Chapter 20
When the trials had ended, Elizabeth returned to Wasco to assume her role as mayor. Two of the women and one of the doctors accompanied her.
Ralph, June, and I returned to Jennyville as well as twenty two of the women and two doctors. Ralph had talked one of the two doctors and three medics into teaching medicine at his knowledge school.
Sheriff Tom setup a military training site in Wasco, and cycled all of the Hill AFB personnel through a refresher basic combat training course. There was an advanced training course for a chosen few. The advanced training was Zombie Fighting Techniques classes.
The last three weeks of the training cycle culminated with a field training exercise in a Zombie infested area. Every cycle resulted in at least one person washing out or falling prey to the Zombies during this final exercise.
The following spring the first target for the military forces of the newly named Western American Federation was Offutt AFB in Wyoming. Offutt AFB was chosen because of it's proximity to the Omaha metropolitan area with a population of less than a half million.
Seizing and securing the base at least seemed possible. The Denver metro area also had several bases, but it had a population of three million people before the Zombie plague. The whole state of Nebraska had a population less than half that of the Denver metropolitan area so Offutt was the safest bet.
The securing of Offutt AFB was initially planned as the first step in a larger plan to obtain manufacturing facilities just west of Offutt. But Offutt turned out to be a goldmine. Offutt had been SAC Headquarter during the cold war era, and had been the only active base in Nebraska when the plague hit us.
The Base Exchange had been heavily looted but the aircraft were in operational condition and the workshops had an abundance of parts, tools and equipment for maintaining the aircraft. Jack was quick to suggest we relocate the pilot training school to this base.
Since there were no objections to this plan, Jack ferried a construction crew to the area and commenced the barrier wall construction.
Communications specialists we had gained at Hill were scanning the airwave and detected shortwave signals from a large party of survivors in eastern Nebraska. The group of survivors was holed up on a farm north of Offutt AFB. Luckily, they had experienced limited Zombie attacks due to the very low population densities.
These eight people had fortified a large farm and had survived. Between their own shortwave and CB broadcast, what had started as an eight member family had grown to a survivor settlement of one hundred thirty four people.
They survived by farming and raising cattle. They were self sufficient independent people and chose to maintain their independence and not immediately join the Federation we had formed.
We worked a trade agreement for beef and grain by assisting them in gathering solar panels and batteries to setup a small solar farm in order that they had improved access to electricity.
They also sent two individuals with us to be transported back to Jennyville for training as teachers so they could improve the education for their children.
Another small group of military personnel were located in an abandoned missile silo just across the state border in Idaho. This group chose to abandon their make shift home and accompany us.
Two months after the original plan had called for, two C130's landed at central Nebraska Regional Airport. After off loading command and troop transports they headed for the targeted manufacturing facilities. One of the factories was located in a small town with a pre Zombie population of less than fifty thousand people.
During the intervening days and years since the plague had started, many of the Zombies had just wandered away in search of food. During our excursion to the manufacturing plants we encountered two large groups or herds of Zombies.
The first group of thirty or forty Zombies our group of seventy-five fighters was able to destroy. A second and larger group of several hundred required we use our radio to call for assistance to the C130's. The aircraft made a low level flight over the Zombies to attract the Zombie hordes attention.
The planes then dropped timed explosives to generate noise to continue drawing the Zombies away from our destination. Then the aircraft made low level flights over the Zombies dropping ball and chain devices developed by Hill AFB. The ball and chain bombs would tumble through the large Zombie groups slicing and dicing zombies as it passed through the groups. Although not all of the Zombies were killed by these devices most of the Zombies were maimed or incapacitated. It was much safer terminating Zombies that could not chase or attack.
The ammunition plant warehouse was filled with thousands of assorted caliber rounds. After searching and clearing the manufacturing facilities we feel that if we can supply sufficient electrical power to the facility we can go into production of ammunition again. We have a team of chemist reviewing production procedures and the accounting department order records to identify and locate the raw material suppliers we need to investigate. But we have secured the facility and between the warehouse and the military stores we have located we have several years of ammunition before supplies will become a problem. We will continue to explore the manufacturing of shell casings and our own gun powder but it is no longer a critical objective.
Now with the aid of Satellite technology and of skilled workers acquired at Hill AFB, our future is indeed starting to improve. To date we have identified fourteen small towns in the old US. based on Satellite images showing evidence of survivors.
Teams of heavily armed soldiers from Hill AFB have been air lifted to investigate five of these towns and survivors have indeed been located. Three of the towns have survived and have operational local governments much the same as Wasco.
Two towns were also located that were run as small kingdoms by self appointed rulers.
Sheriff Tom attempted to deal with their rulers, in order that they allow for the transition to a democratic government or the emigration of any of the population that so desired to UAFS controlled settlements. In both cases negotiations broke down and invasion forces were required to take control using military intervention.
The armament superiority enjoyed by the newly named United American Federation of States (UAFS) had proven sufficient to accomplish the task.
At this point we aren't forcing democracy onto everyone but we aren't allowing gangs or tyrants to commit obvious human rights violations either.
Jennyville and even Haven to a degree are ruled with an iron fist. All residents were free to take up residence somewhere else. As was the case with Rob founding Jennyville, if you don't like your settlement then you should be free to leave and build your own.
So far we have only identified surviving population centers on the North American continent. The area that was Canada is currently being claimed by a group of survivors operating out of Eastern Alberta. This group currently controls the area that was the province of Alberta and part of British Columbia. It is unknown if any other provincial governments have survived.
We currently have teams of engineers working to access foreign satellites in order that we can get a better look at Europe and Asia in an effort to locate survivors.
In the spring of the following year, Ralph designated Mike Hanson as his successor to the position of Mayor of Haven. The community voted to ratify his appointment. A week after the ratification, Ralph made a trip to Jennyville.
The third day after Ralph arrived in Jennyville he sat down with Jenny and Rob and said goodbye. Jenny wept as Ralph tried to explain that he would rather die in the field killing Zombies than die in his bed of old age. "You and Rob are the age I was when I first came to Haven. You have many more years to spend watching your family grow up. I on the other hand, have had the chance to watch you go from a pretty young girl to a beautiful woman and a loving mother.
Of the last twenty years some of my best memories are of the times I spent in the wilderness. Not that the last twenty years didn't have their moments. I just pr
efer to go out killing before I'm too feeble to defend myself. Don't think that I mean to commit suicide or get myself killed on purpose. I just want to experience the rush of the good times again, while I still can. Besides I really miss looting and getting by on my good looks and luck.
A week after leaving Jennyville, Ralph stopped by Edwards AFB now called Edwards Township to say his goodbyes to me and my family. My brother Ralph and I had grown close again. Now I knew him as a friend and man not just a big brother. I didn't agree with his plan but I knew that once he set his mind he would be determined to go and nothing I could stay would keep him here. I could tell he was getting restless and wanting to hit the road, so I made him promise to get in touch and visit anytime he got a chance.
The following morning Ralph pulled out of Edwards headed south.
Like they always say, "Each day more things occur that need to be dealt with just to survive, it never ends." You have to work to keep things improving. We are no longer just hiding to survive another day. I guess I'll see what tomorrow brings and think about the day after that the next day....
THE END
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Authors note: in his sixth decade, Ralph and his contemporaries have aged just over twenty years in the last four stories is know longer a warrior in his prime. Rather than relegate Ralph to a position of elder statesman. I think it is time for him to bow out of these stories. It's time for the stories to pickup with a new young warrior. I think this story was Ralph swan song. But you never know the old guy might still have a part in these tales. Hell, he might even get into trouble in Tijuana.
Jeff
About the author
Jeff Ping is a retired RF Engineer living in Northern California.
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