The Last Tribe (22 page)

Emily went to the cabinet and
pulled out a box.  “I’m going to make some brownies, as long as the oven is on
and we have eggs.” 

“Homemade brownies?  Now I
understand why you don’t want to leave this place.”  John was excited for the
food.  He had electricity and fish in Charleston, but he had not eaten fresh
eggs or bread in months.  His family survived on rice, pasta, and fish.  He was
also excited about the fresh goat’s milk, relegated to non-dairy powder for his
coffee since the pandemic.

When Matt stumbled down the stairs
there was a bounty on the table of eggs, fresh bread, milk, and coffee.  He was
happy to enjoy the feast, but less enthusiastic when he learned one of the
house rules, “last one up does the dishes.”  Brian, on the other hand, was
excited Matt was in the house, as he was consistently on breakfast dishes duty.

The day went according to plan,
lots of playing, catching up on stories from the winter, and decompressing from
the previous six months. 

Matt returned to the role of ‘kid,’
enjoying games with his younger brother and cousins. 

The Dixons ate a late dinner.  Jay,
Brian, Craig yawned before finishing their brownies.  Fifteen minutes after the
brownies, they were in their beds fast asleep.  Emily tucked the children into
bed and came down the stairs in comfortable pajamas and a robe.

“We have three very tired boys
upstairs.”  She reported to the group.

“That was a great day Aunt Emily,
thank you.”  Matt put a log onto the fire in the living room and sat down next
to it.  “You were talking about planting crops at the local Y?”  Matt restarted
a conversation from earlier in the day.

“Yes, there is a fence around this
huge open space at the Y just down the road.  There are two levels, probably
four or five acres.  We could use a tractor to plow this spring, get crops into
the ground, and it is close to the house.”  Todd sat down in a chair in the
living room with Matt.

“Where is the water source?  Is
there a natural lake or something nearby?  We can’t rely on rain.”  Matt asked
questions based on his months of farm studies.

“There is a reservoir pond that is
pretty close, maybe 100 or 200 yards away, but it’s down a hill.  I don’t know
of a river or stream that is close.”  Todd leaned towards Matt as he spoke.

“A reservoir is nice, but it will
dry up just as quickly as our crops if there is a drought.  We need a natural
body of water that will withstand drought, otherwise we risk losing all or our
food in a matter of weeks.  If it doesn’t rain during the month of July or
August, and we don’t water our crops, we’re done.  If we do use a reservoir, well,
it needs to be above the crops so we can use aqueducts to move the water to the
fields as needed.  We can’t use watering cans and walk 200 hundred yards up a
hill.”

Todd nodded.  “You’re right.”  He
said.  “You’re right.  That field would work if we could guarantee rain all
year, but if we get three weeks of no rain?  Done.”

“If we don’t have a natural water
source near here, I’m not sure we can live here, meaning this house.  We can’t
risk losing water.  Rain barrels won’t keep us going if we have to use them for
ourselves, crops we have at the house, and the animals.”

“Okay, I got it.  You’re right.  If
we have a drought like we had a few years ago, when it didn’t rain for about
three months, 100 rain barrels won’t keep us alive, let alone our crops and
animals.” 

Emily entered the room with a glass
of wine.  She sat on the couch and listened.

“We could get closer to Falls Lake
or the Neuse River, those are both large water sources to sustain our crops and
livestock.”  Emily interjected.

John walked into the room, having
cleaned the dishes after dinner.  “We want a body of water nearby so we can
drink it, hunt the animals that use the water, fish, and use the water for
crops.  Water is life.”

Todd hunched forward in his chair
to think.  “If we are going to move from this location, which is a certainty
after Matt’s points.”  He smiled at his nephew, “We should open our prospects
to anywhere.  Moving what we have a few miles is just as difficult as moving it
100 miles or even 1,000 miles.”

“It should be an established farm. 
There is no reason for us to dig up grass and prep soil.  I understand that
we’ll have to clean up last year’s crops, probably left un-reaped, but that is
easier than burrowing under grass.”  John considered locations in and around Hanover
that would work.  “Matt, you know that farm your mother used to drag us to each
year?  The one with the cows?  It was owned by some wealthy family or something
like that?  That spot would fit the bill for this year.”

“John,”  Todd started.  “The gasoline
is going to be bad by the end of the summer.  We have to be where we want to
live, permanently, by the end of the year.  If we set up crops at that farm in
New Hampshire, it’s with the long range plans of living up there, forever.  If
we want to move after this summer, it’s probably by horse and buggy, or by
foot.”

There was silence in the room, only
the crackling fire’s pops cut through the air.  Hubba, enjoying a post dinner
nap in the corner, rolled over and farted.  The adults laughed at the dog.

“This isn’t something we are going
to solve tonight or need to solve tonight.  It’s probably not a decision we are
going to make without Paul and Hank.”  Todd stood and stretched.  “I don’t know
if tonight is the night we want to discuss our departure date for Hanover
either.  If it is, I’m okay, but if it isn’t, we should discuss some short term
goals.”  Todd sat back down.

“We, and when I say ‘we’ I mean
Emily, have been home schooling the kids.  We don’t teach them every day, we
alternate lesson days.”

John cut him off before he could
continue.  “We do the same with Craig.  Matt is an excellent teacher.” 

“They can be a little rambunctious,
but as long as they are learning to read and write, well, I’m not worried about
history and literature as much.”  Emily turned to speak directly to Matt. 

“I work on reading and writing with
Craig, but he’s got both of those down well.  I need him to learn math so he
can help with farming and cooking.  He doesn’t need calculus as much as he
needs basic survival math skills.”  Matt explained his teaching strategies to
Emily.

“Good,” Todd said.  “We can
continue their education for the short term.  John and I will figure out and
acquire our necessary supplies.  To be honest, we might leave here in two weeks
and find that we cannot get to Hanover by road for another three months.”

Emily, sensing a turn to the
serious topics, steered the conversation back to the day.  “What a fantastic
day this was.  Matt, you and Craig are a welcome breath of fresh air for our
kids.  Craig particularly, being the right age to play.  Thank you for being so
patient and kind to your cousins.”

Matt grinned.  “They are fun kids. 
A little energetic, but that’s okay.  It’s not like I have texts to return or
posts to make to all my friends.  The last six months have been weird, focusing
on the people in front of me, rather than making sure people who aren’t with me
get messages.  Weird, huh?”

“Not weird at all.”  Emily replied,
“Not weird at all.” 

The families merged effortlessly,
settling into routines over the next weeks.  Craig, Jay, and Brian studied in
the mornings and played until dinner.  Matt and Emily traded off teaching and
entertaining.  John and Todd tended to the animals, hunted, and fished for
fresh meals. 

Despite their comfortable lifestyle
in Raleigh, there was constant discussion and preparation for their departure.

“I know we’ve been over this a
hundred times, but let’s walk through our trip one more time.”  Todd and John
ate peanut butter and jelly sandwiches in their newly acquired SUV.  It was
cool and raining outside, the temperature dropped to 53.  A steady downpour of
rain added dampness to the cold air.

“Let’s take two vehicles, a motor
home and a truck towing an animal trailer.  We can use the truck to store fuel
and food.  We can stock the motor home with food.  We have to assume we can
scavenge the rest of our needs along the way and when we get up to Hanover.”  
It was almost as if John was reading off a script he replied so quickly.

“We tow a flatbed behind the motor
home with a small SUV in case we run into trouble with the other vehicles.  We
can get 400-500 miles on its fuel tank alone, which is a nice safety net.  We
would set the animals free.  And hopefully, albeit a bit cramped, get somewhere
safe or to another vehicle in 400 miles of driving.” 

“We’ll take turns driving the RV
and the truck.”  John took a bite of sandwich.

“When do we leave?”  Todd and John
knew what to take to New Hampshire.  They struggled with when to leave.

“I say we leave on April 1
^st
. 
We may catch an early spring thaw and get through on the roads.  We have to
decide which way to go.  Do we hit the major cities, or do we use a rural path
and risk going through the New York and Pennsylvania mountains?”

The men debated their route over
and over, never settling on a decision.  The mountains could bring snow and
potentially strand the vehicles or cause them to crash.  Washington DC and New
York had potential bridge outages and confrontation with survivors.  Do they
take the rural route and avoid survivors, or do they embrace the idea of
engaging other people by driving through major metropolitan areas? 

Emily wanted to find people and
other ‘tribes’ as she called them.  She pointed out severe weaknesses of their
current tribe.  They had no doctor.  If any injuries, something as minor as
appendicitis, befell the group, they did not have the skill set to survive. 
Their group was missing women.  Emily was spoken for and Todd had a vasectomy. 
Perpetuating the species was not going to happen in their current make up. 
They needed children and laborers to help sustain their families.  She cried at
night while talking to Todd, “will the world end up being Jay and Brian, and then
the one of them left?  Wandering the earth as the sole human survivor?  How
pathetic and sad a fate we could be leaving our two children.  We have to find
all the other people in the world and start a village.  We need to maximize
what’s left of the human potential to create a better place to live and a
better future for our boys.”

Emily wanted grandchildren, and
hope for a future.  She talked about finding engineers and inventors that could
create a village with electricity, lights, and technology.

John and Todd were wary of finding
other people, particularly an evil person who might kill or hurt a member of
the family.  They were afraid of picking up a lazy freeloader who would not
carry their weight, yet use resources.  What could they do after a person was
part of their village?  Kick the person out in the cold to die?  They had few
options once they found people, so it was best not find people at all.  Who
would be in control of a village?  Would there be a person who suddenly had control
over the water?  The food?  Could the Dixons be subjugated to workers?  John
and Todd’s outcomes were negative and bleak, but they were not unrealistic. 
Having a doctor would be nice, and finding women and children would be great,
but at what risk?

The adults, including Matt, debated
until late into the evenings.  What future did they hope to bring to the
world?  What future did they hope to bring to themselves?  Matt sided with
Emily, and was vocal about finding other people.  He wanted people his own age,
if possible, or at least within a decade of his own age.  He wanted people with
different skills, and different abilities, and he knew he needed more hands to
work.  As his father, aunt, and uncles grew older, providing for the family
would fall on him and the younger kids. 

John was steadfast.  He did not
want outsiders in their group.  He did not want to cede power to anyone.  He
wanted to live his life his own way.  If he had to yield to a vote by his
brothers and Emily, he could live with that decision, but yielding to a group
of outsiders was not part of his plan.  Outsiders meant the creation of laws,
and laws had to be enforced.  John raged endlessly against this new ‘tribe’
Emily wanted, and ranted about the perils of creating a new society.

Todd was the deciding vote.  He
understood Emily’s logic about wanting a physician in the group.  A healer was
a necessary function in any working society.  If they could find a doctor, the
doctor could train one of the kids, handing down knowledge for the future. 
Todd understood Matt’s argument about his future, his society.  He could
empathize with John’s fears, but Todd felt the fears were overridden by the
needs of the group.  The benefits outweighed the risks.

Todd and John sat in the truck,
rain streaming down the windshield.

“I vote for going up through
Washington D.C. and New York.  We’ll bring the Suburban to tow the animals, not
a flatbed truck.  If we find people, we’ll let them ride in the RV.”  This was
the first time Todd voiced his new opinion to John.  “There are probably 30-40
million people between us and New Hampshire.  I bet we find, at most, ten
survivors, maybe less.  If we find 50, well, we find 50.  They can join us or
stay where they are, but we need to grow our group, John.  I know you are
against it, and I get your reasons, but I’m voting with Emily and Matt.  I’m
voting for Jay, Craig, and Brian’s future, for wives for them, for lives for
them past our deaths, for grandchildren for you and me.  I’m voting with hope” 
Todd was overly dramatic in his speech, and he knew it, but he wanted to make
John comfortable with the decision, a decision which was now final.

“I get it.  I understand, and I
support the group.”  John cleared his throat.  He understood the decision, and
wanted to make it himself, but he was afraid of who they were going to find on
their travels.  “If we find 50 people, and even 40 of them are like us, we’re
making the right call.  I want this new society we are creating, this new
tribe.”  He cleared his throat again, turned and looked at Todd.  “I will say
this to you, and I’ll say it to Paul and Hank.  If we take on new people and
they’re good, hard working, decent people, I will be the happiest man left on
earth.  If my boys can find partners for their lives, and have children of
their own, well, it’s worth it.”  John looked down at his feet, and then back
up at Todd.  “If any of the people we hook up with are bad, and they do
anything bad, I’ll kill them.”  John let it sink in.  “I’ll kill them if they
even have the smell of doing something wrong to my family.  Play time ended
when the world died.  Anyone who enters our group earns their keep.  If they
don’t, I take care of it.”