The Last Tribe (67 page)

The weather turned warm, just as
Rebecca forecast. 

Antonio was able to hotwire a car
battery to the ramp extension near their airplane.  He moved the walkway and
attached it to the side of the plane.  He would pull it back a few feet just
before takeoff, and use a board to walk across the gap.

With the ramp attached, and a
conveyor truck in place to load the cargo/luggage hold, tribe members made
trips to Manchester to load items.  They packed seeds, fishing gear, feed for
the livestock, rice, pasta, canned goods.  They took clothing and shoes,
blankets and sheets, bleach, water, soda, and batteries.   

Peter gave parameters on weight,
but the load limit he set was high.  He, Jamie, and Hubba never left Hanover. 

Seats were removed from coach to
accommodate the animals.  Metal fencing was installed to keep the different
species corralled. 

Dan was the only tribe member to
spend time in Hawaii.  He went every year for vacation, but his family stayed
on Maui, with only a few day trips to Kauai.  He admitted that he did not know
much about Kauai specifically, other than seeing a Walmart, walking around a
few downtowns, and remembering there were two different climates.  The north
was green and cool, the south was sunny and hot. 

“Not much help, am I?”  He asked
Rebecca as she read through books and asked him questions about the area.

“No, but that’s okay.  We’ll figure
it out.  It’s great to have you as a resource.”

Tribe members not packing and
traveling to Manchester fulfilled the daily chores necessary to keep the group
alive.  They fished, purified water, cooked bread, and figured out new and
inventive ways to serve moose.

Paul, having tired of moose more
quickly than the rest, decided to make moose jerky from as much of the
remaining meat as he could.  He dried and packaged relentlessly.  Jerky was
easy to store, had a decent shelf life, and it was light in weight.  It took
him the entire two weeks, but he managed to “jerkify” as he called it, the last
one and a half moose legs. 

He personally drove the hundred
bags of moose jerky to Manchester.

Peter confirmed their plan to
spread notes across the country.  They would stuff the fliers, thousands of
them, near the landing gear.  Peter would fly low into the city, let the gear
down, and the pamphlets would drop to the ground. 

They could repeat the procedure as
necessary, loading the wheel well in flight.

A favorite pastime became running
the copiers at the local print shop.   A gas generator powered the industrial
copier.  They created more than 100,000 fliers, all shipped to Manchester and
placed near the landing gear wheel well.

After a visit to an office supply
warehouse in Lebanon, Avery and Meredith took an added step of laminating
several hundred copies of the note.  Rebecca took great pleasure in calling
them nerds.

They planned to fly over Chicago,
St. Louis, Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, San Diego, Los Angeles, San Francisco,
and Seattle before turning for the Hawaiian Islands. 

The note was written in English and
Spanish:  20+ survivors, men, women, and children.  We are starting a colony on
the island of Kauai, Hawaii.  Join us.  We will return on August 1
^st
to the San Diego Airport to meet survivors.  Gather as many people as possible.

Hank joked that he wanted to
include a phone number and email address. 

John toyed with adding the line ‘No
assholes allowed.’

Days were productive, busy, yet relaxing. 
If people wanted to take a day off from packing, loading, or working, they
did. 

Jamie was not strong enough to load
the plane.  She helped with meals, fed the animals, and made herself useful. 
She read stories to the children at school, giving Emily much needed breaks. 

Ten days after the snowstorm, it
was close to 60 degrees, and the sun shone brightly.  Light puffy clouds
drifted across the pale blue New England sky.  Kelly and Hank arrived at the RV
for lunch,  after spending another night at the dairy farm.

“Milk!”  She said, jumping out of
the pickup truck and announcing their latest prize to the group.  “Three
gallons of real milk!  The cows are ready to go.”  She walked to the tables
near the grill in front of the main house and placed a large metal milk jug on
top.

Todd turned to John and said three
simple words. 

“Time to go.” 

He put his arms out and patted his
brother and wife on their backs before walking to the table to congratulate
Kelly and Hank for their hard work.

John looked at Emily.  She nodded. 
He turned to Solange.  She wore a smile on her face. 

“You heard him.  It is time.”  Solange
walked towards the table to have a glass of cow’s milk.

Most of the preparation for the
flight was done.  The plane was loaded with supplies.  The coach section was
converted into a barn with pens and feed for the animals.   There were 100,000
copies of their flier ready to distribute. 

Even with the massive transfer of
supplies to the plane, the Hanover camp did not suffer from lack of food or
clothing.  The only key piece of equipment missing was Todd’s pizza oven,
forcing him and Ahmed to use the commercial wood-fired oven in town. 

“Let’s talk timeframe and
logistics.”  Hank sat at a large table in the restaurant that night.  The sunny
start to their day turned cloudy, and a light rain drizzled outside.  The tribe
enjoyed brick oven baked fish, French bread baguettes, and roasted canned
asparagus. 

“Kelly and I will make sure the
animals get to Manchester and on the plane.  We measured the width of the cows,
and since they are all pretty skinny right now, they will make it through the
jet doorway with room to spare.”  Hank prepped a trailer to bring the five
cows, one bull, and 8 hogs to the airport.  He and Kelly would get them on the
plane, sedate the cows and hogs, tranquilize the bull, and be ready to go at
least an hour before the proposed takeoff.

“I don’t want them on the plane too
long before us.  You know they are going to stink up the place.”  Melanie did
not like the smell of animals.  It was a necessary evil for the trip, but she
wanted to minimize the problem.

“Don’t worry.  We’ll take care of
it.”  Hank assured her.  “Sorry a few hours of smell might save your life with
food and dairy down the road.”  Sarcasm was common among tribe conversations,
particularly involving Hank.

“I’m paying for a first class
ticket.  I expect an odorless flight.”  She smiled.

“I’ll keep my animals under
control, you just keep your kids out of my section.”  Hank knew it was going to
be more difficult to entertain the children for twelve hours, than keep the
animals at bay.

“We all want to go, right?”  John
asked.  “So let’s go.  Two days.  We’ll run through our checklist of supplies
tomorrow, and leave the next day.”  John turned to Peter.  Peter was the
lynchpin, the key to their journey.  He made the final decision.

“I’m ready.  The plane checks out. 
The supplies are well under weight even with the livestock.  I feel good,
strong, well rested.  Let’s fly.”

The group did not cheer.  They
nodded in agreement.  Their die was cast.  They were leaving Hanover, even
though it had become comfortable over the last three weeks.

The mutiny of young people planning
to stay behind in North America was quelled by the flier dropping plan.  Other
ideas emerged to grow the tribe.  Ahmed volunteered to remain in North America,
zig zagging across the country until August 1
^st
when he would meet
the rescue plane in San Diego.  Antonio and Meredith offered to stay behind
with him. 

Rebecca met with them.  “Ahmed,
even your limited understanding of mathematics must understand that three
people represents more than 10% of the current tribe.  What if you break down
and cannot make the August 1
^st
deadline in San Diego?  What if the
tribe makes a water landing or lands on a highway landing in Hawaii and cannot
find another plane?”

Ahmed respected intelligence and
rational arguments.  He could not refute Rebecca’s final statement.  “The best
and safest way to increase the tribe’s numbers, without risking our current members,
is to drop leaflets across the country, have all of us fly over, and have Peter
return in August.”

 “I’ll fly until the fuel goes bad
or we run out, but we’ll find more young people for you.”  Peter  assured them.

Peter was in his late sixties, and
while strong for his age, he knew his limitations.  He used the ten days to
develop a serviceable co-pilot.  Flying a plane for twelve hours was not
something he wanted to try, particularly with a potentially tricky landing on
the backend of the flight.  He would need bathroom breaks, and a nap.  He
wanted Antonio to sit in the cockpit while Peter curled up and slept for a few
minutes, possibly an hour.

Antonio was mechanical and understood
gauges and dials.  He knew about longitude and latitude beyond the lines on a
globe.  His years of deep sea fishing with his father taught him to trust
readings rather than his eyes out the window.   Antonio could read the
instruments, adjust their heading when needed, and keep his cool if any lights
came on.

Peter took him to Lebanon airport
and sat in the cockpit of the largest available plane, an eighteen seat turbo
prop. 

“Okay Tony, this will be my version
of a pool certification for SCUBA diving you might receive at a resort.  It’s
going to be fast.  It’s going to be effective.  It by no means certifies you to
fly a plane without me, and you will most likely forget everything you’ve
learned a week after we land in Hawaii.”  Antonio nodded.  “I am going to take
off and land the plane.  We can talk about landing, but if there is an issue
with me on the way over, and you have to try and land a 777 without me?”  Peter
paused.  “Yeah, let’s just move on from that scenario.  The other thing I want
to drum into your head, the plane is going to be on autopilot.  The 777 has a
system that is advanced, safe, and almost foolproof.  It could potentially land
the plane for us if needed.  I will show you how that works when we get up in
the air, but I will be landing the plane myself.  All I want you to learn over
the next few hours is what to do if the autopilot fails and I am asleep or in
the bathroom.”  He paused again for emphasis.  “The autopilot is not going to
fail, it just won’t, but in the one in a million chance that it does, I need
you to be able to grab the controls and keep us in the air.  That’s all we’re
trying to do here, nothing more.  You shouldn’t feel any pressure to have to learn
how to fly a plane or land a plane.  Please just focus on being able to grab
the handle and keep us steady until I can get back.”

Antonio nodded again.  His typical
swagger and verbal bravado was noticeably absent.  “I’ll say this a few more
times, just to make you comfortable.  You are completely unnecessary.  The
autopilot on these planes is incredible.  Other than taking the plane out to
the end of the runway, I am almost unnecessary.  The computer can do
everything.  I’m the backup for the computer, you’re the backup for me.  Double
redundancy, and you’re the redundant backup.  It never gets to you.  Got it?”

Antonio listened, took some notes,
and quizzed himself throughout the week.  He had fun taxiing the plane around
the little airport, paying attention to which levers did what.  Peter was
confident he could handle the plane for the minute it might be necessary. 

Peter sat with Antonio at dinner. 
“You ready?”

“Ready to do nothing?”  Antonio
replied.

“Exactly.”  Peter grinned.  “You
catch on quickly.”

Greg and Rebecca left the dinner
together, Greg holding a large umbrella in his left hand, his right arm swung
around Rebecca to keep her warm.  He enjoyed holding her.  They left to spend
the night at the coach house.  One last night alone in Hanover, the way they
started their journey. 

“I’m getting excited about the
trip.”  Rebecca told him.  “I know you think I’m sad to leave New England, my
home, but I’m not.  I’m excited to start something fresh.”

“Really?  Aren’t you scared?”  He
was scared.  Scared of the flight, scared of what they might find or not find
on the islands.  His stomach did back flips with increasing speed over the last
week.

“I’m not.”  Her left arm was around
his waist.  “These are good people, great people.  We are going to build a
fantastic tribe that can accomplish anything, overcome any shortcomings we
might find.”  She continued talking as they walked.

“I’m a planner, you know that, you
probably think I am uncomfortable in a situation I can’t control or plan, and
normally you’d be right, but not today.  I’m ready.  I’m an optimist for the
first time in my life.  I’m looking at the next week as a positive, not a set
of odds that I need to calculate.”  Rebecca’s voice was filled with enthusiasm.

“Your family created this excitement
for me.  They are so full of hope, so full of life.  They are taking this
journey by the horns, accepting the downside that might occur, and meeting it
head on.  I sound like a sports metaphor for the first time in my life.  I
never talk or think like this, but today?  We’re ready, we as a group, we as a
couple, me as a person.  Ready to go.”

“Wow.”  Greg replied after her
speech.  “It’s hard to argue with you when you have this much passion.  I’m
scared, scared like I was when I decided to leave the dorm last year.  I have
no idea how this trip is going to go, the actual trip over to the island, and
the life we create.  I am going to do it.  I’m getting on the plane.  It’s the
right thing to do, but I am going to hold your hand when the wheels go up.”

“Greg and Rebecca.”  She said to
him quietly.