The commander invited us to the stage, I stood on his right, Jeff to my own. "Welcome, and thank you for coming." The commander smiled at the crowd, he supsiglying didn't tap the mic. "I see a few plates out there, I hope you are enjoying yourselves, it is good to see our children out playing again. Isn;t it?" The crowd agreed.
"In times like these, those who can, should." The commander said with passion, that only undersocred his convection. "The men and woman under my command, can, and we will." He made a fist, and slamed it into his other palm. "Earlier this week, a team lead by my top advisor..." He motioned to me. I loathed this kind of attention. "Secured L-triple-C, the entire campus is safe, and starting today, if you need a place to stay, you will get a place."
The crowd reacted positively, but wasn't quite sold. "Soon, we will take and repair the wind farm, so there will be power for the city." Now the crowd cheered. "To talk about the plan to restore power, and bring a steady source of food, my advisor, we lovingly call Big Man." He stepped back from the podium, and mentioned to me.
"Hello." I said, as i nervously tapped the mic. "Well this is a first, I never expected to be speaking to most of a city." I chuckled. "The dorms were an important, first step, it offers a very defendable position, and can easily house and feed three hundred people. The next step is to restore power and be prepared to take in those who come when they see our lights on. I ask you, if you have a hobbie that could use full like you make yarn, or brew your own beer, these now are very important, yarn can make clothes to keep us warm, beer can be distilled into alcohol for medicine."
I paused. "Those who can, should, one twig breaks easily, two, are twice as strong, but still easily broken, a bundle of twigs, can be as strong as the trunk of a tree. So are we, together, when we take care of each other, we can do anything. Look around at your friends and neighbors, if we don't come together, one in three households could die." I made up the stat, not overly scary, but damn frightening." I looked in front of the stage. "Percy you are going to hate me." I chuckled. "Please raise your hand."
He cautiously raised his hand. "He planned this little BBQ, in three days, give him some love." I chuckled, the group applauded. "If you have one of those useful hobbies, or you worked in a field, that is essential, please see him. Our goal, is to make it through winter people, I know it got cold here before, but it's forty degrees colder during the summer, and the winter isn't going to get any better."
"What about food?" Someone shouted.
"We have a good supply of beef and milk, we are going to have a good source of hay, for our cattle, and we have a source of antibiotics, I am working on supplying sources of corn, wheat, produce, anything we can eat."
" How can we trust him?" Someone shouted this was taking a bad left turn.
"Please, I understand things are..." I started, the crowd booed me silently, I felt utterly defeated.
"Cause I am the rancher, that supplies your milk." My good friend the rancher shouted facing the crowd, I nodded at Percy, and he let him up on the stage.
I moved for him, and he took the podium. "I find, this man, to he honorable." He said forcefully and waved at me. "He has not once, let me down, In fact, he supplied me with the antibiotics I needed to save a cow." He paused. "I didn't even ask, all he asked in return, was that I make it, and give it freely."
He paused. "As a businessman, unless it's me getting something, I hate the words give away freely, but he is right I can do, so I will do. He taught me something." He chuckled. "This little pup taught me that doin good, cause we can, feels pretty damn good. He is playing a game of chess, I can see it in his eyes when he talks. You want my opinion, these three men on this stage are our best hopes for making it through the winter. I won't do business with anyone else." He stepped away, shook my hand, then the commanders, and Jeff's, and went back down to the crowd.. Awestruck, by having my ass saved, I stepped up to the podium, and centered my self.
"Right now, that leaves me with one more thing on my mind. If you want to help keep the streets safe, please see me afterward, we want to start police like defense force..." I waited for the crowd to settle down, it took longer than I wanted. "Similar to the police, but trained in, desuclation, and working in small squads. They are not a police force, that is why they are not called police and will be temporary."
"Thank you." The commander said, bailing me out, taking the podium, the crowd was sour. "That brings me to the final point. As Big Man, reminded me with a fist to my jaw." The crowd chuckled. "I am not God, I want to work with the community, so in the future, things can go back to us working for the community." I stared at him, in as much awe, as when the Rancher bailed me out. "Starting next week, anyone who wants to register at the base can sign up to run for your disctits seat on the civilian ruling, and military advisory board." I almost fucking fainted. "This board, will set the rules, in Cheyenne, and advise me on military matters. If you want to watch the election process we will try to have it be as transparent as possible, Democery is back!" He shouted.
The crowd cheered as he ended his speech, lines started to form, one at Percy, and one at the stair to the stage. I had to talk to every cop in the city, and every retired serviceman, too. Someone handed me a clipboard, I had a short list of about 50 men and forty women, which surprised me. I had already decided on five-man teams, that would give eight-teen five twelve-hour days, would still run us pretty thin, but a few teams from the base and that wouldn't be a problem.
I walked over to Percy. "You make fishing lures?" He asked a guy, jotting it down.
"Yea they catch the biggest fish two...."
"Yes, I am sure," He said to the man, then glared at me, letting me know how much he hated me. I grinned at him. "Well, I will let you know if we need your assistance."
"Anything good?" I approached him cautiously.
"Quite a bit:, three employees of the wind farm, and a few people who were going to's for repairing power lines, and stations." Percy said, looking at his clipboard. "Some glassblowers, I think mainly 'cbd' pipes." He chuckled, no one in Cheyenne smoked just CBD, not that close to Colorado. "Quite a few cooks, butchers, and other handy to have people."
I looked at his line, it still seemed to be growing. " Commander!" I shouted at him, he was socializing with the rancher, and a group of civilians. He came over. "Percy needs help."
"Let's do it!" He smiled. as he waved a potential new recruit over. Most people we not so help full, but we did get a few more windfarm, and power company employee's.
"How'd it go?" The Commander asked as Percy walked to us.
"Well, I have a bakery and the managers to both Walmarts who gave me the keys to their stores."
"You should draft up some kind of immanent domain, papers, and post them on the Walmarts." One is by the base the other by the college?" I asked.
"Yes." Percy nodded at me.
"Isn't there are, a distribution center here too?" I asked.
"Yes, there is." A Woman said, approaching us. "Sorry, I saw the store managers, and we got to talking. It's good to be out again." She smiled. "I haven't gotten that way, but if it's still standing, here are the keys." She said handing them to the commander. "Look, I have been running that DC for five years, if you need someone to run it, give the word."
"It's given." The commander grinned. "My advisor says people are like tools there is the right person for every job." He handed her the keys back.
"Smart man, but keep them." She waved him off. "Those are spares."
"Could you come back tomorrow?" The commander asked, she didn't look too keen on the idea. "So we can talk about what we need, and you can handle." He explained hoping it would help our cause.
"You don't leave the base much?" She sighed. The commander shook his head, I knew what she meant. "Woman don't leave the house alone much, I only came because my neighbor came."
There was a slight pain in the commander's' eyes when he realized why only the women didn't leave the house alone. "Commander." Percy chimed up. "I have a team that needs some time in the field, we could picker her up..." He paused then looked at her. "If that would work for you." She nodded.
"How about Four?" The commander asked. She agreed and left, the rest of the night was good, there were fireworks, I don't know how he got them, but it felt like the fourth of July, just 40 out. We were invited to the commander's house again, the drone was going to be ready in the morning, we were once again treated to a night at the commander's house.