Chapter Four
After their late night, Hannah found it was all she could do to drag herself out of bed at six the following morning. They were all meeting at seven for their first hour of training with the general. He was going to have them for one hour each morning, and they would attend “school” for three hours after that. Then each kid would get a chance to shadow an adult of their choice as an apprenticeship program.
They all had only a month to decide what they would do for a living. After that, it would take a petition to change career paths. There was no time to waste. Those were the only rules Hannah had made each family agree to before joining the community. All other rules would be decided by a vote.
While they were all training with the general and Sergeant McCoy, the adults would be meeting with Jim Ryder to discuss the laws of their community. The same meeting would be held with all children above ten years of age, along with the general and Sergeant McCoy after their first training session. School would begin after that.
Hannah fell into line with the other children. Everyone ten and over had to meet with the general. Sergeant McCoy took the six to nine year olds. Emily was ten and stood beside Hannah not looking at her. Emily hated exercise and made it clear she was not happy about being forced to participate.
“I have one goal in mind for our training sessions,” the general began. “That goal is to make you all into the best soldiers you can possibly be. Not every one of you will be part of the army that will keep this community alive. But every one of you will need to be able to shoot a gun and run to get away from the enemy should the situation present itself. If you don’t care to be part of our training exercises, that’s too bad. You’ll do it and you’ll smile about it.” He paused for emphasis. “This morning we’re going to run.”
He started off in a jog, and they all fell in line behind him. Some of the kids were overweight, and some looked like they ran every day. Hannah was thankful for the hours she put in swimming. It would make the training easier for her.
The grass in the encampment was freshly mowed. A man had been hired to bring his tractor in and take care of the overgrown weeds. The run across the grass wasn’t easy, but it was pretty. Hannah concentrated on her breathing as she raced across the grass.
It was a perfect late summer morning. The sky was littered with small fluffy white clouds. The trees were a beautiful backdrop. Many still needed to be cleared, both for space to build and for firewood for the long winter ahead. This winter would be spent in the travel trailers, and the nightly fires would be necessary for warmth. Hopefully by next winter, they’d have built permanent housing.
Finally they ran back to their starting point. Hannah wanted to collapse on the grass with exhaustion as many of the others were doing, but she felt she needed to set an example. Instead, she carefully stretched out her muscles and went to her trailer for a drink of water, before meeting back in the middle of what would be the community center for the meeting with Jim Ryder.
Justin dropped onto the grass beside her. “The general is going to kill us all,” he groaned into her ear.
Hannah grinned. Justin had shown the same stoic face she had through the run and after. Both understood their roles as leaders of the other kids, and knew any complaints by them about the situation could undermine both them and what they were trying to accomplish. Even though no one knew of Justin’s future with the group, he couldn’t afford to be seen as a slacker in any way leading up to the election that would bring him into power. “I know,” she whispered back. “I’m glad I’m already in shape. My sister Emily was throwing up in the bushes.”
“A lot of kids were.”
Jim stood in front of them all to get their attention then. As soon as he raised his hands for quiet, the talking stopped and all eyes went to him. He spoke loudly so they could all hear him over the sounds of the birds chirping. “For those of you who haven’t met me yet, my name is Jim Ryder. I’m a lawyer, and have been asked to set up the rules for our community. I met with most of your parents this morning and we’re going to establish some hard and fast rules that each and every one of you will sign.”
He looked out over the sea of faces. The children were young, but they had a huge responsibility and he couldn’t pull any punches. “You all know why we’re here. The world as we know it is coming to an end, and we need to prepare for the future. I know all of you have talked to Hannah, the girl who brought us all here, and believe in her cause. Together, we need to stand behind her, and build a government that will stand the test of time.
“I have a list of ten basic laws that we all need to agree to keep. Each of you will be asked to sign your name on this paper, almost as if you were Thomas Jefferson signing the Declaration of Independence. I’m going to read these laws to you now. If there are any laws that you cannot agree with, you can tell your parents now, and leave the community.”
There were a few shocked gasps from the kids, but most of them nodded in agreement with the harsh words. “Rule number one: You are here to serve the community, not the other way around. If you deliberately do something to hurt the community as a whole, you will be asked to leave immediately.
“Number two: Community leaders will be elected every four years. We will have adult leaders for the first four years, and after that, one of you will emerge as the leader of this community.” He gave his son a hard look as he said those words. “If you are not willing to follow your elected leader, you have one option. You can leave. We are a unit, and for us to survive, we must operate as a unit.
“Number three: Every morning you will report for one hour to the general for ‘basic training’. He will get your bodies in good shape. He will teach you to shoot and defend yourselves and our community. You will not use a gun outside of your training unless you are told by him, or one of his successors, to do so.
“Number four: You will report for school every morning after basic training. School will last for three hours. After school, you will, for the next month, choose an adult to shadow. This means you are considering whatever career path the adult is on. You can shadow as many people as you would like for that month. At the end of one month, you will choose your career. You will stick with the career you choose. So choose wisely.
“If too many of you want one career type, a decision will be made by the professional. For instance, if six of you want to be doctors, there will be five of you turned away, and you must have a second career choice ready. The doctor will choose one of you, whom he feels is best suited for the job. Do not expect your parent to choose you. They will choose the best person for the job.
“Rule five: Everyone will receive a certain amount of food. These will be your rations for the day. You can have as much water as you like. Food, including milk, juice and other non-water drinks will be part of your daily rations. If you don’t like some of your food choices for a particular day, find someone to trade with. You will not be given a second choice.
“Rule six: Each of you is expected to work. If anyone in our community doesn’t work, they also will not eat. If you are sick, see the doctor. The doctor will determine who is too sick to work, and who is capable. As you start your training you will be sore. Sore is not sick. You will work through being sore.
“Rule seven: You will have everything you need. You will not steal anything from anyone else. Not working during your assigned time is a way of stealing from the community. Thieves will be exiled immediately.
“Rule eight: You will not ask others to join our community. If you know of someone who would be a good choice for our community, speak to the ruling council on their behalf. They are the only ones who can extend an invitation.
“Rule nine: We are a team and will work as such. If you have a problem with someone within our team, or with a rule, you will report to the council. You will not fight amongst yourselves or gossip about others in a way that will bring
down morale. We are all cogs in a wheel that will fall apart if any piece fails. You will not be the cog to fail.
“Rule ten: You are not a prisoner here. If you choose to leave, you are welcome to do that. If you leave, you will not be welcomed back. We need everyone here to work from now until the pandemic to make our community function.”
Mr. Ryder paused looking out over the stunned faces in his audience. “I know many of those rules may seem harsh. I promise you, we will be adding more rules as we go and see what more needs to be added. If you have any questions, I’m happy to entertain them. Raise your hand, and you will be heard.”
A hand was raised from the front of the group. “When do we get our video game time?” Hannah recognized the boy as a ten year old named Steve. He was from California, and had a typical me-generation attitude.
Many of the kids laughed at the question. Mr. Ryder took it seriously. “You will have two hours per day to have fun. You can have fun any way you want, as long as it doesn’t harm anyone else.” He paused for a moment. “Don’t get too attached to those video games, though, son. Once the electricity fails, you won’t be playing them anymore.”
A girl a few kids down from Hannah raised her hand. Hannah thought hard to remember her name. Ashley. She was from New York, Hannah remembered. “Why can’t our parents do all the work? As kids, isn’t it our job to learn?”
Mr. Ryder smiled. “It is your job to learn. You have to learn to be a productive member of our community, and you have a short time to do it in. You will learn by doing. The work you do will be related to your future job. For instance, if you decide you want to spend your life fishing, you will be an apprentice to our community fisherman. You will go out every afternoon and fish. You will learn everything there is to know about fishing from someone who does it well, and then when he dies, you will be able to do it. If you just sit in a classroom and read books about fishing, you will never learn it in the way you will by actually doing it.” He looked around. “Any other questions?”
When he was met by blank stares he nodded. “You’re dismissed then. You need to report to school for the next two hours. You’ll be given a list of jobs available during school today and where to go to report for those jobs.” He pointed in the direction of three women who had the younger kids corralled under some trees. “Your school day is short today, because you all had to meet with me. The rules will be presented at dinner this evening and you will each sign the paper stating you agree to the rules.”
Hannah stood, trying not to groan. “I’m already sore,” she whispered to Justin.
He grinned. “Me too. It’s going to be an interesting few weeks until we get used to the physical activity.”
She nodded, walking slowly in the direction of their “school.” “Do you know what you’re going to apprentice for?”
He shrugged. “There are several things that interest me, but I have a feeling I’m going to end up with my dad. I’ll probably check out some of the other things before the month is up, though. I’ll go work with the farmers today. I want to see how everything works together to make up the whole.”
“That’s why you’re going to make a great leader,” she whispered.
They arrived at the school and sat down. Their schooling wasn’t going to be anything like what they’d had before, and they all knew it. The teacher for the older group took them to a separate spot and had them all sit on the ground.
“I’m Katherine Simmons, and I’ll be your teacher. After talking with your parents, we’ve decided that school will be limited to just four subjects. We’ll be doing English, which will include both reading and writing, math, social studies and science. And of course, you all know you’ll be getting physical education from the general.” She smiled as she watched several of them wince.
“I only have you for three hours every day, so each class will be forty-five minutes long. There will be no homework.” At everyone’s cheers she laughed. “That’s only because your on-the-job training will be so intense, you’ll have no time for it.” She looked around. “The youngest students here should be fifth grade. Is anyone below fifth grade level?”
No one responded so she nodded. “Good. Most of what you do is going to be independent study. I’ll be here to answer questions and grade papers. It would be impossible for me to teach eight grades otherwise.” She picked up a stack of books. “Who is in fifth grade?” she asked.
Every student whose hand was raised was handed a math book. “Start at page one. Do the front and back. That should take you the full time. If you finish early, come to me, and I’ll give you your next subject.” She paused. “Please be sure to see me if you have a question. I’m here to help you.”
She went through the grades, and handed out the books. Each of them opened the page and started working diligently. Hannah smiled to herself. This was the way school should be. You work at your own pace and don’t have to wait for everyone else to finish.