Chapter 10

The apple pie thing went over big. We had a night of celebration sort of, just to eat the fake apple pie and ice cream. We were in the cafeteria where a karaoke machine had been set up. For a while we all sang as a group, then several girls began teaming up and entertaining us with their renditions of some popular songs. Everyone was there, enjoying the evening. Marla was propped up in an over stuffed chair, where they got it, I never knew. She was still recovering from her injuries, but was doing a good job of singing right along with the rest of us. Not so with Bill, he was just being content with sipping his milk shake.

During all this partying, I was with Violet and Anna, kind of sitting near the far wall. I didn’t like sitting next to the passage way, as there was just too many doors coming into the dining area. It would be too easy for someone to slip up on me that way. So as I sat in my fairly secure position, I kept an eye on the comings and goings through those doors. At least I thought I did. I was making a mental count of the men present. Greg was on the other side of me, next his Anna. I knew where Bill was, as he was being attended to by all our nurse’s to be. Dave was sitting at a table near a door, with about three of the young ones purring all over him. I couldn’t help but note that it wasn’t always the same three girls. I think there were a small group that went back and forth between Dave and Carl. It was the girls idea, and no one was about to say it was wrong. Probably was, but things were different now. What I didn’t see was Carl. He had been sitting with a young blond and a red head. The spot where they had been was empty now.

Violet asked what I was looking for, and I told her I couldn’t see Carl anywhere. She just passed it off saying “He’s probably celebrating with his two trollops back at his room.” She’d seen them together too.

That might be, I thought to myself and started to ease back into the party mood. Then I saw the two girls we’d been talking about, up at the karaoke Machine. That set me on alert. I quickly scanned the area in front of the singers, and Carl wasn’t there. Normally I didn’t give a damn where Carl was, but with everyone here in the Cafeteria, I didn’t like his absence one bit.

Telling Violet, I’d been back in a while, I excused myself. Said I was going to use the restroom. Once out in the passage way, I began a hunt in earnest for the man. I didn’t figure he’d head for the Store Rooms down the passage way. No, it was the other way, back to the communication room and the gym. Which both were right next to the main entrance. Carl was always in one or the other, but now there was no one else there with him. That was what I didn’t trust. Carl by himself. There had to be a reason for it. If he was feeling ill or something and needed to retire, okay. I knew that wasn’t the reason for his leaving the party.

He wasn’t in the gym, and I didn’t think he would be. The communication room was more likely where I’d find him. Walking softly, I silently came to the door way where I could hear Carl’s voice inside, talking to someone. From the way he was speaking I could tell he was using a radio or some other device and had made contact with the outside world. He was discussing which route someone could take to arrive at Waller Ville. From what I could hear, the person he was talking to was North of us and just a little south of Portland. Furthermore, it didn’t sound like this was the first time he’d contacted them. Rather than rush in, I held back, listening until Carl broke contact.

From what I’d heard, Carl was promising them food and shelter, in exchange for a measure of loyalty. He confirmed the deal, by saying they would be a willing work force and help with security. I couldn’t tell from what little I listened to, how many would be arriving or when. What I did hear was that Carl was to be in charge.

Now I had to face facts, Carl was a threat, not only to me, but also to Violet and the others. Here he was making deals, not knowing if even he could trust the people. Making promises without the knowledge or permission of the rest of us. From what I heard, there was time to think and come up with a solution to my problem with Carl. So I quietly moved back from the door and left the area.

Usually I would go to Violet with a problem, but this was different. Because one of my solutions that I was keeping in mind, was just to outright kill Carl. He was showing me that he was constantly working to usurp my position and regain control of the Bunker. As much as I needed his knowledge of the Bunkers workings and where everything was stored, Carl was a complete danger to everyone. If I didn’t kill him, I would have to lock him up and keep him that way. If I kicked him out of the Bunker, he knew how to get back in, and he would return with enough man power to destroy us. So my two choices, was either imprison him, or kill em. If I killed him without clearing it with everyone, That would be a problem. It certainly wouldn’t sit well with anyone. Even locking him up, was going to be a problem if there were any that disagreed.

Finally I did go to Violet and explained what I had seen and over heard. How Carl was making a deal with outsiders to join us, with a pledge of loyalty to him. The fact that he was in contact with someone over the radio, was of more interest to her, then the problem Carl was creating. After a few minutes of elation that he had contacted another group, She settled into to ponder the problem Carl had created. With a little discussion, she came up with the same solution I had, almost. She consented to put Carl in secure quarters and lock it from the outside. I added that we had to keep the keys away from anyone else. Particularly Dave. If anyone had a reason to want Carl loose, it was Dave with the dream of having a harem. I had no doubt that the dream was still bubbling around in Dave’s head.

Soon as we were to get Carl in a secured quarters, Violet insisted that we should inform the rest of Bunker, and hold a trial of some kind. I didn’t like bringing everyone in on this, but I could see that there was no getting out of it. Otherwise, I would be just as bad as Carl and the two men I had killed a few weeks past. For now, we had to prepare and figure out a way to get Carl imprisoned. There was no way that he would go on his own volition. Pulling a gun on him, he just might insist that I use it. It did have its appeal, but I have already decided not to go that way.

I found a private quarters, next to my original compartment. It was at the right location, where the entrance could be seen from the Gym. Since the gym was usual occupied most of the time, there would be eyes on anyone snooping around it. I got Greg, to bring a portable welder from his maintance shop and weld a large hasp lock on the hatch. He gave me a suspicious eye when I asked him to do it, but went ahead without saying anything. I think he knew who it was for, and I had good cause to be jailing Carl. Next, Greg enlarged what I called the mail slot. Since all the sleeping quarters didn’t have toilets, a stool was fashioned and plastic bags supplied. All his latrine droppings would have to be bagged and passed through the opening, which would also serve to pass his meal trays through. Violet questioned me about what we would do, if he made a deliberate mess of things. I just smiled and said we would send in the cleaning supplies and he could either clean it or live in it.

Next I had several of the girls go in and remove all computers and other devices that could be used to communicate. I didn’t want Carl to have any means of summing aid, and continuing his covert plans against me. All this was done, without Carl showing the least bit interest in the work. None of the girls helping us, knew the true reason for it, but I suspected that they all had a good idea who and what it was for.

Greg, came up to me after doing all that was asked and offered to put a weld on the door, incase someone decided to help open the chained lock that was to keep the hatch shut. I okayed that, as Greg said that it would look strong and secure, but taking a hammer, it could easily be cracked with a few heavy blows to the weld. It was something that people just didn’t realize that could be done, so it was a very good way to back up our security on the Cell. That would have to be done once we had Carl inside.

The way Carl was lured into the Cell, was Violets idea. She had us open the hatch wide enough that it hid the work done on it. Then producing one of our young girls that Violet had rehearsed the plan with, set her off to whisper something sweet in Carl’s ear. Just what it was, I can imagine. The result was, that Carl was eager to find out what she had in the room that she wanted to share only with him. It was comical watching him toddle after her, as she led him around the corner and down to the hatch. She made a show of being cautious and making sure no one saw them go into the Birthing compartment. I think her acting, had Carl throwing all reasoning to the wind. He was solely focused on the girl and eager to get inside the compartment, as she held the hatch opened.

Soon as he passed through the open door, the girl stepped aside and Violet along with Anna who were hidden behind it, pushed the door closed and threw the bar in place securing it shut. The job was done. Carl was secured behind a steel door and could no longer jeopardize our security. Next the shuttle box was opened and a typed list of how his meals would be served, and how his toilet items were to be removed was sent through. Violet told him to read it over and comply because he would be living in that room for a while.

There was plenty of cussing and loud threats against me and Violet. As soon as the shuttle box was closed, the man could no longer be heard. I waited after applying the lock to the hasp and for Greg to bead a weld on the door. If we had to get him out, a simple compact cutting torch would cut the weld almost instantly. For the first time I felt that Carl was no long a problem. I still remembered that Dave was roaming free throughout the Bunker, but as long as he conducted himself properly, he would remain free. I would be keeping an eye on him just the same.

Now there remained the problem of the outsiders that Carl had contacted and as far as I knew, were on their way here. I went into the communication room with several of the women, who claimed to know something about radios and electronics. We tried to establish contact with whoever it was that Carl had been talking to but came up with nothing along those lines.

We did however, find that the link which had been broken during all the earthquakes, was working again. Shelly Ames the woman that showed she knew her way around electronics, explained that the microwave towers were back in sync. Not only was she able to contact some government facility but also was able to get a satellite image of the state. The way it was explained to me, was that the microwave towers and stations could adjust themselves. Having been jarred out of line, it took some time to get back in sync.

The government agency that Shelly was in contact with, didn’t do much for us. It was some civil defense organization out of Northern California, that only gave out advice. When Shelly asked when we could expect help to arrive, we were told there was no help to send. Instead a program of instructions was emailed and down loaded. It out lined how we could rebuild and improve our area, plus repair highways and roads around our town.

When asked what could be done about violence from roaming bands of looters, the reply was it had to be handled at the local level. Beyond that all the agency did was give instructions on decontaminating clothing and other objects we would need.

The one good thing was the satellite images we could view and down load. Everyone took turns coming into to look at the images. Unlike before, we couldn’t direct the image, but had to view what it was looking at. Thanks to Shelly and some assistance from the girls, we did get a large view of the North West, after the satellite made several passes. It took several days, before we had enough to know what we were looking at. Zooming in on many locations, we could pick out our town, and began to see the destruction wrought on our land and homes. Great portions of forest and cities were charred where fires had burned out of control. When we were able to view Portland, it came as a shock to most of our people. There were miles of burnt out buildings, and piles of ashes where homes once stood. Further away, we could see some intact housing and less damage. Comments from the few women knowledgeable in such things, said that it appeared the bombs were air bursts. The missiles having detonated high in the sky, before reaching the ground.

An air burst, would cause less physical damage, and there would be less fall out, since the ground wouldn’t be ripped up and thrown into the atmosphere. What the air burst would be intended for was to send a magnetic pulse that could wipe out all electronics. How wide spread it would be, had to do with how high the burst was. Since there were many such air bursts, I didn’t figure they had to be very high. Any electronics that weren’t protected by some type of shielding, would be burnt out.

It appeared that the air blasts were not as high as expected. Most of the bridges across the Willamette were down, and looked impassable. More damage was done directly below the blasts, and the fires that occurred then and later, wiped out much more that what the actual blast did. It took a few days like I said, but Shelly was able to piece together a print out of several pages to where we had a good map of the valley.

The map was four feet by four feet. It was carefully taped together and placed on the large table in the council room. There everyone could see it and find what was left of the homes and farms surrounding our town. Shelly had blown the images up to where we could tell the different makes of cars and trucks. There some scattered along the roads and towns, and it looked like they had all been abandon. The air bursts had killed the electronics and they wouldn’t move again, not under their own power.

The girls were the first to spot people on the map. Their excited voices brought everyone to look, and it was true. The image captured some people moving or standing, in some open areas. It was hard to tell what they were doing, but they were standing up right, so they were alive. The next question we asked Shelly was how long ago the image was made. Not all of the map was down loaded on the same day, but it was only little more than a week old at the most.

I was thinking many thoughts on how to use this new knowledge. By staying on the satellite we could actually see people, see what they were doing, and over time, see where they were going. Shelly shook her head a little as I rambled on about the possibilities. Telling me that the satellite wouldn’t be passing over head every day. It was moving north and we wouldn’t get it’s signal. Eventually it would come back over again, but it would take weeks to return. So a timely upgrade of images was not to be. Still it was a great aid. The mountains to the east were still partly covered in snow, so we would have to upgrade our map as the snow melted.

I took several days and just studied the map. I was looking for a few things, like if I could tell if the people photographed were moving in our direction. I still was very much aware that Carl had given out our location to whomever he’d been in contact with. We still didn’t know who it was, as Carl only smirked when asked by Violet and Anna. I didn’t bother asking him, and suggested letting him starve until he fessed up. Neither Violet or Anna liked my idea, and so Carl kept his secret to himself.

The days were warm now, even on the rainy days. The satellite moved further away until we couldn’t pick up it’s signal. Anna brought the news that we could expect some babies by the middle of summer. Things were changing and life was going on.

My studies of our map, found several town to the east of us that seemed untouched. There was also a few to the west that looked good. I began to suspect that not all the fires were caused from the bombs. There would have been some started by accidents, people using candles an catching their homes on fire. Also, some could have been set by vandals and other crazy people. I could see where and how some fires spread out from the cities and engulfed whole sections of country side. The map now weeks old, told a story on how the valley suffered. I could trace a pattern of destruction and see where one bomb blast ended and another came from a different direction. The bombs were targeted north at Portland and also to the south, maybe two at the most in the Eugene area. What happen south of Eugene, was off our map. I suppose there were some detonations, but with no military targets, and no really big cities until San Francisco, I didn’t expect to see much, if we ever got a satellite view down that way.

I was getting a little restless, looking at the satellite photo map was stirring me into going and looking at the sites in person. With Carl sealed in his room, I didn’t think there was much danger someone trying to take over the Bunker. Dave, might have some vision of himself running the place, but I knew there was another woman that could use a rifle, and Violet trusted her. That was Nicole Cruise. With her backing Violet and Anna, I didn’t see Dave getting out of hand. Greg whom I didn’t trust very well, was Anna’s main squeeze. He wouldn’t do anything that she’d object too. So I figured that I might take a few little scouting trips out of the bunker myself.