Chapter 4

Betsy waded ashore. She had a large fish, which she held by its tail, slung over her shoulder nearly to her waist. It was flopping around, but she ignored its motions. Once away from the water, she dropped the fish on the sand and removed the rebreather from her back. Then she knelt down, and with her knife, filleted the fish. It didn’t take long for her to remove several nice fillets from the fish. She took a minute to wash the fish filets off in the ocean as well as return the innards to the water for the crabs to feast upon.

She looked around for a second before spotting some deadwood along the beach. She gathered it together and made a small pile. She started a fire by rubbing two sticks together, at what was an inhuman speed.

It took a while for the fire to burn down to coals. While waiting, she searched along the beach for some leaves to wrap the fish. She found a couple of palm leaves that would do. She wrapped pieces of fish in them. It wasn’t great, but it was good enough. After wetting the outside of the wrapping, she put them on the coals.

She sat by the fire and waited for the fish cook. Her stomach growled in anticipation of being filled. She had burned up a lot of calories over the past few hours and needed to replace them.

She looked across the water thinking about the long swim through the night. The sun had been up for an hour, and she was expected home, soon. Her hunger was such that she had decided to take the time to fill her stomach before continuing.

After about ten minutes, she turned the fish to cook on the other side. Ten minutes later she fished out a leaf, and unwrapped it. The fish looked and smelled good. The first bite tasted wonderful, despite the lack of seasonings. She sighed in pleasure at the simple meal. By the time she finished, she wished that she’d had a few spices to improve the flavor a little, but at least her appetite was temporarily sated.

She put out the fire and cleaned up the area. There was no need to leave a mess behind. She also took a moment to wash off a little in the water. She didn’t want to return home smelling like fish.

She had a pretty good idea where she was and got ready to head home. Her rebreather was not the most comfortable backpack, but it was too valuable to leave behind. She shrugged it back on, adjusted the straps, and then took off at a run.

Upon reaching the driveway to her house, she was surprised to see people boiling out of it to greet her. It was like everyone had been waiting for her to return. She was a little choked up to see the happy expressions on everyone’s faces.

Shouldering everyone out of his way, Chuck was the first to reach her. He picked her up, hugged her, and passionately kissed her. She wrapped her legs around him and kissed him back just as passionately. For most of her life, she had never imagined that she’d ever find someone who would greet her like that. It was almost enough to make her cry.

“I’m so glad you’re back,” Chuck said with the raw emotion of relief heavy in his voice.

“With a welcome back like that, I think I’ll go away more often,” Betsy said with a pleased smile.

“I was worried about you,” Chuck said.

“We talked every day on the cell phone.”

Chuck said, “It’s not the same as holding you in my arms.”

“I’m going to spend three days and nights in your arms. Nothing is going to get me out of your arms,” Betsy said.

Standing off to the side, Sally had tears in her eyes. She wiped them away and said, “Hey you two. There are other people here who want to welcome Betsy home.”

Betsy, still being held up by Chuck, looked over at Sally, winked, and said, “Wait your turn!”

Sally laughed. A few seconds later, she was being hugged by Betsy. The two women were both crying with happiness.

“We were so worried about you,” Sally said.

“There was no need to worry about me,” Betsy said.

“I know you can take care of yourself, but when they stopped broadcasting local news we really got worried,” Sally said.

The only news was a cable news service that was broadcasting snippets of news from around the country and the rest of the world. The cable companies that once carried over six hundred channels had dropped to the point where there were only five channels. The internet, which still functioned, was a better source of news. People also turned to it to get ideas on how to survive. There weren’t many articles about good news.

“Did you see the Governor’s piece?”

“I couldn’t believe it. Cell phone minutes as a temporary form of currency. I wonder who dreamed that up,” Sally said.

One by one, the women on the staff greeted Betsy, and then it was Gary’s turn. His greeting that she was late was delivered in a gruff voice, but it was obvious that he was happy to see her.

There was the sound of a rooster crowing from the backyard. Hearing it, Betsy turned to Sam and asked, “When did we get a rooster?”

“I bought chickens when you told us to get rid of our money,” Sam answered. “I also got a pregnant sow, a cow, and a couple turkeys. I couldn’t find any sheep.”

“Wow!”

“She also bought a lot seeds. We’ve been putting in a garden,” Wheels said.

“That’s really a great idea. I should have thought of that,” Betsy said.

“You were busy with other things,” Charlie said.

Captain Jack, Debbie, Paul, Sue, Ben, and Henry were waiting off to the side. Betsy turned to them and said, “I’m so happy you made it here.”

Ben said, “I’m delighted to be here. This is an oasis of calm in the midst of absolute chaos.”

Debbie said, “I didn’t really think too much about how lucky I was to have left when I did. It wasn’t until I delivered the fish to the soldiers guarding the university that I realized what I had been spared. It looked like a war been fought there on the dock.”

Captain Jack said, “There are a lot of boats that got sunk in the marina. One of the fellows at the dock said that people were pulling guns on folks to get them to take them to the mainland.”

“That’s kind of what I figured would happen,” Betsy said.

She wasn’t going to mention that she had watched some of the action at one of the marinas the day after the bank collapse. There were a lot of desperate people who believed that being stuck on the island was a death sentence. Rather than suffer through a long painful period of starvation, they were willing to kill to get off the island.

In a way, she could understand their feelings. It was a widely accepted belief that the island couldn’t support the current population, at least in the manner of the recent times. There had been major arguments in the past over whether the islands could ever be self-sustaining.

It wasn’t as hopeless as many people believed. Long grain rice had once been grown on the islands, but the influx of Japanese who preferred short grain rice had killed the market to the point were rice production was almost non-existent. Fish farms utilizing stone lined ponds that connected directly to the sea had once been common, but had disappeared. Fish and crabs had been raised in those ponds and would be of value again in the future.

There was still a large aquaculture movement on the island. It focused primarily on shrimp, a few species of finned fish, oysters, and algae. Betsy suspected that Sally, with her expertise concerning fish parasites, was about to become a very important woman on the islands. Professor Parrish would also be a major player in the establishment of a sustainable aquaculture.

The fact though was that some food was exported from the islands. Cattle were actually shipped back to the mainland where they were fattened in feed lots, butchered, and the meat sent back to the island. Pineapples, shrimp/prawn, sugar, and macadamia nuts were the primary exports. There was also coffee, a local resource that people would appreciate, upon learning that it was a pleasure that would be denied most people on the mainland.

Debbie said, “Odds are pretty good that if I had been at the dock at the time, someone, or a bunch of someones, would have tried to take the boat.”

“Same with the Bloated Shark,” Captain Jack said.

“I’m glad that things worked out for the best,” Betsy said.

Sue said, “I heard that a bunch of people got killed at the university. Is that true?”

“I’m afraid so. There weren’t any students injured as far as I know. I was told that a mob showed up there after burning down a neighborhood and wouldn’t turn away. They were burning buildings to hide the fact that they were stealing everything they could get their hands on. The university looked like a big fat target. They didn’t know the National Guard was under orders to protect the university even if it was necessary to kill,” Betsy answered.

“I’m glad we were here,” Sue said with a shiver going down her spine.

Betsy looked over at Henry. He looked a little different than in the past. It took her a second to puzzle out what had changed. A slow smile spread across her face.

She said, “For the world’s laziest man, you look pretty fit – like you’ve been exercising, or something.”

“I kind of expected the escape to be a little more physical than having Paul carry my luggage to the Bloated Shark,” Henry said looking a little sheepish.

“What do you mean? He carried your luggage?” Betsy asked.

“Well, he carried it from my office to my car, and then from the car to the boat,” Henry said.

Sue said, “You forgot to mention that he carried it from your apartment to your lab.”

“And you packed everything? That’s real effort on your part,” Betsy said.

Henry said, “Tell me about it. I haven’t moved around that much in years.”

Betsy laughed. Amused, Paul shook his head. Sue snorted in disgust. It was her personal opinion that Henry was getting more from Paul than Paul was getting from Henry. There were times when it really bothered her, but she was too polite to make a fuss.

Betsy said, “At least there’s a university for us to return to.”

“There is that,” Henry said.

Sue said, “I’m not sure what a degree will be worth after what happened.”

“You don’t get a degree to earn money. You go through college to gain knowledge, and to learn how to learn more. You can never know enough,” Betsy said.

“Wise words,” Henry said.

Sue knew that sitting around and thinking great thoughts did not get things done. At the current time, laziness was the greatest sin. It was going to take hard work, most of it physical, to get things back to normal.

She said, “Oh, shut up. You’re nothing but a lazy bum. You take all of the credit for Paul’s hard work. I’m tired of hearing all about the great Henry Thibodeaux.”

Betsy was about to explode, but Henry held up a hand to silence her. His education at the Druid College was not wasted. He recognized her reaction for what it was – an inability to accept that others had a different way of accomplishing things than she did.

He looked down at the ground and said, “I’m sorry that you feel that way. I apologize if I’ve given the impression to anyone that I have taken credit for anything Paul has done.”

Defending his mentor, Paul said, “Sue, he’s never taken credit for anything I’ve done.”

“Bullshit! Everyone talks about the electronics he installed in that boat. I know better. I watched you install every piece of equipment on it,” Sue said. Her eyes flashed when she turned to Henry and said, “You can’t deny that.”

“I don’t deny that,” Henry said.

“All I did was put them onto the boat. I did the simple stuff ... like put it in the rack, wire it together, and test it. Henry did the real work. He specified what the equipment had to be capable of doing, found the equipment that met the specs, modified stuff when nothing on the market would do the job, and put the whole package together in an integrated and cohesive fashion. For every hour I worked, he probably put in ten,” Paul said.

“He just sat there and typed on his computer. You were lifting and carrying and working,” Sue said a little less forcefully.

“In the engineering field, the real work is done up here,” Paul said tapping his temple. “Anyone can do what I did. It takes a special kind of mind to do what he did. He’s the best in the world at it. You wouldn’t believe how much he’s taught me.”

“I’m not the best,” Henry said modestly.

Having watched the exchange, Betsy said, “Spoken like a true graduate of the Druid College.”

“He graduated from the Druid College?” Sue asked wide-eyed.

She was well aware of the reputation of the Druid College. Only the most brilliant folks graduated from there and everyone of them was the top of their field. They actually did things, that no one else even dreamed about.

“Yes, he did. He drove my mother nuts with his physical laziness. Of course, his instructors appreciated his hard work ethic when it came to learning. He graduated and has the right to wear the white robe with five hashes on the sleeve,” Betsy said.

Looking at his class ring, Henry said, “I wore that robe when I got my Doctorate rather than the black one they offered. I mentioned that I wasn’t a servant of the Two-Sided One and wouldn’t wear a black robe out of respect for those who did.”

“Nice,” Betsy said knowing that every graduate of the Druid College who went on for an advanced degree did the same thing. The one exception she knew about was her brother William. Although she was too young to have thought about it at the time, she suspected that he wanted to wear the black robe to beg the Two-Sided One to begin his service.

“Will you wear the black robe of a servant of the Two-Sided One when you graduate?” Henry asked.

“I don’t know if I’m supposed to wear one. I suppose, with this arm torque, that a black leather warrior babe outfit would be a more appropriate choice,” Betsy said jokingly.

All of the men flashed on that image and nearly choked. Fortunately, none of them were drinking anything, or people would have gotten sprayed. Alice and Wheels burst out laughing. For some reason that remained a mystery, Sue hit Paul on the arm.

Betsy said, “It wasn’t that funny.”

“If you ever get a black leather warrior babe outfit, I hope that I am the first and only one to ever see you in it,” Chuck said.

Betsy looked at him in shock. She was actually speechless for a second. There was a hard possessive tone to his voice that she’d never heard before. It took her a second to realize what he was saying.

Finally, she said, “You’re jealous.”

“Yes, I am.”

“Oh. That’s kinda nice,” Betsy said. “Would you like to see me in an outfit like that?”

“Can we talk about that later?”

“Sure.”

Alice said, “Let’s go around to the back yard. The picnic tables are all set up.”

Sam said, “She put out a large spread figuring you’d be hungry.”

“That’s a good idea. I’m starved,” Betsy said.

The group headed around the side of the house. The security center and office building had not changed much since she had last been there. It was basically framed in, but the exterior had not be put up yet. She figured that she might actually enjoy doing that work, if she could find someone to show her how.

The backyard had changed significantly in the last few weeks. There was now a large vegetable garden running the length of the yard with plants that were just beginning to appear. It was neatly laid out and there wasn’t a weed to be seen. It was lot more open with a rather substantial road off to the side that led to the modular offices Betsy had ordered. Three of the modular offices were divided into living space for four people each, giving them sufficient room for twelve people. One of the modular offices was used for food storage. There was a lot of food stuffed into that one building.

Betsy asked, “What’s with the cylinders on top of the poles?”

“Those are the remotely controlled guns,” Sam answered rather proudly.

“Can I fire one?” Betsy asked.

Sue said, “Why was I sure she was going to ask that?”

“Because the only thing Betsy enjoys more than a good bang is a loud boom,” Alice said.

“You were just as interested in watching them explode that bomb as I was,” Betsy said.

“So?”

“Well, nothing.”

“It was kind of disappointing, though. I thought it would be a bigger explosion,” Alice said.