Solar Flare Apocalypse

Chapter 14

Max walked through the Center, on his way to work for Dan Jennar in the basement. He saw his dad turn off into a hallway to do town board stuff.

Ahead of Max were Corey Slope and his girlfriend, Kylie. They all worked for Mr. Jennar, and none of them were very happy about it. 

He caught up with Corey and Kylie, and they hurried down the stairs since they were already late.

Coming up the stairs was a formerly wealthy man in the community, carrying a paper bundle. As they walked into the massive basement, they saw Dan putting something shiny into his pocket. 

Max wondered, and decided to keep an eye on him. Mr. Jennar had them walk all day long, back and forth from the stores in town, bringing loads of supplies to the new warehouse under the center. As they walked, they talked about how unfair it was that they had no one to represent them on the board, and no say in their lives now. 

Corey had never worked before, unfortunately, his mother never made him. He just didn't like it, and  hearing Max talk about how the young people were under represented on the board, gave him ideas. Although they were saying similar things, Max was thinking about getting a say in the running of the town, while Corey was thinking about taking over.

In the conference room, the Five were making new policies for the town. Sugar wanted them to decide who could come join their community. That morning a woman with three kids asked to be allowed in. The guards let them in, but she knew they would eventually get requests they would not want to say yes to.

They talked about only taking women and children, but Josie asked, "What if it's my brother, or your's?" She looked around the table.

Matt agreed, but said, "Well we can't let people in willy nilly." He paused, "Maybe only if someone vouches for them?"

They liked the idea, then Shar said, "What if people are vouching for a criminal? There have got to be consequences! Like, if you speak for someone, and they mess up, you get the same punishment as them."

The Five smiled. That should make people think twice, or three times, before vouching for someone. Tim got a large piece of poster board, and made a sign for the dining hall, explaining the new law. You would be held accountable for the actions of anyone you vouched, for for one year.

That segued into a discussion of what would be a fair penalty for specific crimes, and what would constitute a crime.

The day slid by, as they wrote, argued, and discussed. They were all uncomfortable in their new task. Coming from the modern world of tolerance, and their lack of experience, they were leaning towards being lenient.

Surprisingly, the women were the ones pushing for tougher consequences. 

Josie finally gave a loud, rude noise of frustration. "OK, Matt. What would you do if someone raped and tortured Jen? Hm?"

Matt answered without thinking, "I'd beat the crap out of him. Kill them even."

Josie gave him a triumphant smirk. She knew he was thinking realistically now.

They began with the "bigger" offences and worked their way down the crimes. They could not bring themselves to actually execute someone, but they knew in their hearts that banishment may be a death sentence to some.

For the crime of murder, found guilty by a jury of their peers, whipping, and then banishment from the town.

For the crime of assault, ten lashes with a whip.

For the crime of rape, ten lashes and banishment.

For the crime of abusing a child, physically or sexually, ten lashes and banishment.

Theft, no food for three days. For second offence, banishment.

They were going to stop there, as it covered the most basic crimes, killing a person, hurting a person, and stealing their stuff. But they added one more. The crime of sabotaging the town, banishment.

When they were done for the afternoon, Sugar left a skeleton guard on watch, with binoculars for a longer response time in case  of trouble, and met with her men in the police station.

They brain stormed ways to deter attackers. When they were done, she sent them out in teams to work on the ideas. One group went to find Matt, to ask him to make warning signs to put on the road outside of town. They had come up with some slogans to scare off people with ill intentions. "If you are seeking asylum, approach our town in your underwear, with your hands up. Lay down on the orange line, on the road, and wait for a greeting party." And, 'We shoot to kill.'  And,  'Watch out for the booby traps.' Not that they had booby traps, yet.

Sugar sent two more men to paint a wide, orange lines on the roads, about twenty feet from the barricades, while she took the spike strips from the police cars and layed them about a half mile out of town across the two highways coming into Webster. If a car ran over them, it would blow the tires. Someone with a tractor would come back out tonight and make the ditches impassable with logs.

A third group went on a scavenger hunt for motorcycle helmets, boots,  and leathers. They also collected buckets of rotten, slimy, chicken with a toe curling smell, from the dumpster behind the grocery store. With scarves tied around their faces, the took everything outside the town to the side of the road, and built fake dead bodies. When they had stuffed the leather jackets and pants with the chicken, they attached the boots and helmet, and displayed their gruesome creations on a tall posts, as a warning.

Jack Black and his helpers worked on passive solar heating. They spray painted five gallon buckets black, and filled them with water. They installed them on racks in the south and west facing windows of the Center. They would absorb the sun's heat all day, and release it into the room at night. They also had help from some sewers fashioning curtains to keep the heat in when the sun went down. Jack took a group of strong, young men to haul wood stoves and pipe into the north and east facing classrooms. They would have to build an exit for the smoke through a window, and chop a lot of wood for the approaching winter.

Joseph Metzger took teams of armed and experienced hunters into the woods, looking for plants, nuts, and animals to help feed the over three hundred people living in North Webster. 

That night when it was fully dark, Tim took a group out into the fields around town for another long night of gathering crops. Some of the helpers were experienced at harvesting, all of them were armed and alert. They worked quickly, and before dawn, had  finished a soybean field and corn field. Tim was beginning to breath easier about the food stores. He figured a few more nights, and they would be done. The tricky part would be Spring planting.