Chapter 11

“I have the right to survive.” Stood up and pushed the chair away. I wanted to face this woman with as much force as she was showing me. “So we put him outside, and he gathers up some people, tells them where we are, and they come beating down our doors. It’s not Carl that scares me, it the people that would come with him. You saw what they did to Marla and Bill. You want that to happen to you.” I didn’t give her a chance to answer but continued on. “Once people know were here, they will come with whatever it takes to break in. They won’t be looking for women to add to a harem. If that were the case, Marla wouldn’t be beaten an battered laying in Sick Bay. No they’ll come for the supplies and the Bunker. Don’t think that they’ll be just some new meat for you. No, they will just kill you and take the food.”

Donna sat looking at me stern faced. Whether she was thinking over what I’d just said or deciding to free Carl by some other means, I couldn’t tell. I did know one thing, I was not going to trust her from here on out. Finally she stood up and left the room without saying another word. I knew that this was not over. There would be more coming later.

With Greg away on the Mission, that left only one other man besides myself, capable of doing anything. Dave who knew a few things about running the Bunker, wasn’t being much of a help. I often got glimpses of him and one of the pregnant girls heading back to his quarters. I had stopped caring about their morals and just let it slide. As long as the girls were willing, I wasn’t going to do anything about it. I suppose it was because inside I was also thinking along those lines. Some of the girls were sixteen now, and looking damn good. Well that was what I was looking at, and keeping my thoughts to myself. I still had some nice looking women to lust after. Violet for her age, was a fine looking woman, and she knew how to tend to my passions. She was one that I could depend on to keep me thinking straight.

Violet also kept me informed as to what was going on inside the Bunker. I had a general knowledge of which girls were pregnant and which girls were saving themselves, or just not doing it with the choices available. I think the latter was more to the truth. It was while I was relating to Violet the conversation I’d had with Donna that I suddenly realized what had sparked her to confront me. The woman was horny. With Carl locked up and Greg gone on the mission, Bill trying to heal up in the infirmary, and Dave only playing with the little girls, that didn’t leave her much choice. I was being taken care of by Violet, that left no males to scratch her particular itch.

I said something to Violet about my conclusions with what was bothering Donna. She simply smiled and said that we needed to do something about that soon. I supposed that meant, find a man for her. It would have to wait until Greg got back with the foraging mission. Maybe he’d bring back someone?

While Greg and the others were gone, there were a couple of things I’d been thinking on. Something to improve our security. I had an idea that was working in my head. I’d been thinking of stringing a line down the main tunnel and fixing a camera so we could monitor anyone coming into the ruins of the bank. If someone was trying to find us, it would be a first alert. As it was, we had no idea if our tunnel had been discovered. So I spent the rest of the day, gathering the tools and things I would need to install the camera. I would be ready to do something by the next morning.

It was after the dinner hour when I went down to the infirmary to check on Marla and Bill. Bill was recovering nicely and was starting to move about the room. Course his jaw was still wired shut and he had difficulty speaking. We conversed a while and I told him of my plan with the camera. I didn’t think much of Bill before he got beat up, but he took it and was recovering with a positive attitude. He even admitted that he’d rethought his ideas of survival and personal goals. From this day forward he would be taking a more positive role. I was glad to hear it, because we sure needed him.

Marla’s face was hidden by rolls of gauze and tape. Anna was making sure that her injuries didn’t become infected. I could tell from what I saw of her eyes, that there was a lot of bruising under those bandages. He jaw wasn’t wired shut like Bills but she wasn’t very talkative. I brought her up to date on what was going on in the bunker, and that Greg was off on a foraging mission. When I described the vehicle they were using, I could see her perk up. I think we all had ideas on how we could put the machines to use, and Marla was no exception. I also told her about Carl contacting some outsiders, and that I assumed they were on their way here.

On hearing that Bill said through his clinched teeth, he wanted to back me up when they got here. I pointed out, that they might not make it. The conditions might be like what he and Marla ran into on their Mission of mercy. We didn’t know how far away they were coming from, as Carl clammed up on that topic. Nodding his head, that he understood, Bill remarked that with a pair of pliers, he could get Carl to singing. I said something about not sinking to that level, and Bill just shook his head.

“Robert, the son of a bitch has put us in jeopardy and any way that we can protect ourselves is not sinking to a lower level.” All this Bill said through clinched teeth and I had to listen carefully to understand his words. He made sense, and we both knew it. My problem was with the rest of the Bunker residents. If we attempted any type of torture they would all come unglued. At the moment, I didn’t think we needed any information from Carl. Later I might change my mind on that.

Checking the time, I saw it was late and said my good nights. Marla reached out and touched my arm, saying thank you. I really wasn’t sure just what she meant, but I figured it was for bringing them both back that rainy night. Later I would find out it was for coming to visit them both in the infirmary. I had no idea that it would mean that much.

When we retired for the night, I had everything ready for my camera setup in the morning. Violet asked if I needed her to assist me in any way, but I told her it would be simple to clip into the camera circuit monitoring the Front entrance. I had plenty of line and only had to spool it out down the tunnel until I got to the lift. There I would take pains to mount the camera on the upper floor and center it on the front entrance of the Bank. That was why I had to do this during daylight hours. I wanted to be sure that I aimed the camera right, and that I had it hidden from view. It took a while for me to fall asleep, as I kept running things over and over in my mind. Yep, I was a little excited.

Morning found me on my way down the tunnel. I was going by foot, having decided that I could set my wire off to the side better if I wasn’t in the shuttle. Besides that, I didn’t want the lights coming on as the Shuttle moved through the tunnel. With the lights, I would be a target for anyone that may have breached the entrance. There was little chance of that, but it didn’t hurt to take precautions.

I was able to make good time, with the night vision goggles showing the way. I had my magnum with me, in my shoulder holster, giving me a feeling of security. I sure hoped I wouldn’t need it, but I had it just in case. The only time I began to have second thoughts was when it came time to lower the lift from ground level. I just hoped there were no surprises up there waiting for me.

The lift started down, hardly making any noise as usual. The day light came streaming in, blinding me with its brightness. My night vision was switched off, and slung it to my side pack, along with the camera’s. I played out line as the lift took me back up. I found a spot in the corner where the lift didn’t fit snug and fed the line through there. I took a good look around, making sure I wasn’t being watched or if anyone could see me from the street. I was able to hide the line, and mount the Camera where it would take in the front entrance, and the area round the lift. The whole operation didn’t take more than five minutes. I cut the line and made the hookup. Then feeling comfortable being out in the daylight, I moved along the wall to where I could look out into the street.

At first I just saw the damaged buildings across the way and the empty windows staring back at me. The wind was making itself known, and it whispered through the broken doors and half burned studs sticking out of the rubble and debris. The place still smelled of charred wood and concrete. The odor was dirty, reminding me that there was no place clean to sit down. There were papers scattered across the floor, some half burnt and all covered with dust and grit. Then I saw movement down the street.

Watching the spot, I soon could see the form of someone, moving slowly past the empty windows in a ruined building. I got several glimpse’s of the person, and I remembered Dewy telling how the men covered their clothing in the dirty grey grime of the rubble, to blend in with the surroundings. The person I was watching, moved through the building trying to stay hidden. Their clothing looked to be the same color as the dusty rubble that spread out into the street. Then I caught another movement in another building. There were two, that I spotted, and maybe more. Some could be on my side of the street. Moving back away from the opening, I looked to see if there were any shadows I could step into, but it was that time of day and the light filled the room completely.

It was time to go back below, before anyone came and saw the lift moving. I didn’t want to be discovered, but I sure wanted to watch and see what those people were doing. Forcing myself, I punched in the code and the lift began to lower. I rode it down, jumping off even before reaching the bottom and hit the return. I was thankful for the silent way the lift operated. It probably was the only reason we hadn’t been discovered. I waited until the light vanished as the lift sealed itself into place. Then I headed back to the Bunker. On my trip back, I kept thinking about those people I saw sneaking through those buildings. I knew that they probably had been through every building in town many times. If there was anything worth taking, it had been gone long ago. I surmised that in going from point A to point B. Where ever that was. They were using the buildings rather than the streets, for a reason. They needed cover. There was still fighting for survival going on. It didn’t seem to me that they were looking for anything, just moving from one place to another. Moving one at a time, never in a group of two or more. That was to keep a low profile and a low risk of being discovered. I got a feeling that we would never have Waller Ville again. It would probably always be a no man’s land.

The first thing I did when I got back to the Bunker and Violet opened the door, was check my camera work. It was working. Neat thing about the cameras we had, they were night vision too. So we could see what was going on in the dark too. Course the camera was only able to see one part of the street, but it was clear across to the other side, so if anything passed, it would pass before our camera.

If we expected to see traffic going up and down, we were disappointed. Nothing moved in the street except some birds winging by. The camera was a success, it was positioned so we could see anyone entering the bank and trying to operate the lift, if they should find it. No one did, and I found some comfort in that no one was attempting to find our Bunker. Those people at the Fallout shelter knew that we were some place in town, but didn’t know exactly where. If they had been searching for us, it looked like they’d given up.

We had the recorder on the camera, so we could leave it and then later zip through all the tape and see if anyone had paid us a visit. No one did, but it was still an attraction for the girls. They liked watching it and waiting for a bird or anything else to flit by. There were some papers that would wave in the wind. They liked watching that even though we still had wind gauges and a weather cam in the silo.

When someone concluded that the town was deserted because there hadn’t been any traffic on the street, foot or otherwise. I had to inform them that people were not using the streets, but going through the buildings. I surmised that they were moving that way to keep from being spotted and probably shot. What I didn’t say was that Greg and the girls were probably facing the same type of environment in Moss Berg. I silently hoped and prayed that they were taking precautions and didn’t learn the hard way.

Bill was up and moving about the Bunker. He looked at the Bank Cam I had put in, and commented that a good camera in the silo, pointed at the town would give us a lot more information. He was right and the silo was already wired. All we needed to do was place a camera and aim it at what we wanted to look at. The weather cam, was a waste most of the time, as nothing really affected us below ground.

The time was drawing near when we needed to put some seeds in the ground or it would be too late for planting. Our farm machinery was in the shelters on the outside of town. There was a chance that we could leave from there without drawing attention. It would be the shorter route to a farm. I knew we would probably be discovered, but we had to give it a try. Our food stocks would not last forever. With there being survivors running around outside, we knew that there wouldn’t be much left in the warehouses or any storage facilities. Once our supplies ran out, we would have to grow and raise our own. That meant no more popcorn or Twinkie’s until we learned how to make our own.

Over the next two days, we put a camera in the silo, aimed at the town. Bill found a camera that was motorized and showed me how to set it up. There was more involved in placing it than a regular camera, but Bill insisted it would be well worth it. So I did it. I had it all put together and only needed to affix the mount to the side of the silo. Since it was to be on the outside of the building, I waited until dark before putting it in place. I had the night vision with me, but didn’t use it. I had a feeling that there was a danger in using the night vision. On a dark night, a push of a button lit up an infrared beam, that was invisible to the naked eye. The goggles could see like it was daylight. What worried me was that anyone with a similar night vision device could also see the infrared beam. It would not only give away my position, but put a bull’s-eye on me too. It was the same old problem I faced every time I used the goggles.

One of the reasons for doing all these little projects was to keep my mind off Greg and the fact that they should be returning sometime today. One thing we had neglected to do was set up a radio connection. I don’t know how we over looked it, but we did. I wasn’t sure if the radio was in the vehicle or not, but we did have radios. It was something that we needed to write down on a list for the next time we sent someone out on a mission.

As the day wore on, and no news of the foraging party, everyone began to get nervous. I went back over the maps, checking the distance to Moss Berg and back to Waller Ville. According to my numbers, they had time to spend a whole day there and still be back today. The day was nearing sundown, and still no Word. Candi Pfaff was left inside the Machine Shelter, to await for the signal to open the doors. Once the signal was given, she was to hurry back and break the news so we could all go crank the heavy security doors open. Bill had come along with us when we took Candi and a comfortable chair to the shelter. She needed something to sit on while waiting. Outside the tunnel entrance to the Shelter, Bill looked at the Breaker box. We still were trying to find out why we couldn’t get power to the Shelter. With power, raising the doors and lowering them would be easy, and would only require the touch of a button.

Having had his curiosity peaked, Bill was studying some Blueprints of the Bunker and it’s connecting shelters. Everyone left him alone as he poured over the schematics, trying to find the reason for no power. With his difficultly speaking and being understood, we were reluctant to engage him in conversation. That left him with hours of undisturbed time to go over all the systems. Finally he announced by a hand written note, that he’d found the problem. By comparing the wiring for the other working systems, he was able to find a difference. It was wired wrong, and unconnected.

We read the note and asked him if he could fix it. A affirmative nod was his answer. So with two of the girls to help, he went off down the narrow tunnels to rewire and finish the job that was left undone. Anna noted after he’d gone, that his jaw was giving him increasing pain every day. Most was just from the wires, irritating his gums, but the healing process was also adding to it. When I voiced my fears that it might lead to infection, Anna shook her head, saying she didn’t think it would. I wasn’t assured and it was a lingering concern. I just hoped Anna was right.

The evening hours came and went without news of the Mission returning. Candi was replaced with one of the younger girls, and arrangements were made to relieve the girls every two hours. I wasn’t concerned too much with the Shelter, as I was with the Main entrance. If anyone discovered our location, I figured it would be the Bank entrance. Dewy and his group of people knew I had let his women go in the general vicinity of the Bank. I was just surprised that there wasn’t an active search for us. Maybe they were afraid of our fire power. We might have them out gunned.