It was clear that remaining in this place was traumatic for River and Haruo, but they needed to find out whether Sunset Valley had even the slightest chance to rebuild, avoiding the hot-spots or finding a way to lessen the radiation risk. The adults in the group knew that there were still people roaming around in the town trying to eke out a living amongst the rubble. And if they could cobble together the semblance of a group that would work together to rebuild what was lost, then perhaps Sunset Valley had the chance to rise from the ashes like a pheonix. If not, then they would leave together as a group bent on securing their own safety in numbers. After all, what could only a group of four plus two teenagers really do on their own? Even if they were armed to the teeth.
Mac looked over at Meg who looked rather perturbed, "You look troubled. Meg, what's the problem?" she asked her.
"He's always been like this for as long as I remember. And whenever he does this, I can't sleep; I'm going to be worried for him."
Mac understood Meg's frustration all too well; it was the same argument for every husband and wife team where the husband was a 'take charge' sort of military man. Harm and Tosh were doers. When other people could only talk up a good game, they were first in to act, using their actions as the catalyst to lead. Both were leaders and both knew that to take the initiative would mean that others would follow. By setting examples of themselves they would be shown to have the stuff that it took to be regarded as fair and understanding. Nobody wanted the zero to oh six hundred watch and by taking the dreaded watch on himself, Tosh left the others the choicer assignments that they had no reason to reject. Not that they would anywys, The rest of them knew the gravity of the situation that they were in and everybody knew their role in the security of their compound.
Then again, Tosh, as a recipient, was no ordinary leader. He was considered someone who always understood that leadership in tough situations meant actions "above and beyond the call of duty..." After conducting the investigation into the award of her now-husband's Medal; no wonder Meg was always anxious for her husband's safety. Mac, having read the citation for Tosh's award, wondered just how much her own boyfriend's actions fed off of what her boyfriend's best friend did. She never gave voice to her own concerns, but whereever Meg's husband went, Harm was sure to follow. Tweedledee and Tweedledum; their friendship forever linked like brothers.
Meanwhile, Tosh and Harm were checking out the Gatling gun emplacements. Perched securely atop sandbags, they were canted in in covering fields of fire so that anybody trying to traverse the mine-field not only had to worry about being blown to kingdom-come from stepping on a bouncing Betty but getting turned into swiss cheese. Meg and Mac shook their heads wonderingly. Their two significant others looked like kids in a candy store when it came to military hardware - the more expensive the better.
Mac sighed, "Boys will be boys..." Looking over affectionately at Harm, she noticed just how enthused he was at the new toys that they would get to play with should opportunity present itself. By unspoken agreement, they headed over to join their significant others at the sandbagged positions. Meg going over to see Tosh and Mac going over to see Harm who was at the other emplacement.
"I think it's going to do us fine..." was Tosh's somber remark as Meg came up to stand slightly to his rear. Tosh was already kitted out in his body-armor and his M-4 Carbine. "Most likely they'd attempt a frontal assault rather than hit our flanks - the cliff covers our rear and we're good as far as visual on left and right flanking potential for attacks. if we would have two others to help by manning the towers, it would increase our security potential."
Mac, standing with Harm, was more concerned about provisioning. "C Rations aren't going to last with two more mouths to feed." she commented. "We're going to have to try to grow something...the soil up here at least hasn't been irradiated to the point where we can't eat anything that comes out of the ground."
Harm nodded in response; he'd known that provisioning was going to become a problem if left unchecked for too long. He'd just hadn't wanted to give voice to the thought on the pretext of making sure that morale was still up. Even couples were prone to arguing over stressful situations and Harm had enough of stressful situations over his past years as of recent. "We could try to grow stuff, if we can find the seeds to start so. At least the seeds, hopefully won't be affected by the radiation."
He heard a hail from Tosh who was walking over to his position, Meg two steps behind her husband followed. "What's our provisioning like?" was Tosh's first question.
"...with six mouths to feed, we're going to run short of C-rats really quickly if we don't get something started." he stated.
"We thought along the same lines, sir." Harm replied as he looked over at his friend and superior, "Mac thinks that we should start a garden and that the seeds are going to be our best shot at developing foodstocks to get us through this."
"OK...I'm going to take a reconnoiter to see what I can find." Tosh told him.
"Be careful, sir, we don't know what's out there..."
"No worries, Captain. I'm armed and I've got my head on a swivel. Any bandits in the area and I'll make sure that I call for Ready Five." Tosh replied.
Meg looked frustrated even though she knew that Tosh was making the right choice to go out and hunt for food-stocks. It was a wife's prerogative to be upset with her husband and Harm and Mac both knew it so they didn't say anything, "I don't like the looks of that weather, sir..." God it was tough to not just hug him tightly; husband or wife...when in uniform, one had to keep strict military decorum. Why did he keep taking these risks? "Those clouds look like they aren't too friendly."
Hang the rules and regs, "I'll be all right, honey..." Tosh told her; his face showing no sign of apprehension as to the risk that he was taking with what lay beyond the gate.
"I know I can't stop you...Tosh" Meg said, "Just keep your wits around you and come home safe...to me..."
No comments:
Post a Comment