ambition at this point and nothing else.”
It seems my speech has reached most if not all of those that came with us. One of the good points of this apocalypse is that it has reduced the number of idiots. If you are not able to recognize what is good for you then that means that you probably did not survive. There will always be dissenters and those that think that they can do better. That is fine with me. If they follow the rules and oust me legally according to what we set up I will be fine with it. I really don’t like the responsibility that I am taking on. I would much rather just be in charge of myself and a small group than have to try and get everyone to get along.
After all my talking only a few hard headed people spent the night on shore. I set the watch and crashed out as soon as reached my cabin. Tomorrow was going to be a long and difficult day. I woke up well rested and a little bit anxious. Today will decide a lot of what is going to happen in the future and I need to get a jump on everything.
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I head down to the galley and grab a quick breakfast and notice that everyone else is already up. They must be as anxious as me to get this right.
“Good morning all. Is everyone ready to start securing our future home?”
“Yes we are Mark. We were discussing it before you came in. What do you think we should concentrate on first?”
“Well I have been thinking about this for a while. With our increased numbers from those that joined us in Miami I think we should split into three main groups today. The first group will be responsible for finishing clearing and securing the AUTEC base and making sure all defenses are sound. The second group will be the supply group. They will be responsible for two major areas. First is to start unloading the supplies we brought and organizing a distribution area. Next is the clean-up of the corpses and the base in general. The last thing I want is somebody who has survived this long to get sick from decaying corpses or other mundane things like that. The final group which I think of as the command group will be securing supplies on land and scouting the general vicinity outside the base to get an overall idea what is happening on the island.”
No one had any objection to my plans and we left the captain on the boat to help with the supply group while the rest joined me on shore. Michael and Olivia will join my command group while Helen and Sally will be in charge of the land portion of unloading and distribution of supplies. I am hoping that Captain Bob will have at least six to nine people that would be willing to do the house to house clearing of the base. Everyone else will be helping with supplies and unloading.
Once I have a chance to talk to everyone else from the rest of the boats we break into the groups that I designate and get started on are individual tasks. First task for my command group is to go and see how Billy, Maddie and Mandy are doing. This would also be my information gathering session. I needed to get map of the base, figure out how to get into the weapons storage, and any local knowledge that I could get from the little family group would also be great. I was not expecting much local knowledge because Billy and Maddie were just visiting, but who knows, they may visited before and know things that I never would.
My little group arrives at the house soon enough. I knock on the door and Billy answers.
“I have been expecting you.”
“I do have a few questions that I hope you can help me with.”
“I figured as much. Come on in. Miss Olivia if you would check Maddie again just to make sure things are going ok and then help her with my crazy niece I would appreciate it.”
Olivia headed off down the hall. Her time here yesterday obviously allowed her to become familiar with the house and where she needed to go. Billy led myself and Michael into the living room and we sat on the couch.
“First off Billy, I have a group of people I brought here from the mainland and I am expecting another set in the next day or two. There is no organized government anymore and I had this plan that securing an island against the zombies is a more practical and safe idea than doing the same thing on the mainland. I chose this island for several reasons, including fresh water and the military base here. That brings us to what I need to ask you about.”
“Let me guess you need my help to find and secure the armory and weapons.”
“You got it in one. I will also welcome you to join our group and help out, or if you are so inclined to leave to help you in securing a safe mode of transportation to do so.”
“Can you please explain your groups short and long term goals and then I will talk to Maddie and make a decision. Regardless of what we decide as long as I get a share of the weapons to protect my family I will gladly take you to the armory and help you get inside.”
The next half hour was spent giving Billy the details of what I envisioned. Olivia joined us after a few minutes and Billy questioned both her and Michael about our adventures. After getting the information he wanted he left to go say goodbye to Maddie and Mandy and then came back prepared to lead us to the armory and hopefully a supply of weapons that would defend us and allow us to expand as necessary in the next few years.
As we walked through the base we spotted and stopped to talk to three different clearance groups. They had taken our method of clearing and then spray painting an X on the building to heart and were doing a fine job of cleaning up the remnants of zombies on the base. It seems that between the three groups they had only seen four wandering zombies and triple that amount caught in buildings and unable to get out. It seems that the zombie numbers on the base were definitely manageable and I high hopes that the last few would be cleared out today. We would of course still check on a regular basis to prevent any accidents, but the thought of being somewhere safe where we could go outside and not be worried about being eaten was rather appealing.
Another fifteen minutes of walking and my group was standing in front of a series of Quonset huts covered in earth.
“This is a standard set of buildings for a minor overseas base armory. If my past experience is valid we should find that the minor things such as rifles, pistols and ammunition will be behind locked doors. However, the lock should be easy enough to just cut through. If there are more serious types of weapons such as explosives they will be behind doors that we will need a plasma cutter to get through.”
“Well Billy as much as I want to play with explosives, I think that rifles, pistols, and ammunition will take care of our immediate needs. In fact, we probably have enough of each of those now to clear and defend the island for 6 months to a year at least. I just want to have control over supplies that could be misused.”
“Understood.”