MacArthur's Freehold

Chapter 35

Chapter 35 -- HZBRGJVEGRARMN

Jessica slowed the Trailblazer slightly as they approached what looked like a group of houses to the right side of the road ahead. They were probably fife or six miles from the small town they had just passed through, and the area was mostly fields, with an occasional house on one side or the other, usually with an outbuilding or two.

"Looks like it" said Carter. "Chapman Trailer Park."

The sign providing the identification was old, apparently a four by eight sheet of plywood between two posts. It was, however, in good repair given its apparent age. Probably deliberately maintained in that state, he guessed.

There were two roads running into the park itself, through four rows of old mobile homes. A few spaces were empty, several held large travel trailers of the sort people sometimes lived in in mobile home parks. The vehicle count was approximately two per dwelling.

Jessica passed the two roads and turned into a driveway at a modest house with a detached garage and several other small outbuildings. She stopped and killed the engine.

"Looks like we're here" she said. "We're just about to the middle of nowhere."

They were far from any major population center. Carter reflected that in a place like this and thousands of others around the country, people of independent means could live quietly and unnoticed. Unless of course the government forced them into its net.

The almost complete conversion to digital money had been prodded to completion to 'shortages' of coins and currency and the forced accounting of any sums in excess of a thousand dollars. Even here in the hinterlands almost all commerce was digital - a drink and bag of chips in a convenience store was paid for with a card, and the stores often couldn't, or wouldn't, give change on a purchase. From clerks not being able to count change to not having any to count, Carter thought. How much further do we, or can we fall.

"Coming?"

Jessica was opening the door and he wondered how long they had been stopped. He had become lost in his thoughts more often these days.

He got out and accompanied her towards the house, intercepted on the way by a young man and woman emerging from the garage. They looked about the ages of Carter and Jessica, the woman a little younger than the man. She greeted them with an enthusiastic smile.

"Jessica! Glad you made it. And this is Darrell, right.?"

"Right" said Jessica. "Darrell, this is Rebecca and Henry. Hope I got that right since we've never met."

"Right" said Roger. He was about Carter's age, fit and healthy-looking as all freeholders seemed to be. Rebecca was about Jessica's age. They had been given only names and descriptions when the meeting was set up, transmitting pictures was a needless risk. They were on one of a number of visits they would be making during the months ahead. With the rapidly deteriorating situation improving networking was essential. The need to make people disappear, as they had done with James, would become more important. Which was the reason for the visit.

The trailer park was actually the Emerald Ridge freehold, a small group of about forty men and women, most of them in partnerships, married or otherwise, and a handful of older men, a couple of them accompanied by wives. The appearance of the facility was that of a small rural trailer park, and nothing about it or the behavior of its residents was likely to attract attention. Occasional inquiries about available rentals were told there was no vacancies.